Ajax v Celtic
8 Aug 2001
European Champions League - Preliminary Round
Reporter: Gearóid
|
A stunning team performance from Celtic gave them their best away result in Europe for years. Chris Sutton was again immense, but there were no failures in the Celtic side. Celtic opened the scoring in the sixth minute. Sutton received the ball on the right edge of the box, made space and turned sending in a dangerous, curling, left-foot cross. The goalie, Grim, dived to palm it to his right. Petta controlled the ball and chipped the ball home with his left foot despite the attentions of an onrushing defender.
Ajax weren't applying any sustained pressure but they did have a chance from close in which Douglas held. A Celtic corner on the right almost produced another goal when Larsson hit the bar following a Petta cross from a short corner. The ball rebounded over Sutton. A bit of bad luck in 40 minutes cost Celtic a goal. Three players were covering the Ajax attacker but Valgaeren's tackle laid the ball in front of him. His cross was struck for goal and saved by Douglas, but Arveladze was in position to put the ball into the empty net. Lennon was booked for pulling the shorts of an Ajax player in 41 minutes. There was to be no Ajax revival and Sutton almost scored in injury time when the keeper saved his shot after a Larsson cross. Ajax made a change in the second half, bringing on another striker. In 46 minutes Sutton put Larsson through down the right, but Henrik's chip was just wide. Celtic were containing Ajax well; the young opposition players playing a lot of neat one touch football but without a lot of drive or conviction. Maklas did bring out another save from Douglas in 51 minutes. The game was over as a contest in 54 minutes. Lennon, who covered every blade of grass on the pitch, picked up a loose ball in midfield and drove forward. He played the ball to Sutton, who fed Agathe on the right. As Larsson drew his marker to the right, Sutton drifted into the centre of the penalty box and drove forward to power home Agathe's cross. Sutton had another chance later when his header from Petta was saved by the keeper at full stretch. The last chance of the match fell to Ajax, when Douglas gathered a snap shot on the 91st minute. A great result for Celtic, but as Martin O'Neill says, we haven't done anything yet. Hartson replaced Larsson and Guppy replaced Petta late on, with Guppy showing he has a great left foot with a very accurate pass putting Hartson through. The team is looking very confident thanks to our charismatic manager and we keenly expect to progress to the league stages.
Ajax (4-2-4): Grim; Trabelsi, Pasanen, Abukari, Chivu; Ikedia, van der Vaart; Cruz, Machlas, Arveladze, Mido
CELTIC (3-5-2): Douglas; Boyd, Mjallby, Valgaeren; Agathe, McNamara, Lennon, Lambert, Petta; Larsson, Sutton
Referee: Anotnio Lopez Nieto
|
In the early parts of the game, Celtic's pressing game was clearly upsetting Ajax. They seemed lost, unable to find their men. It was no surprise when Celtic increased their lead. Sutton received the ball just inside his own half with back to goal and laid it off to Larsson. Larsson, just inside the centre circle turned and fed Agathe on the right.
With a defenders desperately trying to cover, Agathe ran on and struck a right foot angled shot that went in off the goalie's right hand. The keeper seemed at fault, showing Didier the whole right hand side of his goal to aim for.