RONNY RUING A SORE POINT
Careless dismissal real game changer for Bhoys
BY the end, 10-man Celtic were clinging to what they had. Thundering i nto tackles and blocks, throwing themselves in front of shots, desperately covering for the carelessness of Emilio Izaguirre.
A point in the Amsterdam ArenA can never be regarded as a bad one. Yet, for 73 minutes, this Europa League curtain raiser promised significantly more. The chance to raise two fingers to the prophets of doom and crisis mongers everywhere.
Leading 2-1 through first-half goals from Nir Bitton and Mikael Lustig, a first group-stage away win in Europe since Spartak Moscow in 2012 beckoned.
The game changed the instant Izaguirre was dismissed for two yellow cards in a 17-minute period. The left-back has his critics and the numbers will grow after this.
Two needless cautions effectively cost Deila’s side a winning start in the Europa League.
Lasse Schone scored the winner the last time these teams met here in the Champions League. And the Dane inflicted the damage once more, emerging from the bench to smash a piercing free-kick straight into the net with six minutes to play.
In the aftermath of defeat in Aberdeen at the weekend, Celtic were better here. In truth, these are two teams which, in European terms, have found their level.
Yet with Jozo Simunovic turning in a satisfactory debut at the heart of the defence there was something to build on.
Leading at half-time, Celtic began and ended the opening period with a goal. Each posed the question once more: why is Kris Commons missing from the starting line-up so often?
Bitton smashed a guided missile into the right-hand corner of the net in eight minutes after Stefan Johansen dispossessed Daley Sinkgraven 25 yards from the Ajax goal.
But Commons was the architect, the attacker showing some neat trickery to take out the covering defender before laying off for his Israeli team-mate to take a touch and slam the ball past Jasper Cillessen from 16 yards. Ajax had lost just one home European game this season, a 3-2 defeat to Rapid Vienna proving catastrophic for their hopes of Champions League qualification.
With an average age of 21 — and two teenagers in their back four — Frank de Boer’s team are nothing to write home about. And yet, inspired by the talented left winger Amin Younes, a German signed from Borussia Moenchengladbach and making his starting debut, they responded with an excellent goal.
It came in 24 minutes, Younes skinning Lustig on the left and cutting inside to feed Davy Klaassen on the edge of the area. The striker’s one-touch back flick into the path of Viktor Fischer might have had Johan Cruyff purring. The quality of Fischer’s finish as he slammed the ball low into the bottom corner, grazing the post en route, was a fitting finale to the move.
It was natural to expect Ajax to grab the game by the scruff of the neck in their own imposing ArenA.
It didn’t quite turn out that way. The five minutes before half-time belonged to Celtic. They might have made it 2-1 in the 40th minute when a quick throw-in from Izaguirre, restored to the starting line-up at left-back, allowed James Forrest a rare chance to open his legs and run.
The winger skipped along the Ajax touchline, reaching the six-yard box before cutting it back for top scorer Leigh Griffiths in space. In current form, you would have bet good money on the striker but he mis-hit his angled effort and Cillessen scrambled the ball round the post.
A second goal would come two minutes later, however. Commons stood over a corner and spotted Lustig running off Nemanja Gudelj towards the back post.
The Swede, an i mprobable goalscorer, guided a downward header through the legs of Sinkgraven on the line. Celtic were 2-1 up.
The anticipation of a thundering Ajax second-half response failed to materialise. If anything, Celtic had the opportunities to add to their lead in the opening stages.
Corners proved an especially productive area for the visitors. Bluntly, they looked like scoring every time Commons took one.
In 54 minutes, Forrest had two bites at shooting after Cillesen flapped at a corner, the winger striking a defensive leg both times.
An unmarked Lustig might have scored another header from a Commons corner two minutes later, his effort drifting high and wide.
Set-pieces were not the only danger. Celtic came close once more on the hour mark when Commons picked out Griffiths at the back post with a floated ball, but the striker thumped into the side-netting.
Ajax, meanwhile, were dormant. Yet the greatest threat to Celtic was themselves and an Italian referee flashing his card with some abandon.
Izaguirre was first to be cautioned in 56 minutes for a foul on the defender Kenny Tete. Lustig and Johansen followed swiftly, but Izaguirre had failed to read the pattern.
The Honduran was fortunate to escape a second yellow for a clattering challenge on Joel Veltman. If one miscalculation was forgivable, a second was desperately careless.
A late foul on Anwar El Ghazi left referee Luca Banti with little option but to flash some red. Suddenly, Ajax found a new spring in their st e p. There was an utter inevitability to what came next.
Calculating correctly the final minutes would be spent in a General Custer guise, Ronny Deila replaced Forrest with Tyler Blackett to cover at left-back. Saidy Janko came on for Commons. The second change only came after some desperately close shaves.
Celtic rode their l uck when substitute Arkadiusz Milik, who added a new level of threat to Ajax’s attack, glanced a header against the upright from El Gazhi’s cross.
The visitors, meanwhile, dropped deeper and deeper.
In a final unfortunate contribution of the night — perhaps his only negative — a Commons handball conceded a dangerous free-kick on the left flank.
Substitute Schone drove the ball with power towards the head of Milik, but it found its way into the net unaided.
It could have been worse. As the board went up for injury time, Milik came close to a winner, thundering a Schone cross over the bar.