Out Thought and Out Fought

When the final whistle sounded last night I got the same feeling that the Newcastle fans had at the weekend when Celtic pumped them in the only pre-season home friendly. Disappointment but thankful it was only a friendly game.

The Como Cup game against Ajax ended 5-1 to the Dutch team. Celtic went 1 nil down after 16 minutes but Yang scored less than 5 minutes later to level it. Celtic were wasteful in front of goal in the first half which was competitive and Celtic looked decent.

The second half was a different game. The Ajax manager had figured out Brendan Rodgers game plan and within a minute or so of the restart Ajax were 2 up. From then on it was one way traffic with the team Amsterdam scoring freely from outside the box and they had the luxury of bringing on teenagers from their academy to rub salt into the wound.

On a positive note CCV returned to first team action and a Kieran Tierney pass for Yang goal which split open the Ajax defence showed us what a great addition he will be to the first 11 this season. KT was taken off at half time and his presence was missed in that poor second half.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers tried to spin some positives after the game on his players performance in his post match interview. In private he will be disappointed with that second half performance from the players and with his own tactics. Celtic were out thought and out fought after half time.

Celtic will now face mega rich Saudi side Al-Ahli in the final pre-season game on Saturday night the game will be streamed on Celtic TV. Tournament hosts Como will now face Ajax on Sunday after they defeated Al-Ahli 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Podcast