Celtic favourites as Dutch Masters visit

Drawing Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League group stages for the second successive year is bad enough, but Neil Lennon understandably hung his head when Glasgow Celtic were also dumped in with AC Milan and Ajax Amsterdam.

The Dutch giants travel to Scotland for Tuesday night’s encounter with both sides having taken just a single point between from the two match days so far.

“Ajax is huge in terms of the group and where we want to be in the group,” Lennon said.

“I wouldn't say it's a must-win game but it's a game that we would dearly love to win just to get us up and running in the group.”

Sorry Neil, but if Celtic harbour ambitions of progressing from the group then a home game against arguably the weakest opposition they will face is definitely must-win, especially after two defeats already.

Aussie interest is limited in this fixture. Even though Tom Rogic is one of the nation’s bright hopes to turn around the fortunes of the Socceroos, the former Central Coast Mariners man can’t get a look in at Celtic Park and has made just two appearances so far this season for a total of 87 minutes.

Skipper Scott Brown is suspended following his brain fart against Barcelona that saw him sent off for hauling down Neymar and on the injury front there’s mixed news.

Lennon is hopeful that defender Mikael Lustig will have recovered from a hip injury sustained while on international duty with Sweden but Derk Boerrigter will definitely be missing. The 27 year old spent two seasons with Ajax before switching to the Hoops in the summer but an ankle injury has put paid to his hopes of facing his former teammates.

Speaking of Ajax, who are paying $2.80 at our friends Luxbut, their manager Frank De Boer had some choice words to say about Mario Balotelli after the Milan striker controversially earned then scored a penalty with the last kick of the 1-1 draw a fortnight ago.

“It was ridiculous that a penalty was given against us,” said De Boer.

“It cost us two points.”

Indeed it did and with captain Siem De Jong leading by example they will be hell bent on coming away from this fixture with a positive result.

Also keep an eye out for 23 year old striker Kolbeinn Sigþórsson who has been in fine form at both club and international level. With goals in each his last four games for Iceland he has been a key figure in the country’s run to the European playoffs for next year’s World Cup finals.

While Ajax probably possess the better technical players home advantage is massive for Celtic, as Barcelona found out last year, so we’re chalking this one down as a score draw, paying $3.25, with Sigþórsson to get on the scoresheet.