Celtic allowed themselves to be outplayed

Would the real Celtic please stand up.

That is the question Neil Lennon will need to ask his players before the match with AC Milan in a fortnight’s time.

The Scottish champions did not perform to their true form in the Amsterdam ArenA.

Far from it. They were bitterly disappointing.

Ajax are not top-class opposition. Their recent results prove as much.

There was, therefore, good reason to fancy that Celtic could follow up their success when the clubs met in Glasgow last month by beating the Dutch on their own patch.

But having dominated Ajax at Celtic Park, they allowed themselves to be outplayed by those same players in Holland.

And for the sake of Scottish football, that was a shame.

The creative players talked up by the Celtic manager in advance of the match were poor. He was very positive in his declaration of attacking intent, and followed it through with his team selection.

In the starting-XI we had Georgios Samaras, Kris Commons, James Forrest and Anthony Stokes. That is a lot of firepower and I strongly expected them to cause big problems for the Ajax defence.

Collectively and individually, though, they were very disappointing.

There were none of the sharp link-ups we have grown to expect from Celtic in the last couple of years.

Bafflingly too, their attitude was off. Where was the boldness of thought and action?

To be fair, they were better in the second half than the first.

I would give credit too, to Beram Kayal.

The Israeli took a lot of stick for his display, but I think a lot of the criticism will have been down to the fact he made a hash of what was a very decent opportunity. His general performance in central midfield wasn’t too bad at all, especially for a man whose top-team opportunities have been severely limited over the last year.

Virgil Van Dijk and Fraser Forster impressed as two players who looked very comfortable at Champions League level. Emilio Izaguirre, likewise, did well.

I was less taken with Efe Ambrose, who was not consistent enough and allowed himself to be caught in possession.

Cutting out any slackness is going to be essential for the visit of Milan.a

Playing in front of their own support, the Hoops can beat the Italians, I am sure of it.

But they will only have a chance of doing so if they can play as they did in the San Siro back at the start of the Champions League campaign.

They have the experience, the support and a manager who is growing in stature with every European campaign.

All they need, really, is for the real Celtic to stand up.