Lennon celebrates Celtic's 'fantastic win'

Neil Lennon, Celtic manager
I said Ajax would give us as many problems as Barcelona and AC Milan and they did. That's a fantastic win for us. We are on our knees in terms of injuries in our squad, so it was a monumental effort from the lads. We grew into the game and, but for a few breakaways towards the end, could have won it more comfortably.

[James Forrest] keeps telling me he's never missed a penalty so with Kris [Commons] out he kept his cool. It was a big moment and came at a good time. We were anxious at times in the first half, but as the second half went on we got better and thoroughly deserved to win. It leaves us in a very good position. We have to get a result at Ajax if we can. It'll be difficult, but on tonight's evidence not beyond us. It is a massive win in the context of the group.

We could have seen the game out more comfortably for my liking but it's our 19th game of the season, it was a heroic effort. We can compete with a lot of clubs at this level. We've been in every game and that's no mean feat with the calibre of teams against us. We've given ourselves a great chance now.

Frank de Boer, Ajax coach
We had the better chances, but the best team does not always win. We dominated the game – [Christian] Poulsen hit the post for us, [Thulani] Serero and [Kolbeinn] Sigthórsson had one-on-ones. Those were real opportunities and they have to be goals. But if we play like we did tonight in the next match on matchday four, then we certainly will beat them at [the Amsterdam] ArenA. I really believe that.

I have mixed feelings about the result. Celtic didn't create anything but scored twice. We dominated the game but only scored one goal. We should have equalised but right after that it was 2-0. I feel comfortable with the way we played.

It will be hard [at home to Celtic] but I am confident. We have one point and if we win against Celtic next time, we'll be one point ahead of them. It'll be difficult but if we play like we did this evening, eight times out of ten the best team wins. I thought we were the best team tonight but didn't score goals. We'll have to do that at the Amsterdam ArenA.