Celta v Ajax background

Celta will not have to cope with Zlatan Ibrahimović this time as they prepare for a second visit from Ajax, the sides vying for top spot in UEFA Europa League Group G.

Previous meetings
• Celta and Ajax's only previous meetings came in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage; Ronald Koeman's Ajax won 1-0 at home (Ibrahimović scoring the goal) but lost 3-2 to Miguel Ángel Lotina's men in Vigo. That was Celta's first victory at that stage of the elite competition.

• The line-ups for that latter meeting on 4 November 2003 were:
Celta: Pinto, Sylvinho, Cáceres, Vagner (Contreras 86), Ángel López, Milošević, Mostovoi (Oubiña 90+2), Juanfran, Jesuli (Gustavo López 82), Luccin, Fernández.
Ajax: Lobonţ, Escudé, Galásek (Wamberto 79), Ibrahimović (Litmanen 70), Van der Vaart, Maxwell, De Jong, Sonck, Yakubu (Heitinga 65), Grygera, Mitea.

• Those remain Celta's only encounters with Dutch opposition, but Ajax have played Spanish teams 35 times in total with the record W14 D5 L16 (W5 D2 L10 in Spain).

• Ajax have lost their last five matches in Spain by margins of two goals or more.

Form guide
• Celta have taken four points from their two Group G games, but Ajax top the section following back-to-back victories.

• This is Celta's first European campaign since they got through the group stage and into the round of 16 of the 2006/07 UEFA Cup.

• After three successful attempts to negotiate their UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League groups, Ajax failed to qualify for the first time in the 2015/16 group stage.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Amsterdam to Vigo is around 1,500km.

• Celta forward John Guidetti spent the 2011/12 campaign on loan with Feyenoord, notably hitting a hat-trick in a 4-2 triumph against Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie.

• Ajax's German defender Heiko Westermann played in Spain last season with Real Betis; in his only match against Celta, his side drew 1-1 at home.

• Former team-mates:
Giuseppe Rossi (Celta) & Tim Krul (Ajax) – Newcastle, 2006

The coaches
• Eduardo Berizzo played in the UEFA Champions League for both Marseille and Celta, the former Argentina centre-back returning to Europe in 2014 to take charge of the Galician club. He led them back into Europe with a sixth-placed finish last term.

• A Dutch title-winning midfielder with Feyenoord, Peter Bosz returned from Israel to accept the Ajax reins in May 2016. Bosz has also coached Heracles and Vitesse in the Netherlands, and had a brief tenure at Maccabi Tel-Aviv in 2016.