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it
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in against Ajax
after Christmas
James Forrest is confident the Hoc
which will put them a step closer to E
WE'RE AIMING
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Exclusive interview
JAMES Forrest believes Celtic
can take inspiration from their
performances in the opening
two matches of this season's
UEFA Europa League campaign
as they aim to preserve their
hopes of reaching the knockout
stages.
After successive 2-2 draws
against Ajax and Fenerbahce, games
in which the Hoops squandered
winning positions, Ronny Deila's side
lost out twice in their double-header
against Molde to leave them
propping up Group A on two points.
That run of results means a
victory in tonight's penultimate
fixture of the section against Ajax in
Paradise is essential for the Scottish
champions to maintain realistic
ambitions of booking European
football beyond Christmas.
"It's one of the main things
that the club aims for and we
have two games left in the group
and hopefully we can go in and
turn in good performances," said
the 24-year-old in an exclusive
interview with the matchday
programme. "We can take heart from
the first two games and that should
give us confidence.
"The last two results have been
disappointing, Molde are a good side.
They beat Fenerbahce and drew
with Ajax but we know ourselves
that we could have performed better
in the two matches.
"We have tonight to make it right
and hopefully we can do that, We
did really well over in Holland and
we were a bit unlucky going down to
10 men in the last part of the game
when we conceded the equaliser,
"It was a good team performance,
we had a few chances and we were
unlucky not to win the game, We
want to beat Ajax and take it from
there."
"We could have easily won the first
two European games and got six
points but we didn't and the last two
performances against Molde weren't
up to our usual standards, We have
to change that tonight."
Making the adjustment from the
domestic arena to the European
stage always poses a challenge for
Forrest and his team-mates.
At the weekend, they were utterly
dominant in possession against
Kilmarnock, who were content
defend with depth and concentrate
their efforts on containment.
While this is the normal occurrence
for the Hoops in Scottish football,
