DERK Boerrigter has extra reason to rue the end of Celtic's European adventure this season.
writes Stewart Fisher. Not only are his team now assured of finishing beneath his former club Ajax in Champions League Group H, their elimination comes at a time when his Parkhead career appears to be getting started.
Now it is back to the grind of SPFL Premiership and Scottish Cup matches but, after an injury-hit start to his time in Glasgow, the winger has plenty to keep him motivated.
"It was a disappointing night for the whole club," the 27-year-old Dutchman said of last week's 3-0 home defeat to AC Milan. "But you need to keep your head up high because there are games to come in the league and in the cup, and we have to look forward.
"Hopefully the second half of the season will be different from the first for me. I am happy I played my first 90 minutes for a long while and hopefully there will be more of that to come."
While consistently making it into the group stage may be reward enough for Celtic, Tuesday night rammed home their deficiencies.
While the Rossoneri ruthlessly exploited some uncharacteristic errors at the back, once again the hosts struggled to create chances - and take them.
The most glaring miss came when Boerrigter's countryman Virgil van Dijk volleyed straight at keeper Christian Abbiati from inside the six-yard box.
Celtic have now scored just twice in five Champions League matches this season, one a penalty, and the other a heavily deflected shot from Beram Kayal.
"For a few games we played pretty well, but you need to score," Boerrigter said. "We had something like 20 shots but only four were on target.
"If Virgil had scored it would have been 1-1 and a different game. The first year I was at Ajax we were third in the group stage, and last year again we were third, after Madrid and Dortmund.
"It is hard when you go out of the group. You always want more, even if the group is difficult. If you play Europa League, of course, it is OK, but you always want to play higher. We just have to keep our heads up and get ready for the next game."
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