His squad finally delivered three crucial Champions League points to Neil Lennon. Here's an assessment of they performed individually:
FRASER FORSTER: The England squad member was lucky to get away with spilling an early cross at the feet of Ajax skipper Siem de Jong but did brilliantly to stand up and deny Thulani Serero just seconds before his team grabbed a crucial second. Could do nothing about Lasse Schone's late consolation effort. 6/10.
MIKAEL LUSTIG: The right-back shook off a hip injury sustained on Sweden duty to start but showed no ill-effects with a nerveless display as he shackled Danish wideman Vicktor Fischer. 7.
EFE AMBROSE: Only had Kolbeinn Sigthorsson to worry about but dealt comfortably with the loan Ajax striker. Fluffed a back-post header which would have put Hoops three up before replacing Lustig at right-back. A solid display from the Nigerian. 6.
VIRGIL VAN DIJK: This week tipped for a Holland call-up, the central defender did himself no harm as he read the threat posed by his compatriots and rarely found himself out of position. Booked along with Christian Poulsen as the pair jostled while Celtic waited to take their spot-kick. 6.
EMILIO IZAGUIRRE: The Honduran has always faced question marks over his defensive capabilities but gave nothing away against the Dutch champions. Dependable. 7.
BERAM KAYAL: Standing in for suspended skipper Scott Brown in the centre of midfield, the Israeli came up with a great goal-saving tackle on Viktor Fischer after half an hour before grabbing Celtic's second with a deflected strike. His tenacity was just what the Scottish champions required. 8.
CHARLIE MULGREW: Dangerous with the set-piece delivery and tidy in possession, Celtic's utility man is showing more and more that the holding role could become his speciality subject. 7.
JAMES FORREST: Fully recovered from a virus, the little winger left the Dutch feeling sick when he swept home a penalty moments before the break. Not quite as prominent after the break but still a worthy performance. 7.
TEEMU PUKKI: The Finn made his first Champions League start for the Hoops but failed to get enough on Lustig's low ball into the box early on and failed to deliver the same drive as Kris Commons in the playmaker role. 5.
GEORGIOS SAMARAS: Captain in Brown's absence, it was another of the Greek's driving runs down the left that teed up his side's second. Another big performance from Celtic's European talisman. 8.
ANTHONY STOKES: Won Celtic their first-half penalty after luring Stefano Denswill into the foul but wasn't given much in the way of service. Decent shift. 6
Substitutes:
JOE LEDLEY (for KAYAL, 71): The Welshman was brought on with 20 minutes left to steady the ship. 3.
NIR BITON (for LUSTIG, 77): The Israeli was only on for 10 minutes before earning himself an instant dismissal. 1.
AMIDO BALDE (for PUKKI, 90): Came on during injury time but no chance to make an impact.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article