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25th July 2025
01:39pm BST
Ugly scenes marred Celtic’s friendly with Ajax in Italy on Thursday night as fans clashed in the stadium.
Meeting in the Como Cup semi-final, fans of both sides can be seen squaring up to each other in the stands behind the goal, with projectiles being thrown over the separating fence.
These two sides have a history, with clashes occurring in the 2013/14 Champions League meetings between the two.
In the meeting in Amsterdam in November 2013, violent clashes in the city before kick-off overshadowed Ajax’s 1-0 win, with 28 Scots among the 44 arrested on the night, along with eight police officers being injured.
On Thursday night, Ajax ran out comfortable 5-1 winners, with Steven Berghuis (2), Davy Klaessen, Aaron Bouwman and Rayane Bound scoring. Yang Hyun-Jun got Celtic’s only goal.
Celtic now play Al-Ahli in the third-fourth place match on Saturday evening, while Ajax will play hosts Como in the final.
After the match, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said his side need two strengthen if they are to battle hard on all fronts this season.
He said: “If your ambition is to really progress and push forward, then we need to improve the squad.
“But I can't fault the players. The players that are here, they've been working so well, so hard and you see some of the play and how they work has been very, very good.
“However, if you want to progress, then, as I said, you need to bring in quality and that's something that we hopefully can do.”
Celtic, Scottish Premiership champions last season, start their title defence against St Mirren on Saturday August 3, before travelling to Aberdeen a week later.
They will play a two-legged play-off for a place in the Champions League group stages towards the end of August.
