Deila: Red card cost Celtic

Celtic manager Ronny Deila feels Emilio Izaguirre’s dismissal cost his side victory in their Europa League match against Ajax at the Amsterdam ArenA as they eventually had to settle for a 2-2 draw.

The Scottish champions appeared to be on their way to an away win, but Izaguirre then received his second yellow card for a foul on Anwar El Ghazi and the Eredivisie side eventually levelled the scoring late in the game via Lasse Schone, much to the frustration of Deila.

“When it was 11 versus 11, we had great control of the game,” he said at the post-match news conference. “We had a great attitude and I’m proud of the boys. When we went down to 10, we had great difficulties.

“Of course the sending-off was the big point. We had control, we were dangerous at set plays, we had control, but when we had just 10 men, then we had trouble.

“Izaguirre had control of El Ghazi, so it was difficult to take him off [when he was on one yellow card]. Some other players haven’t played so much, so it was a difficult decision to take him off [before the second yellow].

“We got a point, but we had a good performance and we could have had three. We would have won the game [if it wasn’t for the red card]. Ajax didn’t create anything.

“When you look at the whole game, a draw is fair and it’s an important point.”