Cillessen credits Ajax's next wave at Celtic

'De Toekomst' (the future) is the slogan of the famous Ajax academy and not for the first time in their illustrious history the Dutch club turned to the youth in their ranks to secure the 2-1 victory against Celtic which keeps them on course for a place in the UEFA Europa League round of 32.

At 26, Jasper Cillessen is one of the elder statesmen in a team which could become the youngest to qualify, and the Netherlands goalkeeper was full of praise for 18-year-old substitute Donny van de Beek – who made his senior debut – and Václav Černy, also 18, who came off the bench to score the winner two minutes from time.

"Producing good young players is what Ajax has always been about and I think we have some talented players coming through in this team also," Cillessen told UEFA.com. "It was great for Donny to make his first-team debut in a European game, and for Václav to come off the bench and score his first goal for the club makes it a really special occasion for him also. They will remember this night for the rest of their lives."

At 1-1 in Glasgow, Cillessen produced a crucial save to deny Leigh Griffiths and having given his side a platform to go on and pinch the points, the custodian now hopes that results will go Ajax's way in the final round of Group A fixtures.

"It proved to be a really important save because it would have been 2-1 for Celtic had it gone in, so it remained 1-1 and then we were able to go on and score a second – although we could also have added a third," he noted. "It was a good save at an important stage and it allowed us to go on and win the game.

"We have to win our home game [against Molde] and hope Celtic can do us a favour in Turkey against Fenerbahçe, but we can only look after ourselves and then let's hope and wait to see what Celtic do. This has been a good night for us and it gives us confidence going into the last game."

©Getty Images