Ajax v Celta background

Twice pegged back by Celta in Spain on 20 October, Ajax will ease into the UEFA Europa League round of 32 if they take three points off their Group G guests on matchday four.

Previous meetings
• Prior to matchday three's 2-2 draw, Celta and Ajax's only previous meetings came in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage; Ronald Koeman's Ajax won 1-0 at home (Zlatan Ibrahimović scoring) but lost 3-2 to Miguel Ángel Lotina's men in Vigo. That was Celta's first victory at that stage of the elite competition.

• The line-ups for that first encounter on 4 November 2003 were:
Ajax: Lobonţ, Trabelsi (De Jong 64), Pasanen, Galásek, Pienaar, Ibrahimović, Van der Vaart (Mitea 39), Van Damme, Maxwell, Sneijder, Sonck (Yakubu 79).
Celta: Pinto, Velasco, Sylvinho, Cáceres (Ángel López 85), Giovanella (Catanha 81), Berizzo, Milošević, Mostovoi, Juanfran, Jesuli, Luccin.

• Celta's only brushes with Dutch opposition have been their three games against Ajax; Ajax have played Spanish teams 36 times in total with the record W14 D6 L16 (W8 D3 L6 in Amsterdam). They have lost five of their six home matches against Liga sides since Celta's last visit.

Form guide
• Ajax are unbeaten in seven European home fixtures – two 1-0 victories and five draws.

• Celta are without a win in five on the road in Europe (D3 L2) since a 1-0 triumph at Standard Liège in September 2006 – just over a decade ago.

• After three successful attempts to negotiate their UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League groups, Ajax failed to qualify for the first time in the 2015/16 group stage.

• This is Celta's first European campaign since they got through the group stage and into the round of 16 of the 2006/07 UEFA Cup.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Vigo to Amsterdam is around 1,500km.

• Celta forward John Guidetti spent 2011/12 on loan with Feyenoord, notably hitting a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory against Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie.

• Ajax's German defender Heiko Westermann played in Spain last term with Real Betis; in his only game against Celta, his Betis team drew 1-1 at home.

• Former team-mates:
Giuseppe Rossi (Celta) & Tim Krul (Ajax) – Newcastle, 2006

The coaches
• A Dutch title-winning midfielder with Feyenoord, Peter Bosz returned from Israel to take the Ajax reins in May 2016. Bosz has also coached Heracles and Vitesse in the Netherlands, and had a brief tenure at Maccabi Tel-Aviv in 2016.

• Eduardo Berizzo played in the UEFA Champions League for both Marseille and Celta, the former Argentina centre-back coming back to Europe in 2014 to take charge of the Galician club. He led them back into Europe with a sixth-placed finish last season.