It was a disappointing Euro 2020 play-off semi-final for Celtic centre-back Kristoffer Ajer. He saw his countries chances of reaching next summer’s tournament end with a 2-1 defeat to Serbia after extra time.
Interestingly, Ajer’s Celtic teammate Mohamed Elyounoussi only played in the later stages of the game as Norway searched for an equaliser. Maybe if he’d started they would have won the game.
Back to Ajer though, and he can take heart from his performance on the night. He was Norway’s best defender.
More than any other player in team
According to WhoScored, Ajer had four total tackles, eight interceptions and five clearances. That is more than was managed by any other Norway defender, or indeed any other player in the side.
The interceptions part is particularly interesting. It shows that Ajer is a bit of a specialist in reading the situation of the game.
He is able to get in and put an end to an attack by judging when it will be the right time to make a challenge for the ball.
There is no doubt that Ajer would have preferred to have had a poor game and seen his country progress to a play-off final against Scotland.
Good for the Hoops that he performed well
However, we are looking at this from a Celtic viewpoint. With some big games coming up for the Hoops, it is a good thing that Ajer performed well, even though Norway did lose.
It will be interesting to see if Ajer can manage to replicate this form in Norway’s upcoming fixtures against Romania and Northern Ireland.
Neil Lennon would probably be quite pleased to see Ajer rested for one of those games with the Glasgow derby in mind. However, that’s not really likely to happen. Especially when you consider how well Ajer played against Serbia.
Still, Ajer can take pride in what was an excellent individual performance, even though Norway’s dream of reaching the Euros is over.
In other news, Mikey Johnston’s return to Celtic training has come at just the right time.
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