Celtic suffered a heavy and humbling pre-season defeat at the hands of Dutch giants Ajax in their opening fixture at the glamour Como Cup tournament in Italy. Brendan Rodgers’ side went in at the break on level terms at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia after Yang Hyun-jun had cancelled out Steven Berghuis’ 16th-minute opener, but the Scottish champions proved no match for their Eredivisie opponents in the second half as they shipped four goals without reply. On a tough night played in wet and windy conditions, the Hoops can no longer advance to the final after this resounding 5-1 loss meaning they will now face Saudi outfit Al-Ahli in Saturday’s third round play-off. Former Celtic winger Nicolas Kuhn was spotted watching his old teammates in action from the stands after completing his £17million move to tournament hosts Como earlier this month. A pre-match storm made the playing surface slippery underfoot, but both sides adapted to the conditions relatively well in the early exchanges with Yang striking the crossbar from close-range and Benjamin Nygren having a ferocious effort well waved by Ajax No.1 Vitezslav Jaros. The Parkhead club fell behind shortly after when Berghuis curled a shot beyond Kasper Schmeichel from just inside the penalty area, but Celtic were quick to equalise through Yang’s composed finish into the bottom right-hand corner. The goal came about from a sensational defence-splitting pass from Kieran Tierney played Reo Hatate through, with the Japanese midfielder sliding a pass across for the South Korean to bury. Adam Idah was then denied by the woodwork after managing to get a shot away inside a crowded penalty area, which Jaros deflected onto his own bar. That capped off an entertaining first 45 minutes. Manager Brendan Rodgers made two changes at the interval with Cameron Carter-Vickers - earning his first minutes of pre-season after recovering from knee surgery - and summer signing Hayato Inamura replacing youngster Dane Murray and Tierney. However, Celtic fell behind within 90 seconds of the restart when Schmeichel saved Mika Godt’s initial effort, before Ajax captain Davy Klaassen slammed home the rebound. And the men in green and white became architects of their own downfall just shy of the hour mark when a slack pass from Nygren was intercepted deep in his own half, allowing Berghuis to convert his second of the night and leave Celtic with a mountain to climb. Aaron Bouwman made it four with arguably the pick of the bunch, a long-range piledriver high into the top corner leaving Schmeichel rooted to the spot. And there was still time for Belgian midfielder Rayane Bounida to curl home a fifth after some slack defending was ruthlessly punished. Here, GlasgowWorld breaks down three main talking points from the game and how the Celtic players fared: While the manner of this defeat serves as a reality check for Rodgers and his players, the Irishman will have been encouraged by the performance of winger Yang Hyun-jun, who is facing an uncertain future at the club. English Championship side Norwich City have, this week, held talks with Celtic over a potential season-long loan deal for the 23-year-old who has made significant strides under Rodgers’ stewardship following a below-par start to his career in Glasgow. It’s understandable that the player will want to get as much first-team action under his belt as possible and if he stays put this summer, on this evidence he can have a positive impact going forward. However, that is likely to depend on possible incomings. . . Confusion occurred ahead of kick-off when latest signing Shin Yamada was named among the substitutes on the Celtic team sheet pre-match before having his name swiftly removed due to an administration error. Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the new £1.5m Japanese attacker - signed from Kawasaki Frontale - were left perplexed after the Hoops published their team news at around 6.15pm with his name included. Yamada even took part in the warm-up but was nowhere to be seen when the club’s social media team uploaded a ‘reminder post’ of the starting XI and subs around 30 minutes later. He’ll need to wait a bit longer to make his debut in a green and white shirt. GK - Kasper Schmeichel (5/10) RB - Anthony Ralston (5/10) RCB - Dane Murray (6/10) LCB - Liam Scales (5/10) LB - Kieran Tierney (7/10) CM - Callum McGregor (6/10) CM - Reo Hatate (7/10) CM - Benjamin Nygren (6/10) LCF - Daizen Maeda (6/10) RCF - Yang Hyun-jun (8/10) CF - Adam Idah (6/10) Subs used: Cameron Carter-Vickers, Hayato Inamura, Johnny Kenny, Arne Engels, James Forrest, Paulo Bernardo, Luke McCowan, Marco Tilio