Celtic continue their record of not winning a Champions League game at Paradise since 2013 after their 2-1 loss to Lazio tonight.
The sickening 95th-minute winner from Pedro consigns Celtic to the bottom of Group E and with memories of what might have been.
Kyogo Furuhashi’s 12th-minute opener was a thing of beauty. The passage of play, the interchange with the team and that final ball by Matt O’Riley. Simply stunning.
But it all means nothing now as the league table shows played two, lost two, zero points.
And former Celtic hero, Chris Sutton had his say with his instant reaction on social media tonight.
Chris Sutton delivers a brutal truth about Celtic
The fans might not like this, but Sutton was bang on the money with his tweet on X. Whilst Sutton acknowledged that Brendan Rodgers‘ men didn’t deserve to lose, he also said that Celtic didn’t do enough to win.
Sutton said [X], ““That’s a sore one for Celtic. Missed opportunity… never did enough to win it but losing to a team in all truth on the night who were beatable even at this level was sickening…”
And he’s correct. For all the team’s endeavour and work rate, the quality in the final third just wasn’t there. Neither was the concentration level towards the end.
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And those are the fine margins at the top level in European competition. Domestically, Celtic win that game with a clean sheet and a few goals to spare.
But in the Champions League, you need more of a cutting edge in the attack and steeliness in defence. Celtic had neither.
However, credit where it is due. Celtic did hold their own against the Serie A strugglers. In the second half, they matched them in the midfield and did create a couple of chances.
But the quality that is needed to get you through these games was missing. And Rodgers may well rue not getting the level of player that is required to compete in this competition during the summer window.
Lessons will need to be learned from this. And quick. There are only four games left to salvage anything from this campaign and the Bhoys will need to find it in them to up their game to do so.
In other news, ‘Quite shocking’: John Hartson left fuming after what officials did in Celtic game tonight