Five minutes into the game last night, I would have sworn that the whole team—manager, players, everybody—was taking the occasion as seriously as the club itself appeared to have taken it in the aftermath of the Young Boys game when they allowed key players to depart, after one had already been banned.
It was the start of all our worst nightmares. Our tendency to lose early goals looked like the good old days in comparison, considering that we didn’t just lose one in that five-minute spell, but two of them.
I think we all had wide-awake nightmares over the last few months at the prospect of handing Villa an early goal of a start. And I think all of our feelings in the moment were exactly the same when we gave them a two-goal start.
I said to my mate before the match even kicked off that I’d been having wide-awake nightmares for weeks about Morgan Rogers. I’ve watched him a bunch of times for Villa, and he mesmerised me. I think he’s one of the most skilful players I’ve watched in years. That he scored twice so early in the game was not the greatest shock of my life.
But it was horrible to watch. It was the kind of start that gave you Dortmund-type vibes. And I thought at that point, this could be anything they wanted it to be. This could be an absolute, epic humiliation on a grand scale, one we would not recover from for years. And yet, what I think all of our critics expected to happen didn’t. What many of us feared was about to happen did not come to pass.
Instead, we rallied. And not only did we rally, but we gave them the almighty fright of their lives. I can only speculate on what would have happened had we had a full-strength, full-power, all-guns-blazing Celtic side available to us last night.
And the weirdest thing about it was that it wasn’t Kyogo’s absence that hurt the most—it was the absence of Maeda and Carter-Vickers more than anything else. Because if Carter-Vickers plays last night, then the defensive performance doesn’t look like that. We would have played with more composure. And we would have had a better class of player to bring off the bench.
My mate and I had a good conversation before the game about whether we would even have played Kyogo from the start in this one had he been available. And I think both of us agreed that we would have liked to go with Idah.
It would have been the last thing the opposition expected.
He would have given us that different dimension—exactly the dimension that he gave us last night. And I’m going to do a full article on the big guy, of course I am. But he proved himself to be the ideal striker for this match. And so at least one thing about the Kyogo deal now makes more sense.
I believe that even if Kyogo had still been at the club, the boss would have gone with Idah anyway. And that’s why he was so sanguine about letting Kyogo go. I don’t think he would have played Kyogo from the start, even if he’d been available. And yes, it might have made a difference in those closing stages when we had to bring on Daniel Cummings instead if we’d been able to bring Kyogo on instead.
Not that I had any problem with Cummings.
But we both thought Idah would have been our starter. And although a lot of people would have complained about that at the beginning, they would have been more than convinced by the end based on the way he played.
We lost two goals in the second half. I didn’t think we were as good after the break. Villa had to win the game, and we didn’t have as much at stake. We were missing key players who might have made a crucial difference. A side with Carter-Vickers, Tierney, Jota, Maeda, and a better striker—whether on the bench or in the starting XI—would have made it a different game. A completely different game.
Losing the goal late, late, late in the day because the young boy, Murray, made a mistake only brings to light a theme I want to talk about in a broader context—and will talk about in a broader context—his lack of experience.
I’m not going to hold that against him. He’s been brought back to the club because the manager and the coaches think that he has something to offer us. We’ve allowed Stephen Welsh to leave as a consequence of that.
And Murray has the physical presence you want to see from a centre-back. If he can add a little bit of composure to his game, he’ll be formidable. We’ll see if he’s going to be a player at this level, but he’ll offer something.
I think one player has made the manager’s decision to sign Jota look very, very simple indeed—and that is Yang. He is nowhere near the quality needed to play for Celtic. We’ve watched him for a year and a half now. It is not too early to make that judgment. That one is signed, sealed, and delivered.
I’m not saying he’s a bad player, but he is woefully miscast at this club and miles short of the level needed to play in the Champions League.
This was a story of what might have been last night if we hadn’t lost those two early goals. Even if we’d only conceded one of them, we would have made a different game of it. But we came up against a really good side. A side that has finished in the top eight. Three of the other sides from our so-called “easy group” have finished in the top 10. So really, don’t let anyone tell you that we had it easy.
It’s a preposterous notion. There are no easy games at this level. Every club is dangerous. Every club is capable.
I am very proud of what the team did, especially in that first half, when they showed a maturity, composure, and determination that I haven’t seen from a Celtic side at this level for a long, long time.
We all know that most Celtic sides of the past 10 years—maybe even longer than that—who lost those two early goals would have collapsed under the weight of trying to come back into the game. And we never would have been able to do it. That this side has grown and matured is beyond dispute.
And so I have no complaints. In fact, I think one player rehabilitated himself last night in the best way and another finally emerged from the shadows and staked a major claim—which was always going to happen, by the way.
And I’ll get to that later.
But we learned an awful lot about this team, its determination, and where it needs to improve. And that is what these games are for. This is a team still growing, still developing. And it has a way to go. But it’s not as long a way as people think.
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We acquitted ourselves well and it was an encouraging performance rather than a great one. Like everyone else, after the first few minutes, I was expecting a pumping. but we rallied well, we got our act together and we gave them a wee bit of a fright, a team that had not conceded a goal at home in the CL. I am looking forward to the knockout round now, although I am not expecting further glory after that, but you never know. Last nights endeavours though augers well for the future and I am already looking forward to next season’s campaign when by that time we will have hopefully strengthened the side in the Summer transfer window even further.
Feared the worst after 5 minutes mins but we rallied well, big Adam is hopefully on a roll now, great performance.
Surely BR has seen enough of Yang now contributed nothing to the team and never a Celtic player…
Yang may have struggled, but although Kuhn terrorises SPFL teams, he also seems to lack a bit at CL level
Delighted for Idah. Good performances from those who get the biggest criticism – Hatate was excellent, Scales and Taylor pretty good. I agree Yang is not up to this level but my other worry is Trusty. He seems to lose concentration easily. I do feel Kuhn is up tomthis level.
It’s very fine lines. We done brilliant tae haul ourselves back intae it, tho if they had scored a 3rd tae make it 3 – 0 when AJ cleared off the line, ah dread tae think what mightve happened. But they didnae and that’s that. Idah deserves every bit of credit goin. The first goal was much more difficult than it looked and he showed great reflexes tae hook his boot up and slightly backward tae get that on target. Great finish and his second, was him bein in the right place at exactly the right time. That’s what ye want from a striker. Aye they obviously had more chances tae put it out of sight and that penalty was absolutely freaky. Tho we hugely missed CCV and Maeda in that team last night. Definitely restored some pride considerin and only idiots would argue that and these goals can only help idah’s confidence. Tho that shouldnae deter this board from gettin another striker in. That’s still a must and it would strengthen us big time up front.
And btw, cannae overlook or underestimate once again big Kaspers contribution. Big man saved us a few times.
Agreed but he was partly to blame for the second goal and he made another bad clearance later in the 2nd half, but redeemed himself with a fine save. Those mistakes are not made very often by the big man and his overall performance was excellent.
Sorry, but let’s not forget we lost. Johnston was posted missing for the first goal, second goal a shambles, caught out trying to play football in own defensive third again! Third goal, why was Scales halfway inside the Villa half and Engels brushed aside as well. Final goal a shambles, however Murray nowhere near ready for this level. They hit the post, had one cleared off the line, missed a pk, defensive howler from Kasper almost cost another and he made a few big saves. On the plus side Adam took his goals well and showed good awareness, he led the line well in the first half, hopefully this gives him some confidence as his goal contribution hasn’t been good enough so far. Hatate was excellent and contributed to both goals. Mitigating factors to be considered as well, board have left the manager short, having to bring on Cummings for his club debut and Murray in defence was Rodgers telling the board I need more players. Overall disappointed with the defeat and the way we contributed to our own downfall with careless defending yet again.
@ pilgrim73. Ah don’t think anybody’s ‘forgettin’ we lost. Aye we contributed tae our defeat with poor defendin and fortunate it wasn’t by a larger score. Tho there were positives as well, most noticeably when we went 2 down ( ah had personally chucked watchin it, was that gutted ) and although still ridin our luck, managed tae get ourselves right back in it against a good EPL side. Showed some guts, that was appreciated by our support. 2nd half, realistically, was tae be expected imo. We lost, tho they deserve tae be cut a wee bit of slack. Credit where its due.
Bang on pilgrim, excellent summation.
Your comment on 3 of our opponents finishing in the top 10, also Club Brugge qualifying for the play offs, is testament to the strides we’ve made during what has been a highly impressive and entertaining campaign. It goes without saying that your very valid point will be completely ignored by the media. Fingers crossed it’s not Real Madrid..much prefer Bayern.
Yet more behaviour from a section of the support that has NOTHING to do with supporting the team….Worst thing about being a Celtic fan? Other Celtic fans – the green brigade are a toxic embarrassment, they bring shame on the club and break the law with the setting off of flares, and act like the rules don’t apply to them. Their behaviour both at Celtic Park and in away stadiums simply should not be tolerated by the club, yet another failure of a board that splits the fanbase… it’s very easy to point the finger at some of the behaviour from the fanbase at Ibrox which the governing bodies and media ignore, but as a Celtic fan I would simply ask that the green brigade take their offensive songs and chants about terrorists and dead individuals along with their flares and Palestinian flags ….and sod off.
Given that Celtic are on a suspended sentence regarding flares, the person who allegedly flung one onto the field of play last night has probably just seen to it that no Celtic supporters will be getting into the iconic stadiums of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the third week of February…
Hopefully it doesn’t come to that but should it and him or her is caught then a wee bitty of ‘justice’ meted out by those who lose out big time through no whatsoever fault of their own…
That summary ‘justice’ wouldn’t go amiss for sure !
The Green Brigade as a whole shouldn’t be judged on one drunken nutjob throwing a flare, was he even part of the GB last night, for I doubt if any of them would risk the possible consequences now? Furthermore I enjoy Irish rebel songs, always have and always will, the songs of freedom are not offensive to me. There are of course some ditties that are best avoided, they need to be a bit more sensible in some of their more extreme song choices.
Always we had The Rebel Songs on in our house Johnny and like yourself I love them and cherish them and understand what they’re all about…
As a young lad of 18 I joined in with them at The Jungle…
Before I stopped going I kinda cut it back at Parkhead with the new stadium etc but half the time it was as silent as Janefield Cemetery behind it…
Still loved belting them out in The Hoops Bar, Bar 67, The Emerald Isle, The Sarry Heid, Lynch’s The Welcome Inn, The Toolbooth, Colqhuons Whistling Kirk and The Brazen Head after which time I was pished and truly bladdered !
Oh and one more thing ildivino, I also admire the GB’s stance and support for the Palestinian people who are being eradicated on a massive genocidal scale while the world watches and does fk all about it.