CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Hoops avoid hiding but still find a way to lose and it hurts just as badly
BRENDAN RODGERS is adamant his young Celtic team are learning valuable lessons.
Even so it can’t be making these bitter experiences against the elite any less painful.
Last night at Parkhead it was another shattering dose of reality of life at the top. More hurt. Just a different type.
Slammed seven in Barcelona last term, flattened five by PSG and tagged three in Munich this season. These were chastening defeats yet the sickening part is this was nothing like those. Nowhere near it.
It wasn’t a lesson. A doing. A trouncing. It almost made the pain of defeat even worse.
The type that comes from performing with courage and ability, going toe to toe with a big gun, only to be done in not by the brilliance of your elite opponents but by fleeting moments of slackness.
Dedryck Boyata will wake still wondering why he didn’t deal with a launch upfield for Kingsley Coman’s opener.
Then three minutes after completing a fabulous fightback by bagging an equaliser through Callum McGregor the backline will be wondering why the cross wasn’t stopped and why Javi Martinez was allowed to win a header on the six-yard line.
It was almost cruel on Celtic. Yet that’s what the Champions League is. It’s cruel, unforgiving. It doesn’t sympathise.
That was last night’s lesson. No matter how much you put into it lapses big or small will be brutally punished.
Bayern were without some of their illustrious stars but when Jupp Heynckes can call up replacements such as James Rodriguez, who alone cost more than double the value of the entire Celtic squad, it brings a sense of realism.
The fact Celtic did so well for so long offers huge hope and encouragement. The fans aren’t stupid. They gave their heroes a standing ovation at full-time.
Celtic’s Champions League campaign was always going to come down to a Europa League shoot-out with Anderlecht.
And it still looks like a battle they are going to win.
That’s for later. This morning it’s about acknowledging progress while still having to accept and understand the minute margins which separate the elite from the rest.
Celtic had to start better than they did in Munich. And they did.
Rodgers had got his message across. Celtic refused to knock it long. Took it under pressure.
The confidence emanated from the carving of a glorious early chance.
Kieran Tierney showed tenacity to help get James Forrest away and the winger’s floated cross was a peach.
Stuart Armstrong did the hard work with a surging run only to miscue his shot six yards out when unmarked.
Forrest started superbly, demanding the ball and running with it.
Rodgers had gone with
CELTIC ....... 1 BAYERN ....... 2