BENEFIT OF THE DROUGHT
Celts’ wait for Euro home success extends to 4 years but this time defeat doesn’t cost them
IT wasn’t meant to happen like this. Brendan Rodgers and Celtic got where they needed to get to last night. Just not in a particularly enjoyable fashion.
A place in the knockout stages of the Europa League is secure.
The post-Christmas involvement in Europe that Rodgers and his troops had craved from a treacherous Group B was attained.
But this wasn’t a night for exuberant celebration. More like a giant sigh of relief and reflection of where they got it wrong.
Celtic have waited more than four years for a home group-stage win in the Champions League.
Having skelped Anderlecht in Brussels this was the chance to grasp that opportunity. End the drought.
Instead those same fingers were needed to cling on grimly throughout a fraught occasion.
Instead of swaggering into the Europa League, Celtic shuffled and stumbled. Rodgers looked shellshocked at times as his team just didn’t deliver. Just didn’t get going. Losers on the night and deservedly so.
That 3-0 win in Brussels back in September got them over the line and it was a cushion they required because, although it didn’t end in any panic as the Belgians couldn’t get a second goal, they had enough chances.
Rodgers wanted a sign of his team’s progress. A statement of their advancement. It didn’t happen.
That he didn’t get any sort of performance was frustrating. So was the third straight Euro defeat at home.
And while booking the Europa League spot will be a cause for contentment when the dust has settled it was hard for the Hoops to take any real joy out of this contest.
It was set up for something special. What followed was not in the script.
The sight of Scott Brown’s fevered face in the huddle, yelling and motivating, suggested Celtic meant business. On his record-breaking 69th European Cup appearance he wanted no setbacks.
Little did he know he’d be holding it all together for the next 45 minutes.
It took a brilliant block from Craig Gordon to deny Sven Kums from drilling Anderlecht into a secondminute lead and that set the tone.
Any notion the Belgians, backed by an enthusiastic support, were for rolling over dispelled from the off.
Rodgers had the luxury of fielding a strong side. Jozo Simunovic in the backline, Moussa Dembele leading the line. Virtually full strength.
There were no excuses but the Hoops seemed stuck in a classic stick-or-twist scenario. Holding a three-goal advantage the importance of not conceding made Celts edgy.
Anderlecht had been invited to grab the initiative and were perfectly willing to do so. They passed it, they moved it, they settled into their environment. Celtic were having to battle as they struggled to cope with the tension.
The Hoops were tentative. In some respects it was understandable given their position yet it was also unfathomable given the platform they had to express themselves. Where Stuart Armstrong gave it away, Kums held it. Where striker Henry Onyekuru was thrusting into areas, Dembele couldn’t make it stick. Gordon had to work as opposite number Frank Boeckx stood watching.
Celtic’s saving grace was the Belgians just didn’t have the rapier incision or weapons possessed by PSG and Bayern Munich.
They had enough possession, got into enough good areas and had a decent share of sighters but not the out-and-out quality to make one count. Pieter Gerkens produced some clever set-up work that allowed Adrien Trebel to send a spectacular scissors kick into the body of Gordon.
Rodgers’s men just couldn’t get a sustained hold of the ball. The manager looked perplexed as his team simply hacked it up the park on occasions. Frozen, it seemed, by anxiety with the exception being Brown who was putting out fires all over Parkhead.
Even one of the giant Celtic Park scoreboards froze and packed up. It was affecting everything.
At least Gordon’s limbs were in full flexible order. The keeper moved smartly and reached high to grab a
sizzling long-range strike from Trebel. That Celtic got to the interval unscathed was a massive relief.
The best part of that first half for the fans was the half-time whistle and it needed to improve after the restart.
Rodgers knew it and was proactive. Scott Sinclair and Armstrong just hadn’t produced and were replaced by Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham.
Ntcham, in particular, made an instant difference.
The French kid was right at it, hustling, playing a through ball and shooting wide within 90 seconds.
Team-mates suddenly took a lead. James Forrest surged on to an attacking run and having exchanged passes with Kieran Tierney finally forced Boeckx into making a diving save.
From the corner Simunovic couldn’t get power being his stabbed effort.
The situation had improved. Yet just as breathing had become a tad easier Anderlecht cranked the tension back up with an opener.
Tierney wasn’t able to find a team-mate and Dennis Appiah snapped up the loose ball.
The winger’s dangerous delivery found Gerkens but came off marker Simunovic and into the net via Gordon’s right-hand post.
The Bosnian international had a quickfire chance to atone with a volley which dipped just over. Dembele dragged a shot wide from a Tierney cross. Mikael Lustig headed a flat Ntcham free-kick at Boeckx.
However, the key was at the other end. The 10 or 15 minutes which followed the opener were critical.
The concession of a second goal would have shot the nerves. Mercifully it didn’t happen although Gordon had to beat away a shot from Sofiane Hanni.
Anderlecht just couldn’t muster a last hurrah and Rodgers’s men got there.
The Belgians had won the battle. At least Celtic had won the Europa League war.