CELTS NEED TO GET ON THEIR BIKES
Brendan’s point is proved as his side face uphill task after draw
THE roads and railways heading to Parkhead might have been jammed last night but Brendan Rodgers made it clear beforehand it wasn’t the cyclists to blame for the late arrivals at Celtic Park.
Glasgow was at standstill for the Euro tiddlywinks championships or something but the Hoops boss has grown frustated at the road block into Lennoxtown.
Rodgers went public on his growing concerns about the lack of signings this summer and anger as players such as John McGinn were allowed to take the M74 out of Scotland.
Yesterday’s papers would have made uncomfortable reading for the board.
Chants for the manager proved there will be only one winner in that PR war and the last thing Hoops fans want to see is their beloved boss taking the huff and the high road out of Scotland.
The manager was to clear a path to the Champions League with the aid of a few big-money signings so the last thing the moneyman at Celtic Park needed or wanted was the prospect of running up a European cul-de-sac in Greece next week.
He might have had a point after his side couldn’t find the quality to keep out AEK or find a winner against 10 men. Celtic were almost very good last night. Which is Rodgers’s point. Almost is not good enough.
They’ll need to be better than good to get a result in Greece next week. AEK might be undercooked but teams tend to get well done out there.
Yet again Celts will need to take the hard route to the Promised Land.
The Green Brigade got through the travel chaos but they had a complaint about another kind of journey.
“Champions League? You’re having a laugh”, said the banner hung from the standing section with a cartoon lampooning the fourth-place queue jump into the group stages while sides such as Celts had to take the dodgy route – the one off the beaten track with pot holes all over the shop.
They have a point but it wasn’t going to change any point last night or any time soon for that matter.
It was always going to be especially tough against an AEK side used to putting bodies in the way and hitting on the break.
A lot of folk reckon the Athens side won the Greek championship last season thanks to the PAOK Salonika president Ivan Savvidis going all John Wayne and marching on to the pitch with a gun in his holster.
It cost his club three crucial points in the run-in and scared the bejeesus out of everyone in the stadium.
And we think Scottish football is bonkers. At least we don’t see Rod Petrie pulling out a Smith and Wesson when Hibs don’t get a penalty.
But it wasn’t Pistol Pete who handed AEK the title – it was down to the fact hardly anyone could hit the target against the Athens side.
They lost just 12 goals in 30 league games and set up in Glasgow hoping to force Celts into firing blanks.
Trigger-happy Callum McGregor had other ideas. The midfielder might not be the biggest name in this Celtic side but he is a big-game player.
Old Firm games, cup finals, Euro qualifiers, group stages games and knockout stages, the Scotland international has plundered goals every step of the way and added another priceless strike last night.
The Parkhead men might be taking a long and winding road but this is the guy who is reading the map.
The Hoops had the foot down right from the off. McGregor and Kieran Tierney were doing laps around AEK’s right side. Poor full-back Anastasios Bakasetas was left looking like a basket case during the first-half blitz.
Tierney like McGregor is a man for the big occasion and Rodgers will be grateful road blocks work both ways. The nibble from Everton for £25million seems small change for the defender when he powers up and down the flank as he did last night.
No one inside Celtic Park was caring too much about the lack of signings for 40 minutes or so. The Hoops were flying.
AEK were carved open time and time again and looked odds on to add to their lead. But in the blink of an eye Rodgers’s fears were laid bare.
A simple skidding ball not dealt with out wide. A cute cutback ignored, a free man given time and space to blow a hole in Celtic’s hopes.
Money can’t guarantee you happiness but it can buy the quality that can cut out conceding cheap goals.
Mikael Lustig should have known better, mind you. The big Swede might have been rusty after Russia but World Cup or not he knows when the ball should be sharply guided towards row Z. Instead he got caught, with Kristoffer Ajer and Jack Hendry in rabbits-in-headlights mode.
Another bump on the road. An away goal to the good, the Greeks were determined to put up as many diversions as possible.
The time wasting started just minutes in to the second half.
You’d think that crackpot POAK president had picked a few of the players off with a sniper the way they hit the deck.
The red card to Konstantinos Galanopoulos – the ref simply scribbled No.25 – opened up a way back for Leigh Griffiths though.
But the hitman and his pals were either held up on the edge of the box or sent down dead ends.
The Champions League is still in sight but the road has just got even more treacherous.