SPENT FORCE
Celtic’s backline crumbles in ancient Greece as fans demand to know why club didn’t invest during the summer
NOT quite Hellas on earth – but it felt like it.
Amid the ruins of ancient Athens, Celtic crumbled.
Their Champions League dreams in a heap. Reduced to rubble by another evening of atrocious defending on the continent.
To discuss disaster or tragedy in a city where almost 100 people lost their lives in devastating fires less than a month ago would be crass.
But, in football terms, this was the end of something.
An agonising and painful finale to a special spell for Celtic.
A two-year run that has brought nothing other than success and progress brought to a dismal halt by basic ineptitude and weakness.
Another shot at the big time gone. Replaced by regrets and now, naturally, recriminations.
For all Brendan Rodgers, his board and the squad have been rightly lauded for the previous two campaigns, there are those who will be lashed because of the way this third bid to make the big time ended.
Losing out in the qualifiers is hardly a crime. With four rounds to negotiate and teams such as AEK to get past, there was always a chance Celtic might not make it.
But, in the eyes of the fans, they put the bullets through their own feet.
AEK were decent but they were still beatable.
There’s disgust that somehow Celtic could enter these crucial qualifiers with a squad weaker than the one that went out of the Europa League in February to Zenit St Petersburg.
Either the proper transfer planning was not in place by the football department or, if it was, the men upstairs did have not have the necessary funds or the right feel to deliver on those specific plans.
Celtic got it away with it in the past. Not this time.
Woeful defending again last night saw a team that dominated for large spells of the 180-minute tie go spinning out.
Two goals lost from where Dedryck Boyata might have been positioned had he decided to travel instead of sitting on his couch letting his colleagues down.
To be fair Celtic have lost enough bad goals in Europe when the Belgian’s been in the team to render that absence a poor excuse.
Not even a stirring fightback and a Scott Sinclair counter which put Celtic within a goal of advancement and set up a nerve-racking finish could disguise the harsh truth.
Whoever should take the majority of the responsibility will be discussed in the days and weeks ahead.
Last night, it was almost too raw to dissect. Too painful to start raking through it all. It was all so typical. It’s been seen before.
Failure to put the Greeks to the sword in the first leg left Celtic open to having their defensive deficiencies exposed by AEK. The Greeks didn’t have to work too hard.
Celtic are going to have work hard to pick themselves up for a likely Europa League qualifier with Suduva.
It’s not where they want to be but it’s where they deserve to be after collapsing like an ancient building.
Even before kick-off, news that Odsonne Edouard was missing through injury just added to an impending sense of doom.
AEK were ready. Stadium half full or not, it was rocking and Celtic would have to stand strong.
The aim was to be solid in the face of an early Greek push – but the brittle Boyata-less backline’s defiance lasted six measly minutes.
Mikael Lustig not doing enough at right-back to stop the cross from AEK ace Niklas Hult, no one taking command in the centre as the ball raged across the box and Rodrigo Galo able to saunter in between Olivier Ntcham and Kieran Tierney to stroke into the net.
It was almost a carbon copy of the goal lost in the first leg.
At that stage, instant recovery was needed. Rodgers’s team had to try to
stay in the tie. Ironically the early home goal got Celtic a foothold. Naturally counter-attacking and with a terrific defensive record at home, the Greeks sat off.
Content on their lead, the hosts allowed the visitors the ball.
Tom Rogic saw a shot saved and Leigh Griffiths smacked wide. The Aussie then flicked a ball to the far post for Callum McGregor but it was just out of reach.
It offered encouragement and, just after the half hour, Griffiths almost levelled it.
Tierney got McGregor away down the left and, when his cross found the hitman, the flick was inches wide. It was a big chance and one they needed to bury.
Rodgers’s team emerged for the restart needing to put something solid on top of the building blocks.
Instead they crumbled again. Lustig’s foul allowed Galo to swing a free-kick into the box and Vassilis Lampropoulos towered above Jack Hendry to get the ball into danger.
Striker Marko Livaja was unmarked on the six-yard line and nodded Celtic to the brink of elimination.
It now needed something truly incredible. A surge, a response. There were 41 minutes to save it.
In fairness Celtic gave it a proper go. Griffiths was first denied by Lampropoulos’s intervention and Jozo Simunovic had a header superbly saved before Moussa Dembele was thrown on.
The lifeline arrived 12 minutes from time. Sinclair had only been on the pitch for seconds but he was perfectly placed to bullet a header home after a terrific cross from Tierney.
Suddenly, from the carnage, there was hope.
But when Olivier Ntcham’s volley and Simunovic’s flick just missed the target the full extent of the horror was crystal clear.
It was too little and too late. It was gone.