CELTIC B SIDE BRING
Fringe men make their case to Postecoglou in five-goal thriller as Furuhashi limps off
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N any other circumstances, this might have been one of the great European nights at Celtic Park. It seems that no matter the personnel or what is riding on the occasion, these sides just love serving up thrillers, following up their seven-goal opening-night encounter that Real Betis edged with another belting game in Glasgow.
This time, it was Celtic who won by the odd goal in five, with Stephen Welsh, Ewen Henderson and substitute David Turnbull getting on the scoresheet for the hosts. And while the result and the performances of many of his fringe men will be satisfying to Ange Postecoglou, the headline news is the injury concern over striker Kyogo Furuhashi.
With the greatest of respect to Albian Ajeti, who limped from the action after half an hour, the main concern Celtic manager Postecoglou would have had over his knock was that he had to throw his main man into this game so early. And he may have paid a heavy price.
Kyogo went down with 20 minutes remaining, with the only sliver of a silver lining being that he managed to haul himself to his feet and limp from the action unaided.
As for the game itself, it was a raucous old affair which rather belied the ‘dead rubber’ nature of the match, with the Celtic players heeding their manager’s call to seize their opportunity to impress.
Postecoglou had stated prior to the game that he would make some changes to his line-up, showing quite the knack for understatement. There were 11 new faces in the line-up from the one that started at Tannadice on Sunday, some of them more recognisable than others.
Among the smattering of lesser-spotted squad members were Scott Bain in goals, Ismaila Soro in midfield, as well as forgotten duo Osaze Urhoghide and Liam Shaw, who had fallen into obscurity since arriving in Glasgow from Sheffield Wednesday in the summer.
There weren’t too many who let themselves down. Bain was solid and made some decent saves. Welsh marshalled the backline well. Urhoghide was decent, too, while Liam Scales played well.
In midfield, James McCarthy looked a little sharper yet again, while Shaw was impressive too.
It was a fair old crowd for what could have passed as a Celtic reserve game, with the visitors also making nine changes to their line-up from the side that beat Barcelona. That being said, Manuel Pellegrini could still call upon the likes of captain Joaquin, William Carvalho, Christian Tello and Borja Iglesias. Not too shabby.
Celtic started brightly, and they hit the front as Liel Abada’s in-swinging corner was flicked home at the near post by Welsh.
The players ran to the Green Brigade in the North Curve section to celebrate, who momentarily abandoned their vow of silence – which formed their latest protest against Bernard Higgins’ prospective appointment at the club – to heartily greet the goal.
Betis settled, and started to poke one or two holes in the makeshift Celtic backline. It looked for all the world like they would draw level as Borja squared for Diego Lainez, but the desperately retreating Urhoghide did just enough to unsettle the Mexican and he put the ball wide.
The last thing Celtic needed at this stage was to lose a man, so hearts were in mouths as Lainez went to ground holding his face after a tussle with Soro. Replays showed though that there was very little in it, and that the Betis man had made a meal of the incident.
Ajeti had some miserable luck – on two counts – moments later. The forward showed a level of work rate he is hardly renowned for to charge down
Betis keeper Rui Silva, and he was unfortunate to see his block rebound just wide.
That was nothing though compared to the ping from his hamstring as he stretched for that block, forcing the forward
from the action less than half an hour in. The fans were delighted to see Kyogo emerge from the bench, mind you, even if Celtic manager Postecoglou wouldn’t have been best pleased at having to press him into action.
What was strange though was that Betis hadn’t had any of their players forced off by this point, given they were going down amid anguished screaming any time a Celtic player got particularly close to them. At a time where Scottish football is debating Kyogo’s sportsmanship in that regard, some perspective, perhaps.
Celtic looked to have weathered the storm until the break, up until the last few seconds at least, when Paul Akouokou smashed a longrange effort off the junction of post and bar.
It had been an entertaining half, but nowhere near as entertaining as the two young lads who invaded the pitch at the interval and left three stewards on their backsides as they pursued them on the slick surface. Not that we condone such behaviour, of course, but
the fleetness of foot had to be admired.
Some of the big-hitters were called into action after the break, with captain Callum McGregor, Turnbull and Mikey Johnston brought on for some of the tiring fringe men.
It had looked as though Betis could have played all night and failed to score given some of the opportunities they passed up, so when the equaliser came, it was no surprise that it was something of a freakish goal.
A cross from Joaquin was thumped off the post by Iglesias, but the ball cannoned off the back of the helpless
Bain and into the net.
Then, in a moment far more concerning to Celtic fans and manager Postecoglou, Kyogo slumped to the turf and was promptly withdrawn, with Henderson replacing him.
Within seconds, Henderson had lifted the mood as he showed clever movement to free himself in the box and get on the end of Johnston’s low cross to fire Celtic back in front.
The NBA-style rhythm of the match continued though, with Iglesias soon beating the offside trap to slot home another equaliser for the visitors, before Celtic raced up the other end and were awarded penalty as Edgar sent Abada tumbling inside the area. Turnbull stepped up to slot home.
There was still time for a Johnston goal to be ruled out before Celtic had to weather nine minutes of injury time in which Betis hit the bar and Bitton cleared off the line.
It may have been a dead rubber, but most of those who left Celtic Park – the home players included – were dead on their feet by the end.