THE PLUCK OF THE DRAW
Celtic pick up rare point on the road with decent show
FOR Celtic, Champions League points on the road are as rare as hen’s teeth. For Brendan Rodgers and his team, then, this was a night of quiet satisfaction. Laced with the slightest tinge of regret. With 14 minutes to play in this Bundesliga cathedral, the Parkhead club were destined for an early exit from the Champions League. The game was up. Be under no illusions. Barcelona travel to Glasgow in two weeks’ time and it might still be a question of when, and not if, Celtic go out.
Yet, as Scotland’s champions pressed for a winner against ten-man Borussia Monchengladbach in the final minutes, they might have taken something bigger; much bigger.
It looked like the same old, same old when Lars Stindl opened the scoring in the 32nd minute.
Scott Sinclair had already struck the upright, but there were times before the last quarter in which Celtic flew by the seat of their pants. Their Champions League could have been over.
A penalty-kick changed everything. Man of the moment Moussa Dembele claimed his 16th goal of the season after winning the award and then polishing it off to ecstatic acclaim from 2,500 travelling supporters banked away in the far corner of the ground.
There was some braying from the home crowd after Portuguese referee Manuel De Sousa penalised defender Julian Korb for pulling Dembele back as the striker nicked round the back and prepared to pull the trigger. But the denial of a goalscoring opportunity made it the right call. Korb had to go. And Dembele had to score.
From two penalties in the Champions League this season, Dembele had a 50-50 record, scoring one against Astana, missing another in the Nou Camp against Barcelona.
He showed nerves of steel here, sending Yann Sommer the wrong way.
At 1-1 against ten men, Celtic could smell blood. The chance to win it came with four minutes to play. Patrick Roberts played fellow substitute Callum McGregor in on goal with a deft pass. He had time, he had space, he had options to square it. In the end, he took none of them and his low shot squirmed wide of the far post. The home team exhaled a sigh of relief. Celtic took a sharp intake of breath over what they could have won.
In what was only their second away draw in 26 attempts in this competition, a point was welcome. The regret is that a team decimated by pre-match injuries didn’t pull off their first away win in the group stage since Moscow four years ago.
‘We deserved better than a draw,’ said Dembele. ‘We had a lot of chances and played well.
‘I had no hesitation in taking the penalty after Barcelona. It is a lottery.
‘Sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t, but I was happy to score.
‘It was good to get the goal, but we deserved better.’
In the cold light of day, Celtic can take pleasure from the point. It’s hardly a common occurrence and Dembele showed once again the prodigious talent which has half of Europe pricking their ears up.
‘It was a big moment for Moussa,’ said manager Rodgers.
‘He showed great composure and we spoke to him in terms of him having the confidence to take them because he’s a very good taker.
‘We have a number of them, but he showed great composure against a top-class keeper to tuck it away.
‘I thought he was immense. For a 20-year-old young man to perform like that…’
It only needed a glance at the bench to see how big a result this was for Celtic. Dedryck Boyata hasn’t started a game this season. And there he was on the substitutes’ bench beside the lesser-spotted Nadir Ciftci.
Leigh Griffiths fell ill before the game and Jozo Simunovic and Kolo Toure were unable to travel.
The last thing the team needed was more bad luck and they will curse the margins at this level when they look back on the delightful 18-yard shot from Sinclair which struck the upright after 19 minutes.
On another night, it might have ricocheted into the net. Here, it bounced favourably for the home team, Sommer taking the reprieve with open arms.
This was further proof, if it was required, that the Champions League is a tough old school.
Mikael Lustig came into central defence from right-back and Cristian Gamboa filled in nervously in the opening stages.
Rodgers had asked his players to cut out the mistakes which gifted two goals to Stindl and Andre Hahn at Celtic Park. Against that backdrop, he’ll be disappointed with the opener they lost here.
There was a warning of the damage Thorgan Hazard could do when he cut the visitors to ribbons, teeing up a golden chance for centre-back Tobias Strobl which Craig Gordon did well to block.
But Celtic didn’t learn. Emilio Izaguirre allowed Hazard to drift towards the byeline on to a meatand-drink ball over the top. In hindsight, Erik Sviatchenko will wish he had stepped out in line with his team-mates. If he had, Hazard would have been offside.
Instead, the No 10 had time to lift his head and spot Stindl ghosting into the area. The Borussia captain must wish he could play Celtic every week. In domestic competition, Gladbach are finding goals hard to come by. When they play Scotland’s champions, they tend to come in giftwrap.
A darting James Forrest run in the early moments of the second period was more than the winger had offered in the whole of the first half. The final ball was decent, too, but Celtic’s problem was summed up by Stuart Armstrong’s inability to tee up a final shot for Dembele. The final ball, the final choice of shot, was too often off.
By contrast, the home team could be cutting at times.
Fabian Johnson produced a clinical pass in 52 minutes to tee up a terrific chance for Stindl. This time, his effort was poor, a mishit attempt easy for Gordon to save.
The home team were working up a head of steam.
Johnson got on the end of a lovely passing move, dragging a low shot across the face of goal and, in the 68th minute, Celtic enjoyed a huge let-off when Armstrong, an otherwise decent performer, surrendered possession in his own half.
Stindl collected and, when he cut back for Hahn, it felt like the first leg all over again. This time, at least, the No28 struck the bar.
With Roberts on for Forrest, the game began to change for the better.
Dembele forced a fine save from Sommer, taking a pass from the onloan Manchester City attacker and thrashing a shot at goal.
The Frenchman’s most telling burst of activity had yet to come, though, showing great strength to move on to a Roberts pass and tie Korb in knots for the penalty.
It could — should — have been more. Yet Celtic will be grateful for small mercies away from home in Europe. God knows, they’ve been rare enough.