We are all devastated but you can’t lose four goals at home and expect to go through
Over the next few days, we can look back and try to learn from it
BY THE end of the night, they were almost inventing new ways to throw the tie away.
Having failed to block crosses and track markers for long enough, the outstretched arm of Scott Brown was gift-wrapped in green-and-white paper for CFR Cluj.
When the cool heads of Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie then combined to put Celtic 3-2 ahead on aggregate with 15 minutes remaining, you expected calmness and common sense to prevail. That was wholly misguided.
For the next five minutes, Celtic ran around as if their hair was on fire. They didn’t know whether to stick or twist.
When Scott Bain parried the ball away from his goal, there was a sense of the inevitable about what would happen once Billel Omrani took aim.
Truthfully, Celtic may never quite fathom how they managed to score three times at home and still bow out of the Champions League at this stage for the second successive season.
But whatever the brutal postmortem uncovers, no excuse will be admissible.
‘You can’t really concede four goals at home in Champions League football and expect to go through,’ admitted midfielder Christie. ‘Going into the game after a 1-1 in the away leg, we needed to be more street-smart, especially going up twice in the game and not managing to see it out.
‘It’s a very bitter pill to swallow so early in the season. The guys are gutted. We are devastated. Not just because everyone wants to play Champions League football or thinks we deserve to be there but, as I said, you can’t lose four goals at home and expect to go through.’
The danger signs were there from the off. As Dan Petrescu’s side went for the jugular from the first whistle, Celtic were passive in the extreme. Ciprian Deac’s opener on 27 minutes came as absolutely no surprise.
‘Conceding the first goal wasn’t good,’ added Christie.
‘We knew their main strength was getting balls into the box with their height and they are very direct, so for them to get a throw-in and a ball into the box so easily was very naive from us.
‘But going into the second half and going ahead twice, especially the second time with about 15 minutes to go, then you can’t really be losing the game 4-3.’
No one truly expected the champions of Romania to be pushovers. But having got the score draw they wanted one week ago, losing the return leg in such an extraordinary fashion took some believing.
‘Right now, it’s all very raw,’ admitted Christie.
‘Over the next few days, we can look back and analyse it a bit more and try to learn from it. But if you go in front in a Champions League tie at home, it should be game over.
‘We had 11 players on the park who should be able to beat Cluj at home. It’s that simple and we haven’t done that.
‘It’s nothing to do with tactics or individual errors or anything. It’s a collective and over 90 minutes we were not good enough.’
Asked if Cluj’s approach had taken his side aback, Christie was adamant.
‘No, not at all,’ he stated. ‘I thought they were going to do that, they pressed the same way they did over there.
‘We coped with it okay. We weren’t really losing the ball in dangerous areas. But, at the same time, we fell short.
‘They only had a plan A, which was to get the ball forward and get balls into the box.
‘The first goal is just a ball into the box and the third as well is just a ball into the striker and they get the ricochet.
‘We need to come up with a way to get round that, and we didn’t do that tonight.’
Celtic were better in the second half but a woeful first-half display meant they would be vulnerable even if they got in front.
‘It wasn’t so much tactically — more just having a bit more belief on the ball, a bit more aggression going forward,’ Christie explained of the improvement in the second period. ‘In terms of the first half, we probably kept the ball well but when it’s in our own half you are definitely not hurting the opposition — especially when you need a goal.
‘We scored three goals in the second half. Having gone 2-1 up and feeling comfortable, then 3-2 up again with not that long left on the clock, you need to see out the game.’
The moment when Christie turned home Edouard’s cross for 3-2 ought to have been the minute that Cluj’s heads went down. As it transpired, Celtic’s were still all over the place.
‘When I scored to make it 3-2, if I’m honest, I thought that should definitely be the game over,’ said Christie. ‘But as a collective we definitely didn’t switch on.
‘It only needed 30 minutes of good, solid defending as a team and then you are through.
‘In these kind of games, when you are ahead, you just need to recognise the importance of playing some football. All the simple things in the game should get you over the line.
‘We didn’t do it. It’s as big a disappointment as I’ve had in football, especially since I’ve broken in last year.
‘More than ever, I was desperate to play Champions League football this season.
‘It’s strange to say we deserved it but coming off a treble Treble, when you’ve put in all that hard work and are looking to push on again in the next season, it’s tough not to get there.’