A shocking capitulation from Celtic and a night that ranks among the darkest in the club’s European history…
Six consecutive defeats in Champions League qualifiers is deplorable. Martin O’Neill’s side got what they deserved over the two games.
Leaving Linz this morning and I’m still struggling to comprehend what unfolded last night.
I did not see that coming at all. Might have been naivety, but I believed Celtic had added enough quality during the transfer window to navigate this tie and, with another few additions, give the Champions League a proper go this season.
Now, I think there has to be a major reassessment of where this squad actually is. Individual errors proved costly for all five goals and the impact from the bench was disastrous. The players and coaching staff totally mismanaged the game.
The feel-good factor from the opening weeks of the season has been completely obliterated in the space of 120 minutes. Six consecutive Champions League qualification failures is humiliating. Having spoke to more than a few who were in Almaty 12 months ago, this is worse.
A shocking capitulation. It’s difficult to imagine how Martin O’Neill begins to pick the players up after a collapse of that magnitude.
Conor Spence
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2 Comments
The same old story the fact is to easy in the spl wining near everything the last 20 years. Then Europe we meet better teams coached better more fitter more physically better than us but dont have our bigger revenue so there is something very wrong going on inside celtic” we have a 74 year old manager who got us out of a mess last season which was good but to keep him for further year was really poor planning by the board then selling 2 of our best players before this European match was bad if not utterly stupid by the manager and the board O’Neil must also must take the blame for not getting in proper midfielders as this is so obvious our weakness and his bad tactics last night a complete shambles by him and the board and especially the players what disgrace by them.
We went into the match last night thinking, that 1 goal for ourselves, effectively ends the tie as a contest?
Even though we actually got that, it still didn’t feel like the contest was totally over, all the same imo?
Now I didn’t expect ourselves to collapse in the manner that we did?
But still can’t understand as to why such an open game remained in operation, with trying to get so many players ahead of the football, when we weren’t even chasing the game or tie?
Tactically as naive as I can ever recall, and it’s hardly down to the lack of experience, that was within our club last night either?
1 huge mistake in giving a terrible goal away, shouldn’t have eroded total confidence within our group of players, but it did?
Character hasn’t really been an issue within the majority of our players, especially as it was required so much in order to win a double last season, but nowhere to be seen once things started to get tough, from our own making last night?
Partnerships totally lacking throughout our team last night, when they should have been growing, especially with a full week of preparation in place?
Every team needs a good and strong connection between captain and manager? Was that really on show, with leaving such gapping holes in the central areas for us to be exposed, as badly as we were, throughout the course of this tie?
Left with far more questions than answers today, despite the level of the shock factor involved imo?
I don’t vision such an approach as being much of an issue within Scottish football all the same, especially within the SPFL imo?
European football, not so sure any longer, especially as we still aren’t that good of a team without the football, despite having the ability to score goals in place?
Confidence now is key, before this international break. So the damage of last night can still be repaired in a footballing sence, and couldn’t care less about the financial costs, especially as to much focus is placed upon that element within the club imo?