While Celtic are rightly enjoying plaudits for their performance against Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night, ultimately the Bhoys’ winless streak in the tournament has continued.
The Spaniards left Glasgow with a point despite Brendan Rodgers’ side finding themselves ahead in the match twice.
It was an electric start at Celtic Park with Kyogo Furuhashi combining almost telepathically with Matt O’Riley for the opening goal. Celtic maintained their intensity and even responded well to an Atletico equaliser thanks to Luis Palma’s expert finish in off the woodwork.
High-profile pundits such as James Horncastle are even calling it some of the best football played by any team in the tournament so far.
But, again, we witnessed the performance wilt and suffer in the second half. And Rodgers’ post-match comments point to the reason why. His verdict of the overall display was glowing but the Celtic boss pointed out the fatigue experienced.
Celtic need 90-minute performances at Champions League level
He said [The Independent]: “I thought it was a terrific performance, especially the first 45 minutes – the quality of our football, the speed in our pressing and in our game, everything we would want. We were unfortunate with the penalty. One, it was very harsh, and, two, they got the good fortune after the save hits the post and comes straight to the player.
“We expected them second half to have a spell in the game but they didn’t create so much. Their equaliser was fantastic, the early cross and great finish. But we kept fighting and showed we can compete with a top-level team. It will give us confidence to know we can create opportunities and play the football we want to play. The team pressed the game well and passed it for a lot of the game.
“There’s a wee bit of tiredness that comes in the last 20 minutes because we are not used to playing at that tempo and against that level of opponent, so naturally a wee bit of fatigue kicks in. We also had to make an early sub with Reo’s injury. It was a really big performance but we couldn’t quite get the result we were looking for.”
Celtic need to find a way to turn 60 or 70-minute performances into 90-minute ones at the elite level. For me, that will only come with added depth in the Bhoys squad.
Rodgers notably only made three substitutes last night and one of them was very early in the game. There were no real options on the bench to plug in and perform at the level of a Palma or Kyogo. There was no fresh threat you would trust to come into the game and push for a winner.
I actually thought the manager’s substitutions were good ones. Switching to a back three halted what looked to be an inevitable march towards an Atletico winner, while James Forrest did do his best to freshen things up.
As demonstrated by Giorgos Giakoumakis wanting to leave, it’s hard to keep a whole squad of proper game-changing options happy. But Celtic will need to find a bit more in the transfer market to bolster Rodgers’ options both in terms of the starting eleven and the bench.
We know the Scottish champions can compete against excellent sides, but there’s work to do to ensure the team can take the next step beyond a blistering opening period.
In other news, Diego Simeone delivers verdict on Celtic after fiery UEFA Champions League clash.
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