Celtic can hold their heads up high as they return to Glasgow following their absorbing Champions League clash against Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
This was the first meeting between the two former European Cup winners and it delivered a highly entertaining match, as Celtic suffered a 4-2 defeat at Villa Park, with drama from minute one right until the end.
The most important bit of news is that Celtic are in the play-off rounds and had already booked their knockout ticket before a ball could be kicked for the final matches of the group phase.
So, in that sense, there wasn’t an element of worry going into the game that Brendan Rodgers needed to get something to progress.
However, after five minutes, Celtic fans would have been fearing the worst because they were 2-0 down after a blistering and stunning Morgan Rogers brace – he would go on to score a hat-trick.
Celtic’s defeat to Dortmund in match week two would have negatively flashed back in everyone’s minds, but then Adam Idah’s quickfire brace changed things dramatically.
But it seems as though some people went early, including a certain Jamie O’Hara.
What Jamie O’Hara said when Celtic went 2-0 down to Aston Villa after five minutes
It’s typical for the English media and pundits to instantly look down on Scottish football, without realising that it’s not pumped with a stupid amount of money like the Premier League, and when it wasn’t many decades ago now, there wasn’t much between the English and Scottish game.
But O’Hara couldn’t help but dig at Celtic on Twitter, when the scoreline read 2-0, by telling the champions that ‘you are not playing St Johnstone’.
Credit to O’Hara, he can name a team in the SPFL outside of Celtic and Rangers!
‘2-0 Villa after 4 mins, get yourselves back up the road lads, your not playing St Johnstone,’ wrote O’Hara.
Gabby Agbonlahor calls out O’Hara for Celtic comments
As you can imagine, with his Villa hat on, Gabby Agbonlahor was delighted with his former side’s win and top-eight finish which means they don’t have to go through the dreaded play-offs.
But, the former striker rightfully called out O’Hara on talkSPORT for his comments on Celtic at 2-0 by telling him ‘you don’t want to go to Glasgow now’.
Agbonlahor praised Celtic’s efforts after that opening five minutes, before O’Hara was also able to see the light.
“Honestly, I couldn’t watch (because Atalanta needed one goal to knock Villa out of the top eight),” shared Agbonlahor.
“But, you know what, fair play to Celtic. I think, after the first four minutes, they turned up afterwards, it was a good game. Fair play to Celtic. Jamie (O’Hara) gave them a bit on X, didn’t you?! When they went 2-0 down. You said about ‘playing St Johnstone’. You don’t want some gigs in Glasgow, do you? You don’t want to go to Glasgow.”
O’Hara responded: “I went early, Gabs. I went early – Celtic have made it through, fair play to you. You have got 12 points. You are above Manchester City. You have a tough draw, though. Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the knockout rounds.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
