It turned out to be a big weekend for Celtic after they bounced back from Europa League disappointment to secure an emphatic 4-1 win at Fir Park in the Scottish Premiership.
It was ideal for the Hoops after they plummeted to bottom of their Europa League group after Thursday’s embarrassing home loss to Sparta Prague. That 4-1 mauling at Parkhead left us five points behind second-placed AC Milan and two behind Prague.
Yet, despite the fact our three European rivals will feel pleased with where they’re at in the group at the moment, it was only Celtic who were left standing in domestic action over the weekend.
Indeed, both Lille and Prague fell to surprising defeats just days after three-goal wins in the Europa League. Milan, meanwhile, suffered a 2-2 draw at home to Hellas Verona in a disappointing afternoon for the Rossoneri.
Stefano Pioli’s men found themselves 2-0 down just under 20 minutes into the contest as they threatened to fall to their first domestic loss of the season. But after hauling themselves back into the game, it took a 93rd-minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic strike to save a point and keep Milan’s unbeaten domestic start intact.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the weekend however came in France. Lille, who had managed an unbeaten start to their campaign in all competitions, lost 3-2 away to lowly Brest, who sit 13th in Ligue 1.
Lille were incredibly 3-0 down after 41 minutes as their defence totally collapsed against Brest, and from there on in defeat looked inevitable. Granted, Christophe Galtier’s side showed some character as Burak Yilmaz’s brace made it 3-2 before the hour mark.
Lille’s unbeaten start now over
However, despite pressing hard for an equaliser for the final half-hour, it simply never arrived. Out of nowhere and anti-climatically, Lille have now been struck with their first defeat of the season as they now sit five points behind PSG at the top of the table.
Celtic’s most recent conquerors, meanwhile, were struck with a bitter blow in their own title fight too. Prague went into a tough-looking weekend trip to Viktoria Plzen in search of a win that would keep them top of the Czech First League.
Yet just like Lille, they suffered an astonishing collapse and were 3-0 down by half-time also. Prague weren’t able to show as much fighting spirit as Lille managed in the second half of their match, but they did bag a late strike through Ladislav Krejci.
It was a result which sent Prague crashing back down to earth after the dizzy heights of their Parkhead euphoria. They now sit a point behind Slavia and only one ahead of Plzen as their own unbeaten domestic start came to an end.
And that left Celtic as the only side in our Europa League group who managed to take full points at the weekend. More importantly, it still shows that all of our opponents can be got at if we get our act together.
The Hoops are now in last chance saloon territory when it comes to qualifying for the last-32. Let’s see if we can mount some sort of recovery after the international break.
In other news, a Celtic-linked USA starlet managed to bag a sensational achievement over the weekend.
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