Charlie Nicholas has delivered his verdict on Celtic’s Europa League exit at the hands of Copenhagen – saying that Neil Lennon’s men let him down.
The former Hoops favourite gave his thoughts on the round of 32, second leg to Sky Sports on Friday.
And it’s fair to say that he didn’t go easy on his former side.
Nicholas said: “Celtic are cruising the domestic setup, and it seemed they thought they had done the job against Copenhagen too, who were average.
“I picked out three players of prominence and Celtic, especially when they got to 1-1, became slack and lazy, leaving themselves exposed.
“They would not win the competition. That is because they play well for 45 minutes and switch off for the second half.
“At this level, you get picked off, and easily picked off in the end by an average Copenhagen side, who could not believe their luck.
“I expected them to get through and they let me down.”
Nicholas is actually fair in his Celtic criticism for once
Believe it or not, it’s actually quite tricky to disagree with anything the former forward had to say.
We did fail to put a full 90 minutes together against the Danes. Our second-half displays were diabolical in both legs, and undoubtedly the main reason we weren’t in Friday’s draw.
Nicholas wasn’t alone in thinking we’d go through either. You’d have been hard pressed to find any Celtic fan not confident of progress at kick-off last night.
That’s what makes our elimination all the harder to take. It was so unnecessary.
Copenhagen must look at how we played in the group stage of the competition, compare it to last night and realise just how fortunate they were.
The got their chances and took them at key stages. Something we couldn’t do.
Do you agree with Nicholas’ comments on our Europa League exit? Comment at the bottom of the page and join our brand new fans discussion forum…
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
