Pundits Chris Sutton and Michael Stewart have delivered their verdicts on Celtic’s incredibly disappointing defeat to Copenhagen in the Europa League tonight.
Despite holding the home advantage and having secured an away goal, Neil Lennon’s side fell to a 3-1 defeat on the night and 4-2 aggregate defeat in total after some defensive lapses.
It was an immensely frustrating 90 minutes and a defeat that will sting a bit for supporters in the coming days.
When Copenhagen came out of the hat in December there was a real feeling we could make European progress.
Sadly we’ve come undone.
Sutton, understandably, didn’t have much sympathy for the Bhoys, feeling that the defeat was very much of Celtic’s own making with a post-match message on Twitter.
Michael Stewart also summed the defensive errors up with his own verdict of the match on the social media site, feeling there were three massive errors.
It’s hard to argue with either and while the result is tough to take, serious questions must be asked about the defensive performance tonight and what we can do to fix it.
For some fans, the defensive area has long been overlooked in transfer windows. Was it obvious we needed more quality to complement Christopher Jullien? Is Jozo Simunovic good enough to continue at Celtic?
It’s important not to offer up and single out scapegoats but when individual errors are made, for me, Lennon must now frankly assess his players and make sure there’s change come the summer.
In the short-term, it’s all about rebounding in time for Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie against St Johnstone and ensuring our domestic dominance continues.
There’s no getting around what the European exit means but we can’t let it define our season and must continue our march towards nine-in-a-row.
Lennon is the man to deliver it and hopefully we see a big reaction this weekend.
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