Celtic’s performance in the 1-1 Europa League draw with Copenhagen was the proverbial tale of two halves, with the Hoops dominant in the first-half, and poor in the second, and Neil Lennon recognised this in comments he made after the game, as quoted by the Hoops Twitter account.
“It was a brilliant start, and we could have been two or three up in the first-half” the Celtic boss stated.
It was indeed a brilliant first-half display, which saw Celtic conspire to miss a host of great chance. Lennon then went on to discuss what went wrong in the second-half.
“A sloppy goal”
“We gave away a sloppy goal from our point of view. We gave away possession around our box and that happened far too often in the second half” he said.
Indeed, it was puzzling to Celtic play so poorly in the second-half, after what had been a dominant first-half display.
Celtic were fortunate in the end to get a draw thanks to a Fraser Forster penalty save, but on the other hand the team still created chances in the second-half.
Callum McGregor and Odsonne Edouard both missed great chances to put the Hoops back into the lead.
Hoops boss will expect improvement in second leg
However, it will be the slackness in possession that will have annoyed the Celtic boss. He will expect more from his players in the second leg next Thursday.
The good thing to take away from the game is Odsonne Edouard’s away goal, which does make the Hoops favourites to reach the last 16 of the tournament.
The goal, coupled with the fact that the team created plenty of chances, should give Celtic plenty of confidence for the second leg. However, Lennon will need to make sure the team cuts out the sloppy mistakes which crept into the game in the second-half.
Do you agree with Neil Lennon’s comments? Are you still confident that the Hoops can get past Copenhagen? Share your thoughts below with a comment in our new discussion forum…
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