Celtic in the Champions League always attracts attention from the big-name pundits and that was no different this week for Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
The Hoops went into the first leg of their knockout play-off tie with Bayern Munich fully understanding the enormity of the task at hand.
Celtic put in a brave display, but the quality of the German giants shone through as the Bhoys lost 2-1 in the end.
Michael Olise and Harry Kane fired Bayern into a 2-0 lead with strikes either side of half-time before Daizen Maeda halved the deficit with a close-range header.
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry couldn’t believe Kane was left unmarked by Alistair Johnston at the back post for his goal at Champions League level.
Celtic’s failure to mark Harry Kane surprised Alan Shearer
The England captain also admitted his surprise after the game and the Premier League’s top goal-scorer Shearer felt similarly after taking in the highlights.
Speaking on the The Rest is Football podcast, Shearer admits he was gobsmacked by the amount of space Kane had so close to the goal at a corner.
The pundit said: “I saw the goals, I saw the highlights so I didn’t watch a lot of it.
“I saw Harry Kane stood in the six yard box with no-one around him from a corner, which I thought ‘What on earth?’ And he finished it off brilliantly.”
Micah Richards was ‘mesmerised’ by Celtic Park’s Champions League atmosphere
Micah Richards was also on the podcast and was able to watch the whole encounter alongside Henry with CBS Sports.
But the former Manchester City right-back was more interested in bringing up the incredible Celtic Park atmosphere when ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was belted out before the game.
Richards admits it ‘mesmerised’ him before going on to analyse what he saw from both Celtic and Bayern Munich.
The 36-year-old exclaimed: “Oh my gosh, you know the You’ll Never Walk Alone? It’s just…before the scenes were amazing. Normally when you’re at the ground you can feel it, but even just being in the studio.
“Normally when you pan to comms, you’ll talk over it. We just didn’t talk through it, we just let us all listen to it and it was just mesmerising.
“As for the game, Celtic started really well. They had a goal disallowed for a player in an offside position and you’re thinking okay, this Bayern team, you can get at them.
“I’ve told you this all season, they’re so good going forward but at the back, Upamecano has always got a mistake in him.
“But then Bayern grew into the game and started to control it a little bit, quietened the crowd and then there was only one team that was really going to win it. Celtic had a little bit of a fight back in the second half.”
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