CELTIC FACE AN uphill battle to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages after a 3-1 Champions League defeat against RB Leipzig.
Christopher Nkunku opened the scoring from a 27th-minute counter-attack after Celtic lost the ball following a short corner and, with captain Callum McGregor off injured, the visitors could not build on Jota’s equaliser.
Leipzig had just had a second goal disallowed following VAR’s intervention when goalkeeper Joe Hart presented the home team with the ball to allow Andre Silva to score the first of his two second-half goals.
The defeat leaves Celtic bottom of Group F with one point from three matches but they have both Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk to come at Parkhead in the next two games.
Cameron Carter-Vickers failed to make the game because of injury but the influential centre-back is likely to return for the reverse fixture next week.
The game started in frantic fashion with both sides having several chances inside the opening 10 minutes. Timo Werner and Nkunku threatened for the hosts while Matt O’Riley, Jota and Reo Hatate saw the sting taken out of shots by blocks at the other end.
Celtic’s first reprieve came when Nkunku was denied by a tight offside decision after dinking the ball over Hart.
Leipzig’s opener came immediately after a spell of Celtic pressure. Kyogo Furuhashi saw a header well saved before Moritz Jenz shot over from a good chance after Greg Taylor had a shot spilled.
Furuhashi then saw his shot deflected wide after being gifted possession on the edge of the box.
The ball was in Celtic’s net 16 seconds after the resulting corner. McGregor took a heavy touch 25 yards out and lost the ball in a challenge before inadvertently diverting it into Nkunku’s path as he tracked back. The France international took the ball round Hart and squeezed the ball in between the near post and the sliding Josip Juranovic.
There was a double whammy as McGregor struggled with a knock from the initial tackle and eventually went off. Recent signing Oliver Abildgaard came on days after making his debut as an 89th-minute substitute against Motherwell.
Furuhashi came close with a header but Celtic struggled in the closing stages of the half with Hart making a save and Taylor putting in a good block.
The visitors regrouped at half-time and levelled within two minutes after Hatate received a loose pass and instantly played it forward to Furuhashi. The striker squared to Jota who slotted home with his left foot.
Celtic could not build on the equaliser though. Dominik Szoboszlai hit the post after a one-two with Nkunku and then saw his celebrations cut short after finding the bottom corner from 25 yards. The goal was disallowed after footage showed that the offside Silva had ducked underneath the strike in the line of Hart’s vision.
Celtic conceded less than 60 seconds after the let-off. Hart played a pass straight to Szoboszlai who fed Silva to finish in off the post to restore the German side’s lead in the 64th minute.
Ange Postecoglou’s side could not recover. Hart saved well from Silva but the Portugal international scored again in the 77th minute when he took a touch and stabbed home from six yards after right-back Mohamed Simakan cushioned a volley into his path following Nkunku’s diagonal ball.
Leipzig continued to dominate to leave Celtic needing a major turnaround in fortunes in the second half of their group campaign.
Celtic are just not clinical enough at this level. It’s an issue domestically also but they can get away with it.
The amount of chances they are creating and only having two goals to show for it are criminal.
There wasn’t much between the sides for large parts of the game but Leipzig took their chances well.
@Ciarán Rice: While I agree with you on the clinical edge side, I think it’s hard to say there wasn’t much between the sides tonight. Jota, Kyogo, and Hatate had their odd half moments.. maybe Taylor too. Likes of Nkunku and Szoboszlai tore it up tho and Simakan, who isn’t even a natural right-full, ran Celtic ragged up their left flank which was justified by his assist. Most of Celtic’s chances just fell to them when RB were sloppy coming out from the back and the press worked well.
Wasn’t up for RB either, would have happily enjoyed Celtic winning had they done so. Record away to German opposition is poor tho so I kinda knew what to expect… 14 without a win in EC/UCL history. Game in Parkhead will be interesting tho!
@Ultan Corcoran: the first half there was nothing between the sides. The stats point to that also. Pretty much 50/50 in possession and think Celtic slightly edged the amount of chances in the first.
The second half however, was poor from Celtic when McGregor went off injured. It was 1-1 at that point and still fairly balanced. Once he was subbed Celtic completely gave up the midfield.
Think you’re dismissing Celtics pressing stating that it was poor play from Leipzig at the back. Celtic deliberately forced Leipzig into the those errors. That’s the game they play. Leipzig, of course, did similar to Celtic.
By ‘dented’ you mean ‘over’?
@David Lawlor:
Why would you think they are over? Two winnable games to come at home. RM will be already through.
Not over yet as two home wins would really set it up travelling to Madrid who would already be qualified presumably, wishful thinking but could 7pts qualify them maybe, just maybe
@Noel Doherty: it’s over. They haven’t a chance of qualifying.
@Stephen Foster: I think you’ll find they still have a chance of going through. To say they have no chance proves how thick you really are.
Uphill battle from here on , it could have been a bit different if Celtic had a finisher in the team , Carter vickers was a loss also .
@Tricksy: completely agree. Losing our two centre backs it was always going to be difficult but the game was evenly matched. Then McGregor went off injured and Celtic completely lost the midfield.
As much as Kyogo is a brilliant player, he’s not a top class finisher. Giakoumakis is a brilliant finisher but isn’t as good a player as Kyogo and doesn’t really suit the system. Major issues up front.