SENTINELCELTS

Morning, all.

Well, that was a bloody disaster last night. I wasn’t alone in thinking that the tie was far from over, even though we had a three goal advantage going into the second leg. I wasn’t alone either in thinking that if LASK can score three to wipe out our lead, they can score four just as easily. What I didn’t expect was for us to be four goals clear with less than an hour of the tie to play…

And ship five!

We knew this was a decent side who played very much on the front foot. We knew too that we needed our wingers to perform and take the heat from the defence and midfield. Nope, none of them did. We needed the middle of the pitch to be a battleground, and we barely won a skirmish. We needed to protect the defence, protect the ball, avoid giving them an opportunity. Instead, it was “After you, Claude” all bloody night. 

In truth, this was a performance that’s been threatening in every game so far-even though we’ve won them all up till last night. LASK were cutting us open at will, just as they did last week. But our domestic opponents had been doing that to us earlier this month too, and we all saw it. 

And yet, and yet…it could all have been so different. We started well enough, coping with the initial onslaught of the home side. We even went ahead on the night (giving us that four goal cushion) when CalMac hit one from the edge of the area. It was deflected past the despairing goalie, and even the most pessimistic of Celtic fans must have been humming Zadok The Priest. Aye, that was until Nygren took a turn at the wrong end. 

Four goals and four assists so far, and last night was his best assist of all. I’ve no idea what he thought he was doing, but I do know that he passed it straight to the LASK attacker with only the goalie to beat. How we survived till half time having only lost one goal, I do not know. We barely had a shot at goal after our opener, barely strung two passes together, and if I’m honest? If I didn’t have an article to write, I’d have turned the telly off two minutes after half time. 

That was all it took for them to go ahead on the night, amd it only took another ten minutes to get their third. Our chances of holding out for the remaining thirty-odd minutes were slim, as were our chances of actually scoring one and knocking the wind from their sails. Of course, they got their equaliser in the dying moments, just as we were beginning to harbour some hope again. They scored the clincher in extra time, but it was just a formality. We had collapsed like a house of cards, as shambolic and disgraceful a performance as I’ve seen in some time. 

We deserved eff all, we got eff all. Apart from a damned good thrashing, which is what happens when you are completely outplayed and outfought. We can say goodbye to most of the rumoured signings too. Smashing…

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Above article by BMCUWP