Champions League journey over
Celtic waited five-years for a taste of Champions League football. Tonight, RB Leipzig essentially ended that journey for another season. The Bundesliga side were too good on the night for the Scottish champions in what proved to be another disappointing evening in the competition for the Hoops. That’s not to say Celtic played badly, far from it. However, they were certainly taught some harsh lessons by the Germans – particularly in the final third. Ange Postecoglou will use this experience as a learning curve for both himself and his players going forward. Celtic prop up Group F, but they still have a chance to make the Europa League knockout rounds. Albeit it will be a tough ask as they trail Shakhtar by four points.
Missed chances rued once again
Celtic’s Champions League campaign has been marred with missed opportunities. Postecoglou and the rest of the Celtic faithful will be left to wonder what could have been if they had taken some of these golden chances created in all four of their group games so far. In this match alone, Daizen Maeda, Kyogo, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Matt O’Riley all had superb openings in which they probably should have found the net. It just wasn’t to be for the Hoops. Over the piece though there’s little doubt that had Celtic been more clinical then they probably wouldn’t be bottom of the table.
Maeda performance under the microscope
Much has been made of the Japanese attacker’s performances of late. He came under particular criticism in the wake of the Hoops’ loss to Leipzig in Germany last week, with many fans accusing him of lacking the necessary quality to play at European level. He missed a huge opportunity inside a minute in this one. Liel Abada floated a wonderful cross for the inside forward, but he couldn’t divert his header on target. While it was a big miss, Maeda was by far Celtic’s sharpest attacking threat during the first-half. After the break, he had another good chance on the half-volley. He failed to work the keeper again, which is perhaps down to a lack of confidence. His attacking threat was there, but he put in his defensive shift as well.
