FOR Celtic to get results in the Champions League, they need every man at their best. Instead, they ended it in Rotterdam with two of them prematurely in the bath.
Their manager, Brendan Rodgers, said they needed bravery. Instead, Kyogo jumped out of the way of Calvin Stengs’ long-range free-kick seconds before the half time whistle, and Joe Hart allowed the ball to slip through his grasp.
He wanted his men to show personality. But the characteristics they exhibited at this level once more were all too familiar.
The personnel may have changed, but Celtic’s propensity for shooting themselves in the foot remains undiminished. And the frustrating thing is that at no point during this encounter with the Dutch champions, particularly when they had a full complement of players, were they outclassed.
In fact, it was something of a strange and scrappy game over the piece. And while Celtic were far from fluent at any point (a woefully out-of-sorts Reo Hatate perhaps the worst offender), Feyenoord hardly channelled the Dutch masters of old either.
Still though, they coasted home easily enough regardless through the goal from Stengs on the stroke of half-time and a clincher from substitute Alireza Jahanbakhsh when Celtic were down to nine. And it was largely the rashness of Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm that did the damage for Celtic.
Lagerbielke can maybe count himself unfortunate with his second yellow, being penalised harshly by referee Irfan Peljto for an arm across the face of Igor Paixao that was deemed enough to award a second yellow and a spot kick, that Hart redeemed himself - at least a little - by saving.
His first booking though was plain daft, barrelling through the back of Yankuba Minteh with the attacker facing his own goal and miles away from posing any sort of danger.
As for Holm, the least said, the better. Having already lost a man, the last thing Celtic needed was their substitute to lose his head and slide his studs into the shin of Mats Wieffer. It was a deserved red card, and he left his men up the creek short of a couple of paddles.
They were already somewhat mired in it, mind you. And the frustrating aspect was that the initial deficit was so avoidable. If the Celtic performance and ill-discipline on the whole smacked of naivety, that is not an excuse that could be clung to easily by the hugely experienced Hart. Nor could the ball, mind you.
Hart brings so much to Celtic, but as time ticks on, the balance of his value shifts evermore to his contribution away from the field of play.
The 35-year-old has had a strong start to the season in fairness, pulling off some important saves domestically. All too often though he will throw in a clanger, and he did that here yet again.
Yes, Kyogo didn’t do him any favours, but he could see the effort from a long way out, and had more than enough time to get across his goal. Or so it appeared. Instead, he didn’t sort his feet out quickly enough, and the ball skipped off the surface and somehow evaded his despairing dive.
They were facing an uphill battle from there, and by the time they lost Lagerbielke and Holm, they faced a mountain that was never likely to be scaled. They will travel home kicking themselves just as emphatically as Holm clattered into the shinpads of Wieffer.
A footnote to all of this, and one positive amid the gloom for Celtic, was the performance of Luis Palma on his full debut. Though, admittedly, that may be Champions League level in clutching at straws.
The winger was flung in for his first start having taken his bow as a substitute in the win over Dundee at the weekend, and he did fine.
His biggest problem as he looks to establish himself at the club may well be that he is not Jota. He has massive boots to fill, of course, and will likely be judged by how effectively he can reproduce the flair and trickery of the Celtic fans’ heralded ‘superstar from Portugal’.
The man from Honduras though is his own player, and while he doesn’t seem to possess the same armoury of attacking weapons that his predecessor packed, he more than contributed to the cause in the hour or so he spent on the pitch.
Although not blessed with explosive pace either, a lot of his good work here came from his willingness to run off the ball and press the opposition high up the pitch. Indeed, he almost forced a nervous-looking Feyenoord backline into an early error as he worked in tandem with the excellent Matt O’Riley to force them to cough up the ball.
He often looked to cut in on his right, and very often telegraphed it too, but he showed a decent touch to go with his industry and something of a threat too.
Alas, it wasn’t enough to garner anything tangible. And Celtic will have to wise up in short order if they aren’t to allow this campaign to pass them by, as so many have done before.
