Well, what a night that was.
On our thirteenth attempt, Celtic finally won in Italy and in the Eternal City of all places in the Stadio Olimpico against Lazio.
After a pretty ropey first ten mins where we found ourselves one down via goal machine Ciro Immobile after he was criminally left all alone at the back post to volley past a despairing Fraser Forster it looked like another away day nightmare was on the cards.
For as good as Celtic have been at home in Europe over the past 18 years we’ve also been far worse away to such an extent expectations are generally pretty low when we visit clubs of high stature on their own turf and you felt that our enormous travelling support in the Curva Sud end of the ground where going to be in for a chastening evening.
For the next 20 mins, Celtic began to get out of their own half at least and string some passes together but there was still an almost passive nervousness about us and everything more or less broke down in the final third.
Then out of nowhere, we equalised.
Mohamed Elyounoussi has been in pretty sensational form of late but was struggling to make an impact and with James Forrest standing unmarked at the back post the Norwegian’s poor cross to find him was easily cut out by Francesco Acerbi and the Italian defender’s header found teammate Sergej Milinkovic-Savic but the Serb’s chest down was easily won back by Elyounoussi. This time he knew exactly where Forrest was and fed him through and the diminutive winger finished resoundingly with a rifling shot across Lazio keeper Thomas Strakosha and high into the net.
Going in 1-1 was far more than we deserved from a nervy first half where Fraser Forster was treating cross balls like hot potatoes and Christopher Jullien had to volley one off the line acrobatically to save our bacon after Forster came for a corner and missed spectacularly only mins after the equaliser.
Fortune favours the brave though and Celtic took the game by the horns in the second half pushing Lazio deep and peppering their backline.
For a ten minute spell, we smelt blood and really had the home team hanging on.
The pendulum swung though and Forster saved well from an Acerbi header and then Lazio hit our front post direct from a low corner kick moments later.
But on 76 mins a beautiful passing move saw Elyounoussi release Odsonne Edouard and the Frenchman looked destined to score from a position almost identical to where he netted against Rangers back in early September but his side-foot finish went inches past the far post.
You sort of got the feeling that was the big moment squandered and thereafter we were really holding on with substitute Valon Barisha bearing down on goal only to shoot down Forster’s throat and then a minute later another substitute Luis Alberto spun pretty majestically inside our box taking out Jullien and Nir Bitton in the process before his shot was wonderfully saved by the big keeper.
Four mins into injury time it looked like we were about to take a pretty damn good point and set-up a big night at Celtic Park against struggling Rennes in three weeks but Barisha needlessly gave the ball to Edouard in his own half and the Frenchman advanced before feeding through substitute Olivier Ntcham who with virtually the last kick of the ball executed a sublime dinked finish over Strakosha.
2-1. In Rome.
And let’s not dismiss Lazio as some big-name still trading off former glories who are in reality mid-table also-rans. The fact is they are fourth in Serie A just now and on a six-game unbeaten domestic run as well as going into last night on the back of a 4-0 win at home to Torino and a 2-1 win the san Siro against AC Milan.
They are genuinely top opposition and a legitimate big scalp to take especially on their home patch.
Here’s a pretty excellent video by Tony Cassidy who did an incredible job of covering the post-match scenes in the away end amongst our gargantuan travelling support.
The win wasn’t only our first win in Italy but also see’s us gather ten points for only the second time in group stage European football. The last time was back in 2012 also under Neil Lennon when we amassed that total finishing runners up to Barcelona in our Champions League group en route to reaching the last 16 of Europe’s premier competition.
And it’s not only important in the context of historic terms but also guarantees us a place in the last 32 of the Europa League with two games to spare.
How many times have we ever been able to say that in the past?
Cluj’s 1-0 win at home to Rennes means they are likely to be going through with us with the French side now eliminated with only one point from twelve and only six to play for.
Their match against us in three weeks is really a dead rubber now though there is the small matter of eclipsing our record group stage points total and potentially winning a group for the first time ever which will be assured if we can beat them and Cluj lose in Rome to Lazio.
The Italians now need to hammer Cluj at home and then do likewise away to Rennes whilst hoping we do them a favour in Transylvania.
Anyway, that’s for another day and it’s onwards to another league match now in our neck and neck battle with Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
On Sunday we entertain third-placed Motherwell who are having quite a season under manager Stephen Robinson.
After winning all four of their League Cup group stage matches which saw them score thirteen goals and concede none they’ve won seven from twelve league games this season.
On league duty, they’ve scored twenty goals thus far which is the third-highest in the league and from five away games they’ve won three, drawn one and only lost the one which was a pretty tightly contested 2-1 defeat at Ibrox two weeks ago. Indeed they led in that game, created multiple chances and it was 1-1 going into the final ten minutes.
The star men are the towering centre back Declan Gallagher who was signed from Livingston in the summer after an impressive season last term and has since gained his first Scotland cap. Then there’s young striker Devante Cole and Nothern Irish midfielder James Donnelly who’s scored nine goals in fourteen games this season. Attacker James Scott has also impressed as has midfielder Allan Campbell and both are straight off the Motherwell youth system production line which in recent years has produced such precocious talents as Chris Cadden, Jake Hastie and David Turnbull.
One problem they have had though is leaking goals and they are in the bottom four in the league for that with seventeen conceded which is an inevitable result of the pretty open and free-flowing football they have deployed.
We have already met them this season way back in early August where we triumphed in an exciting 5-2 win at Fir Park.
Motherwell will be well aware of our exertions over in Rome last night and will look to exploit any physical or emotional exhaustion.
Expect the likes of Jeremie Frimpong, Greg Taylor, Olivier Ntcham and Tom Rogic (if he’s fit) to be involved with Scott Sinclair – a surprise inclusion on the bench last night – also a possibility.
Thereafter lies another humdrum international weekend that no one really cares about before it’sd back to the real thing.
Anyway, for now, let’s just bask in the glory of last night.
For last night was the night that we won away.
....Always A Tim! 