Perhaps I like many others I got a tad overly optimistic about our chances last night.
I didn’t want to shout it from the rooftops, not that I can shout anything in my current condition, but I was expecting us to really run our hosts over the coals last night in the Parken Stadium.
That expectation seemed justified as we ran riot in the opening exchanges of the match with Odsonne Edouard uncharacteristically passing up two guilt-edged chances though the second one was as much down to excellent goalkeeping by Karl-Johan Johnsson.
French Eddy wouldn’t be denied a third time though and produced a beautiful dinked finish over the keeper to give us a deserved lead on 14 mins.
We pretty easily controlled the first half though our intensity dropped off after such a whirlwind start where we could have put the tie to bed.
In the second half the home side came out with purpose and the game resembled a pretty typical away day on the continent for us as we sat deep and our passing game deserted us.
Olivier Ntcham recklessly tried to pirouette with the ball at his feet close to our box when he should just have cleared and was robbed of it with the ball eventually finding its way to Dame N’Doye who had all the time in the world to finish off the post only seven mins after the restart.
The home side then dominated the rest of the half without creating too many clearcut chances but the pressure was pretty relentless none the less.
Despite that Celtic crafted some pretty good chances themselves and really should have done better.
Callum McGregor broke free and should have released Edouard but he uncharacteristically dithered and then panicked before blasting the ball high wide and handsome.
Then a great wee passage of play began with Edouard back heeling to Ryan Christie in midfield who advanced forward before feeding Jonny Hayes who drove to the byline and cut back to Eddy again and it looked net bound but he was once again denied by Johnsson in the home goal
James Forrest also looked to be in not long after but drifted wide and his effort was easily shielded away by that man Johnsson again.
Up the other end, Copenhagen got a gift on 79 mins.
Ryan Christie rose to head away a corner but the ball, unfortunately, came off his arm and VAR intervened to give a penalty.
Jens Stage stepped up to convert for the home team but was kept out by the effervescent Fraser Forster who somehow touched it onto the post with the ball eventually finding its way to safety.
So that was that then. 1-1.
Special mention performance-wise to Jonny Hayes who gets a lot of stick off fans but I thought was pretty tenacious last night and ran himself into the ground.
Big Christopher Jullien was also a tower of strength at the back.
You’d of course taken the score draw before the game though still it somehow felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.
It means next Thursday we can actually go through with a 0-0 draw due to our away goal but I seriously doubt that’ll be the tactics.
Copenhagen are a strong, tenacious and well-coached team but are nothing special and this is a great opportunity for Celtic to progress to the Last 16 of the tournament and we are now very much in the driving seat.
Much more to come on that.
Now to Sunday and it’s back to league action.
Both Leigh Griffiths and Greg Taylor didn’t travel for the game last night due to injury and it remains to be seen if either will be available for the weekend’s encounter.
Killie have found some form in recent weeks stringing together three back to back wins including a surprise 2-1 triumph over Rangers at Rugby Park last week but lost out 2-1 at home to Hibs on Sunday and were eliminated from the Scottish Cup midweek as they lost their replay 4-3 to Aberdeen also at home in a game in which they were only minutes away from progression in both regular and full time.
Despite finding the net more regularly in recent weeks they are still one of the league’s lowest scorers with only 28 goals this season with 35 conceded.
They’ve lost nine of their away games this season with only three wins and currently sit seventh in the table, comfortably away from the relegation fight but four points behind sixth-placed Hibs.
The main goal threat is Eamonn Brophy who has eight in 30 games and throughput the team they have hard-working players such as Stephen O’Donnell, Stuart Findlay, Alan Power, Chris Burke and Gary Dicker.
Every game after a tough European away journey is tough and Kilmarnock will come to defend and hit on the break but on the wide expanses of Celtic Park, I’ll predict 2-0 Celtic.
With Rangers, who last night somehow pulled a 3-2 win out of the fire against Braga in a game where they were being cut open at will and were 2-0 down, playing away at St.Johnstone earlier in the day it could well be another pivotal few hours in the race for the Scottish Premiership title.
We just need to get our work done though and put, at the very least retain our ten-point load and get a game closer to securing another nine-in-a-row.
....Always A Tim! 