Celtic rested players and used a makeshift formation but still had far too much for a struggling Rennes side who themselves fielded a second-string with their own qualification dreams having long since flown the coop.
Greg Taylor came in at left-back, third choice right-back Max Bauer got a rare start, Olivier Ntcham was in from the start and in a real eye-opener, Lewis Mogan started upfront underlining that Celtic were very much a team with little at stake.
With ten-points and qualification assured already there was only the bonus of winning the group and gaining a seeding in the Last 32 when those ties take place in February next year.
Celtic dominated the play and Ntcham had a few decent efforts from range denied by the theatrical Rennes keeper Edouard Mendy before James Forrest was fed through on the wing by Taylor and he then intelligently cut it back for Morgan who swept it home at the near post.
With seconds remaining before the half time a speculative Christie drive from distance beat Mendy at his near post and going into the break Celtic had pretty much both the game and group tied up.
In the second half, the game petered out with some inspiration finally arriving in the form of the returning Mikey Johnstone who came on as a sub on 67 mins and buried a fine finish across Mendy low into the net only six minutes later after some neat interplay with Ntcham on the edge of the box for the goal of the game.
Ten minutes before that Fraser Forster made an incredible double save to deny Rennes and it looked like he had kept a clean sheet when Adrien Hunou beat him with a fantastic near-post header in the dying embers which was deserved reward for Rennes’ fantastic travelling support.
Celtic now have a record 13 points total after five games and with Cluj going down 1-0 to Lazio in the other game in Rome we have now won a European group stage for the first time at the sixteenth attempt.
In two weeks we travel back to Transylvania where we drew 1-1 in a Champions League qualifier way back in early August for what for us is effectively a dead rubber though the Romanian champions will be fighting to secure qualification as they currently sit precariously only three points ahead of Lazio.
We’ll cover that one nearer the time but safe to say it’ll be a perfect chance to give guys like Leigh Griffiths, Tom Rogic, Nir Bitton and Scott Sinclair some first-team action.
One player who definitely won’t be making the trip to Cluj is Scott Brown, who having been trying his hardest to do so all evening, got himself a yellow card and that now precludes him from the next match leaving one starting spot definitely up for grabs.
Before then there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge though.
We have two league games in quick succession and then next weekends big League Cup final with a certain team from Govan who came close but not quite close enough to Europa League progression themselves last night but ultimately came up short.
First up though it’s a visit way up the road to Dingwall, Scotland’s most northerly top-flight destination, for a showdown with newly-promoted Ross County.
They had a fantastic campaign last season winning the Championship and Challenge Cup under the co-management duo of Steven Ferguson and Stuart Kettlewell and started off this term in fine fettle winning all four of their League Cup group matches as well as registering three victories from their first six league games.
But they haven’t won a game in over two months now with four losses and four draws in eight league games as well as League Cup elimination at the hands of the Championship’s bottom side Partick Thistle.
They still sit seventh but that’s a bit misleading as they are only three points above the bottom three who are all locked on eleven points.
Having conceded 30 goals already they have the worst defensive record in the league and nine of those have come in their last three home league games alone.
At the other end, they have scored 16 in the league and towering strikers Brian Graham and Ross Stewart are both in fine form and have 14 goals in all competitions between them so their height and physicality will be the biggest threat.
So, all in all, there’s no excuse for us not to go up there, take the three points and hopefully score some goals.
With Rangers playing at home later that day to the woeful Hearts under the tactical machinations of Austin MacPhee which saw them 3-0 down after only 16 mins away to Kilmarnock last weekend there’s a good chance the Govan side can rack up a few goals themselves with the three points a virtual gimme so we really need to try and get a big score to preserve our goal difference advantage and stay top.
Players like Frimpong, Rogic and most importantly Odsonne Edouard will likely slot straight back into the starting eleven and they should be fresh and raring to go and hopefully that lights up a chilly afternoon and keep us top beyond Sunday with a huge week ahead.
Let’s not forget the last time we played them we hammered them 6-0 and whilst I think it’s unlikely we’ll get anywhere near that on their home pitch I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect three or four goals in our favour.
Let’s hope so anyway.
....Always A Tim! 