Pretty predictably Celtic offered up little in their final Europa League group encounter last night.
Cluj needed a point to progress and Celtic were already guaranteed group winners so even before kick-off there was a bit of a malaise about this one.
For Celtic, there was a complete overhaul of the starting eleven from Sunday’s League Cup final.
With Fraser Forster, Scott Brown, Callum McGregor, Tom Rogic and Odsonne Edouard not even being on the flight out to Romania and the likes of Jeremie Frimpong and Mohamed Elyounoussi also rested with Hatem Elahmed also still recovering from injury Celtic were, to say the least understrength.
Even the likes of James Forrest, Greg Taylor and Kris Ajer could only make the bench.
Still, that meant opportunities for Craig Gordon, Max Bauer, the returning Boli Bolingoli, Olivier Ntcham, youngster Scott Robertson and probably most interesting of all the veteran Celtic pair of striker Leigh Griffiths and the little-seen of late Scott Sinclair.
The first half was pretty much a non-event with the game played at a training game pace.
Cluj seemed happy to play out the draw that would secure their place in the knockout stages of a European tournament for the first time in their history and we played like a bunch of strangers which is pretty much what the patchwork starting eleven was.
Out of nowhere Mikey Johnston’s ambitious effort from outside the box whistled just past the post and could have even found the net if it wasn’t for a deflection but that aside there was little to shout about.
In the second half, Celtic huffed and puffed with Ajer coming on for Jullien at half time and Vakoun Bayo was also brought on for the ineffectual Lewis Morgan.
On the 72nd minute, Karamoko Dembele became the youngest Celtic player to ever play in European club competition as he replaced Mikey Johnston who had an indifferent night.
With news obviously filtering through that Rennes had taken a shock lead over Lazio meaning that they were going through no matter the result in this one Cluj appeared to play with more intent in the second period and took the lead via a powerful front post header from Andrei Burca that came direct from a corner three mins after the restart.
On 70 mins they made it two when Ciprian Deac cut back for Damjan Djokovic to finish at close range and that was all she wrote.
Leigh Griffiths ran himself into the ground all night, Ntcham did some nice work at times but generally looked disinterested and Scott Sinclair was effectively an empty jersey for the whole game doing little to nothing. It’s a shame for such a player who gave us so much over the past three years including loads of vital goals to likely bow out with such an ignominious display but truth be told Scott’s race was run long ago and it still remains a mystery as to why he was offered a one-year contract extension in the summer. I’d be surprised if he’s still at the club post the January transfer window.
In a big surprise in the other group game bottom side Rennes won their first match of the campaign with a 2-0 triumph over Serie A high flyers Lazio which confirms the Italian sides exit from the tournament. Lazio actually fielded a pretty strong starting eleven so obviously still maintained hope of progression but were behind on the half-hour mark and lost a second late on to confirm their departure. The Italians undoing was definitely their away form with them losing all three away games and conceding two goals in each one.
So now all that’s done and dusted we are into the hat for the Last 32 draw.
I thought the draw would be taking place today but it’s actually on Monday so we’ll have to hold our breath for a few days yet.
As we’re seeded our potential opponents will include Champions League drop-outs Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiakos and Bayer Leverkusen or potentially with Europa League runner-up opposition in the form of APOEL Nicosia, FC Copenhagen, Getafe, Sporting Lisbon, Eintracht Frankfurt, Ludogorets, Wolfsburg, Roma, Wolves and AZ Alkmaar.
Personally, I think we’d have a chance with all of them on our day but my own preference would be from Nicosia, Ludogrets and Copenhagen with Alkmaar and Sporting then in the next batch after that.
Anyway, our fate will be determined on Monday and it’s something to look forward to.
The focus is of course on 9-in-a-row this season and that will really pick up pace after the winter break and January transfer window are done but Europe is still where we want to be and for as long as possible. We haven’t gone deeper than the Last 32 in this competition since 2004 when we reached the quarter-finals and have lost our last three ties at the first post-group knockout phase falling to Inter Milan, Zenit and Valencia in recent years so let’s hope we can keep the dream alive and the journey going.
Rather than post the highlights from last night’s non-event here’s the game that secured our place in the Last 32 instead. Any excuse eh:
....Always A Tim! 