I said in my build-up piece to this game that Celtic should be turning this team over and effectively putting the tie to bed in the first leg and that’s pretty much what happened last night.
Celtic went with the unusual formation of 3-5-2 so for the first time in a long time we started with two men upfront something that Brendan Rodgers quite simply refused to entertain whilst in charge of the club.
This meant a first competitive start for Leigh Griffiths since November playing beside Odsonne Edouard which was refreshing to see though at the back ÂŁ7 million summer signing Christopher Jullien continues to linger on the bench with Nir Bitton being preferred in beside Jozo Simunovic and Kristoffer Ajer.
I was actually quite surprised by our visitors in the first ten minutes or so. They seemed pretty energetic and combative and certainly gave the indication they weren’t there to lie down. But as the half progressed we got on the ball a lot more and proceeded to create chances as Nõmme increasingly began to pack their box in an attempt to keep us at bay.
Their keeper Pavel Londak made some impressive saves throughout the night beginning with pushing over the bar a stinging long-range drive from Ryan Christie. That set the tone for Chrisite who dominated proceedings as he continuously bore down on the opposition goal time after time.
Indeed it was one of his free-kick deliveries into the box that saw big Ajer head home the opener after 36 mins. And with the dam breached the floodgates well and truly opened as Celtic scored twice more before the break.
The first was a converted penalty by that man Christie after a needless handball in the box by Aleksandr Kulinits and the second was delivered by the returning Griiifths who pretty much made it a dream evening for himself with a trademark freekick that went up and over the Estonians wall giving the impressive Londak no chance.
The second half became a bit of a turkey shoot with Mikey Johnstone – who had come on for the unwell Bolingoli-Mbombo near the end of the first half – continuously cutting in from the left and another substitute Lewis Morgan – who replaced Leigh Griffiths on the hour mark – causing chaos down the right flank.
After several missed chances Ryan Christie finally put the tie to bed as he curled in a stunning finish on 65 minutes and Callum McGregor added the cherry on top with a fine low drive on the 77 mins mark.
So 5-0 and job done.
Olivier Ntcham also made his comeback to starting action replacing Christie on 71 mins – he actually got a pretty decent reception all things considered – and Leigh Griffiths received the man of the match award which was a nice touch though pretty dubious to say the least as Christie was the standout player all evening by some distance.
It could have been a lot more though in fairness Nõmme curved out a few decent opportunities themselves so no need to be greedy but if it wasn’t for Londak and some underwhelming finishing it really could have been double figures.
We’ll go over to Tallinn in five days for the second leg and let’s be honest it’s a bit of a formality now with the far sterner test of either Israeli champions Maccabi Tel Aviv or Romanian title holders CFR Cluj lying in wait in the 3rd round. Cluj currently hold a 1-0 lead going over to Israel for the second leg making Tel Aviv the slight favourites to progress. But as Montgomery said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
For now, we can bask in an impressive European performance on what was a fittingly balmy evening in the east end of Glasgow albeit against pretty underwhelming opposition though at this stage in the season it can be easy to get caught out by weaker teams who are already halfway through their domestic campaign.
Hopefully next week the stage will be set for Christopher Jullien to make his competitive debut and for Griffiths to get another runout and hopefully more goals. Ryan Christie really looks in the mood pretty much picking up from where he left off before injury curbed his season last April.
We also got to meet new signing Hatem Abd Elhamed at half time last night as he was introduced to the fans after completing his reported ÂŁ1.7 million move from Celtic’s former Champions league qualifier opponents Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
A 28-year-old unknown utility man doesn’t exactly set the pulses racing but hopefully he proves the doubters, and there are plenty y of them, wrong and come good when he finally gets his opportunity.
That aside all reports seem to indicate that despite the Scottish press packs best efforts that Kieran Tierney will be going nowhere this summer as Arsenal and Napoli have failed to come up with requisite readies to actually buy him.
So more good news.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
....Always A Tim! 