Celtic exited Europe last night with a 1-0 defeat to Valencia in the Mestalla.
There was little surprise. Few if any held out any genuine hope of our progression last night after a pretty disastrous 2-0 home defeat at Celtic park eight days ago.
But in fairness, we did gain a fair amount of redemption for our disappointing performance in the home leg. Last night we approached the game with some belief, quite a lot of it actually and a plan. Unlike the first tie, we showed we are a capable passing team with decent game management and for most of the first half controlled the ball and looked the more likely to score. On 37 mins though Jeremy Toljan got his second yellow card and any flickering hopes of an unlikely comeback were more or less extinguished. We came under the cosh for the rest of the half and it took some fine saves from Scott Bain, who is now really starting to look the real deal, to prevent our hosts from scoring and the floodgates from opening.
In the second half, Bain again was called into action though we began to grow into it again and Kristofer Ajer miscued a header from a freekick into the box that could have put us right back in it and the cat really amongst the pigeons. Alas, it went high, wide and handsome.
Substitute Kevin Gaimero tapped in the only goal on 70 minutes and that was that but we kept battling to the end determined to make sure we didn’t fall to an undeserved heavy defeat and when the whistle went we departed the continental stage at the Last 32 round with our heads held high.
In truth, we didn’t create much in the way of clear cut chances. Oliver Burke was deployed up front by himself in the first half and though his pace hurt the Spaniards his lack of a first touch certainly didn’t. Jonny Hayes had a good far post chance but scooped his effort over the bar. In the second half, James Forrest was inexplicably moved into the middle as the lone striker whilst Odsonne Edouard and Timothy Weah looked on from the bench most likely perplexed. Why French Eddy wasn’t deployed from the start with Burke out wide in his natural position only Brendan knows but a combination of lacking faith in his own convictions as well as just overrating Burke’s abilities as a finisher are the leading candidates.
Personally, I thought it was a missed opportunity last night. Valencia looked a little bereft and the home fans were on their back pretty quickly. Our passing game was much sharper with Mcgregor and Brown in particular far better than they had been at Celtic Park. With an actual striker on who knows but I guess that’s neither here nor there because Toljan getting his marching orders pretty much torpedoed our hopes anyway. The German full-back was naive but at the same time, it was the sort of sending off you get against bigger name opposition on the continent that you just know the ref wouldn’t give against them. He wasn’t shy to flash yellow cards at us all night whilst giving out warnings to the men in white shirts for identical fouls. But it’s always been that way in Europe and will never change.
Looking back we’ve played a mammoth 16 games in European competition this season. That’s far more than the nine we played to win the European Cup in 1967 or even the 15 we played in the 2002/2003 season when we reached the UEFA Cup final after a Champions League play-off defeat. So the most in one season in our history. Of those 16 ties, we won seven, drew three and lost six. A mixed bag.
The highlight was undoubtedly the 2-1 home win against RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on a night where we defeated a team who have been sitting in fourth spot in the Bundesliga all season.
The lows were…….well take your pick basically. The Champions League elimination to Athens, drawing away in Suduva, being bowled over so easily away to Salzburg and in Leipzig or the anticlimactic displays at home to Salzburg and Valencia.
Scottish football as a whole has also seen its stock risen with the Scottish league’s coefficient rising from 25 to 20 due to this season displays. A draw last night would have actually nudged Scotland slightly ahead of Serbia in 19th spot so, on the whole, it’s been a beneficial season for everyone with not just Celtic actually delivering some points for once.
Brendan’s European record still isn’t great. 16 wins from 40 games with six draws and 18 losses isn’t horrific but could and should be better. With only 12 wins from 32 European ties Neil Lennon’s record was actually worse but his win column included the victory over Barcelona and also saw us progress to the Champions League Last 16 with a Scottish record for a club from these shores in the Champions League of 10 points, something which is unlikely to be repeated any time soon if at all.
Gordan Strachan’s also wasn’t great either with only eight wins from 26 but those were, of course, the days when we hardly played any qualifiers and, as a result, minnows, and were generally straight in with the big boys. He also took us to glory nights against Manchester Utd (1-0), AC Milan (2-1), Benfica (3-0), Donetsk (2-1) and back to back Champions League Last 16 qualifications which once again will unlikely happen in the foreseeable future.
He is of course way off Martin ONeill’s ledger which includes an incredible 26 wins in European competition from 53 European ties and had far too many glory nights to mention with the greatest of his achievements being leading us to our first major European final in 33 years.
Anyway, this seasons is done and playing in Europe after Christmas is no mean feat. That’s only the eight-time we’ve done it in the past 39 years which should put our European expectations into some kind of perspective. That and the fact that Kevin Gaimero who came on as a sub to score against us last night has won the competition we were playing in an incredible four times which shows you what we are up against.
Onwards and upwards domestically starting with a revitalised Motherwell on Sunday.
....Always A Tim! 