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Trivia
- Champions League 2018-19
Second leg of two, Third Qualifying Round - Celtic out of European Cup already.
Celtic would have had to go thru 4 rounds & 2 legs to reach the Group stages, onto third round now. - Winner over two legs will play the winner of Malmo / Videoton in the Playoff Round next.
- Kick-off at 7pm UK time.
- Edouard out injured, Ajer suspended. Dembele on bench due to injury recovery. Boyata claims injury but really on strike to leave the club.
- Boyata and his agent have caused huge havoc at Celtic, all gone to their heads. “Previously there was interest from Fulham, Olympiakos and Fenerbahce,” Lichtenstein told The Daily Mail. “Offers of £7million and £8m – but apparently Celtic is financially strong enough not to go into that. It's strange, because on the other hand, the club apparently does not have the money to make Dedryck a dignified new contract proposal.” “Despite Dedryck’s love for Celtic fans, he cannot put his future and his family’s future in danger by playing without being 100 per cent. On 1 January he will sign elsewhere by being free without reporting anything to Celtic.”
- Celtic miss out on winger Patrick Roberts, with the £6.75m-rated wideman reportedly a target for teams in France and Spain. Currently will sign with Girona on loan.
- Former Celtic football youth coach and Hibs kitman Jim McCafferty has been sentenced to ~4y in prison after pleading guilty to 8 counts of sexual assault on boy. Good! An absolutely disgusting crime…..
Review
Off the bat, the qualification process is grossly unfair. Celtic then get the toughest draw possible at the exact moment they really could have used something a little easier.
In January, we sign two central defenders and an attacking midfielder. In that regard, Lawwell can be defended because Rodgers got what he asked for. However, within a week Rodgers decides Commper and Musonda are no use to him and they basically never get a game. Now we're back to square one, only we have two new players on the books taking up a wage but benefiting us nothing.
The World Cup starts and key players head off after a long season. They're not ready to come back by the time the second and third qualifiers come round but are rushed into the squad anyway. Boyata then downs tools. Disgraceful behaviour that's left us with Jack Hendry last night. Both Lawwell and Rodgers knew he wanted away as early as 2017. Rodgers held onto him longer than he should have and Lawwell had no interest in getting a replacement anyway.
The entire window, Lawwell sits about, tries to be cute and makes a complete arse of the McGinn signing. Meanwhile, he brings in nobody else and both he and Rodgers start pointing the finger.
Their spat has an affect on the fans and the players on the eve of our home game against Athens and the damage is done. Rodgers has to calm his players down and assure them he's not leaving but by then it's too little too late.
I reckon if just one or two of these things had gone the other way we'd probably have went through last night. Unfortunately, we've flown too close to the sun (yet again) despite being in an enormously strong position.
It's catastrophic failure at senior level. CL qualification is really about getting the money now, so whilst I'm not that bothered about avoiding a few more ten nil scuddings, we know what's going to happen next. Lawwell will punt key players such as Dembele and try to hide behind the fact we didn't qualify. Meanwhile, Brendan will continue to blame the board even though his public condemnation of them has played a big part in upsetting the squad at one of the biggest moments of their careers.
Nobody comes away from this looking good.
Teams
AEK Athens
- 1Barkas
- 2Bakakis
- 4Oikonomou
- 5Lampropoulos
- 23Hult
- 12BritoBooked at 53minsSubstituted forAlbanisat 82'minutes
- 95dos Santos Saldanha
- 8Gomes Simoes
- 14BakasetasSubstituted forCosicat 90+1'minutes
- 17KlonaridisSubstituted forMantalosat 73'minutesBooked at 90mins
- 10LivajaBooked at 42mins
Substitutes
- 7Albanis
- 9Giakoumakis
- 15Cosic
- 16Tsintotas
- 20Mantalos
- 22Ponce
- 39Morán
- Brito (6' minutes),
- Livaja (50' minutes)
Celtic
- 1 Gordon
- 49 Forrest
- 23 Lustig Substituted for Dembele at 60'minutes
- 4 Hendry
- 5 Simunovic
- 63 Tierney
- 42 McGregor
- 8 Brown Booked at 68mins
- 21 Ntcham
- 9 Griffiths Booked at 79mins
- 18 Rogic Substituted for Sinclair at 76'minutes
Substitutes
- 10 Dembele
- 11 Sinclair
- 12 Gamboa
- 15 Hayes
- 29 Bain
- 73 Johnston
- 88 Kouassi
- Sinclair (78' minutes)
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Celtic’s Champions League hopes were ended after a 2-1 qualifying defeat by AEK Athens in Greece saw them lose 3-2 on aggregate. READ MORE – Chris Sutton rants about ‘disco lights’ during Celtic’s UCL exit
Brendan Rodgers, who had taken the Hoops to the group stages of the competition in his first two years in charge, had admitted the third qualifying round tie in the Olympic Stadium was his biggest qualifying challenge to date following the 1-1 draw in the first leg at Parkhead last week.
Within six minutes his side were trailing to a Rodrigo Galo strike and it looked a forlorn task for the visitors when Croatian striker Marko Livaja headed in a second five minutes after the break.
Parkhead substitute Scott Sinclair pulled a goal back in the 78th minute but despite a grand finale the Scottish champions could not fashion a second which would have put them through on away goals.
Dropping down to the Europa League, where they will play Latvian side Spartaks Jurmala or Lithuanian side Suduva, is a huge blow for Celtic who will miss out on the prestige – not to mention the vast sums of money – to be earned in the Champions League.
There were ominous signs for Celtic beforehand.
Pre-match speculation about the fitness of Odsonne Edouard proved well-founded as the French striker and record signing missed out with a knock, with Leigh Griffiths keeping his place.
Fit-again striker Moussa Dembele returned to the bench, however, but with Kristoffer Ajer suspended and fellow defender Dedryck Boyata missing through injury amid speculation about his future, Rodgers paired Jozo Simunovic with Jack Hendry in central defence.
The 70,000-capacity stadium was only around half-full but the home fans roared when Niklas Hult, at the second attempt, got his cross pass fellow Swedish defender Mikael Lustig to Brazilian midfielder Galo, who swept it past keeper Craig Gordon from 12 yards.
It was the start the Parkhead side had feared and moments later they almost conceded a second when Victor Klonaridis, who scored in Glasgow last week, burst into the Hoops box but toe-poked a shot wide of the target from eight yards.
Having taken the lead, however, the Greek side simply sat back to defend it.
Celtic took control, with Tom Rogic and Griffiths both having luckless efforts on goal before the latter sent a fine Callum McGregor cross inches past the post from eight yards.
Hendry headed a Griffiths corner over the bar just before the interval but any positivity Celtic’s response elicited evaporated early in the second half when Galo’s free-kick to the back post was headed back across goal by Vassilis Lampropoulos for Livaja to head past Gordon.
Again Celtic responded positively and only a brilliant save by AEK keeper Vassilis Barkas prevented Simunovic’s header from a Kieran Tierney cross speeding in at the near post.
Rodgers brought on Dembele for Lustig in the 59th minute but Klonaridis missed a great chance to make it 3-0 when he flashed Livaja’s cut-back high over the bar.
Celtic kept piling forward and minutes after Sinclair came on for Rogic he gave the Hoops hope when he headed in a Tierney cross.
But the Greeks held out in the nervy final minutes, despite Simunovic coming agonisingly close with a flick in the last of five added minutes.
After a week soundtracked by reports of unrest between Rodgers and the board over a failure to strengthen the squad – and amplified by Saturday's defeat at Hearts – Celtic were two down after 50 minutes in Athens.
Scott Sinclair's header with 12 minutes to play left Celtic needing to score once more to progress to the play-off round on away goals.
But the Greek champions held on to deny their Scottish counterparts a tie with Hungarian side MOL Vidi.
Instead Rodgers will lead Celtic into a Europa League play-off round meeting with Latvia's Spartaks Jurmala or Suduva Marijampole of Lithuania.
Suduva hold a 1-0 lead and an away-goal advantage going into Thursday's third qualifying round deciding leg.
'Rodgers saw the signs' – analysisBBC Scotland's senior football reporter Chris McLaughlin in Athens
This was coming. Rodgers did everything but spell it out over the past few weeks. He is a man who constantly talks about progress and for the first time since his arrival, the club is going backwards in European football. He saw the signs, made the noises, but all in vain.
It was no thumping. The fact it was close will frustrate the Celtic manager all the more. Who knows what difference a couple of new faces may have made for a Celtic side who looked devoid of ideas at times over the two legs? At this level, and given where they have been for the past two years, the margins are fine. That will keep Rodgers awake for the next few nights.
The Europa League is little consolation, both in a football and a financial sense but that is where they find themselves. Fans might attempt to soothe the pain with thoughts of a lengthy run in European football's booby prize, but unless Celtic sort out the on and off-field issues, that seems fanciful.
Those who refused to believe that cracks were showing, might do well to look again. The manager has said he is going nowhere, now he must fight to arrest a worrying slide.
Defensive frailties cost Celtic
Sinclair's goal gave Celtic hopeThe preamble to the match had been dominated by headlines about Dedryck Boyata's Celtic future. But without the Belgian international and the suspended Kristoffer Ajer, Rodgers was left with Jack Hendry and the returning Jozo Simunovic as his central defensive pairing.
That weakened rearguard was a concern and, as was feared, it was opened up within six minutes. Nicklas Hult pulled back a pass to find Rodrigo Galo in too much space to apply a finish from 14 yards.
Celtic did settle after that discombobulating start, enjoying plenty of the ball, but chances were scarce as Rodgers' side searched for the required away goal.
Leigh Griffiths led the attack – with record signing Odsonne Edouard injured and Moussa Dembele on the bench – and the Scotland forward latched on to Callum McGregor's teasing delivery only to steer wide under duress from his marker.
Celtic were being allowed to push forward by an Athens side content to wait for the right moment to try and put the result beyond doubt. And that moment came just after the break, Vassilis Lambropoulos outjumping Hendry to meet Rodrigo's set piece and direct across the six-yard box for Marko Livaja to nod in.
That left the Scottish champions in a desperate predicament as they scrambled to get back into the tie.
Simunovic's glancing header and Olivier Ntcham's free-kick were both well saved by Vasilios Barkas, but Sinclair reduced the deficit with 12 minutes remaining when he headed in Kieran Tierney's cross.
Another goal would have secured a win on away goals. Celtic pushed forward. AEK grew edgy.
In the fifth and final minute of added time the chance came. But Simunovic's flicked cross from McGregor's ball flew inches past a post. And seconds later, the home side were celebrating.