To suggest Celtic has had a monkey on its back in the Champions League for the past decade is an understatement. It hasn’t been a single monkey, but a swarm of them.
When you haven’t won a home game in this competition in a decade, when you’re facing a second consecutive Champions League campaign without a win, when time is running out and you’re drawing 1-1 with Feyenoord and hitting the crossbar from distance, you can almost hear the tonal screams of the macaque moving in.
Then there was outcry and an unlikely hero in Gustaf Lagerbielke, a disappointing summer signing. All that Celtic rage frightened the monkeys away. To be fair, they had a successful run.
Celtic and Feyenoord were officially out of Europe before a ball was kicked on Wednesday, while the latter were already through to the Europa League knockout stages. In another sense, it was loaded with significance.
Celtic have been chastised for going so long without a victory. What they were hoping for was a halt. A happy occasion in difficult circumstances. A solid evidence that they can and should compete at this level. If there was local excitement at the final whistle, there was also local relief and tiredness. It was tense and thrilling in equal measure, far more than a supposed dead rubber should be.
Rodgers will not be subjected to another autopsy. His statistics as Celtic manager in European group and knockout football have been revised upwards: he played 27, won six, lost 17, and drew four. The win percentage has risen from 19% to 22%. Not the best, but certainly improved. This was a terrific night for Rodgers and his team, made even better by Mitchel Frame’s remarkable debut at the age of 17.
Celtic’s Champions League campaign seems to have lasted far longer than it has. It’s been a struggle through self-inflicted defeat via red cards, further self-inflicted defeat via late lapses in concentration, a glimmer of hope in the 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid before a plummet into the darkness with the 6-0 disaster that followed.
They got four points, but they could have gotten more. They played six games and were only outmatched in one. There are other intricacies to all of this. At various points, they suffered injuries to key players such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, their defensive leader; Reo Hatate, their classy midfielder; Liel Abada, who contributed 28 goals and 20 assists in all competitions in his first two seasons at the club; and Daizen Maeda, the wide man whose energy was so important to the success of the Ange Postecoglou years.
‘Kyogo is still fantastic, just a little out of sorts.’
Kyogo Furuhashi relied heavily on Abada and Maeda, as well as the recently deceased Jota. Without them, and with the changes made by Rodgers, the striker does not receive the chances he used to and does not appear to be the same player.
He only had one shot on target in two games versus Feyenoord. He got one on target and scored in two games versus Atletico. He had three shots on goal and one goal against Lazio. Two goals in five attempts is an impressive return, and it raises the question of what he might achieve if the service improves. He’s still a good, although out-of-sorts, player.
These are crucial days for Celtic. Europe is gone, but they did manage to save something. Now it’s all about domestic football and defending their Scottish Premiership crown against a growing competition from across the city.
Celtic lead the Premiership by five points, although Rangers have a game in hand, and there’s still an Old Firm clash in the east end on December 30. That’s why Wednesday night was so crucial for Celtic. It changed the narrative from last weekend’s defeat by Kilmarnock, the points surrendered earlier in the league against Motherwell, Hibs, and St Johnstone, and the growing sense of Celtic drift.
Rodgers used the post-match press conference to remind everyone of his preference for quality over quantity in the January transfer window. He couldn’t be more specific without putting a post-it note on his forehead.
He is aware that he has too many players at the club, some of whom were recruited in a scattergun summer spree. Nobody would notice if seven, eight, or nine players were removed from this Celtic squad. Jota’s 28 goals and 26 assists are a huge loss that will be difficult to replace. The holy trinity of Jota-Kyogo-Abada/Maeda appears to have occurred a long time ago.
This season, Yuki Kobayashi, Kwon Hyeok-kyu, and James McCarthy have not appeared. Marco Tilio has yet to make a start in a game. Each of Odin Holm, Tomoki Iwata, and Oh Hyeon-gyu has three starts. Paulo Bernardo only has four. None have persuaded, and this is far from an entire list.
Rodgers knows what he wants and, more than likely, who he wants. It will be interesting to watch what he receives from his board in January. Celtic fans who are still irritated by the summer recruiting will be on pins and needles every minute of next month.
Celtic finally got the win they needed on Wednesday night, a success that had been a decade in the making, but the task now is to build on it. Will they move forward, backward, or just bob along in the hope of winning the championship against a squad with none of their financial resources?
A January question. In the present, Celtic have ended their dismal streak in Europe’s elite tournament. It isn’t much, but it is something. For a brief moment on Wednesday night, it may have felt like everything to thankful Celtic fans.
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