Celtic threw away a winning position once again as they collapsed to a third straight Europa League defeat against Celta Vigo — dropping to 35th out of 36 teams in the competition table, kept off rock bottom only by a side from Armenia.
Celtic’s frustrating night at Celtic Park (Credits: BBC Sport)
Celtic vs Celta Vigo: From Three Points to None
When Mika Baur scored early in the second half, everything looked rosy — Celtic had intensity, momentum and belief, with a Liam Scales header clipping the top of the crossbar. But between minutes 68 and 71, it all unravelled: from three points to no points, from building on the 7-1 thrashing of Hearts to yet another European loss. Celtic complained about a foul on Camilo Duran missed before the equaliser, but the errors that followed — the failure to deal with a free-kick, the calamities at the second goal — were beyond excuses.
Are Celtic Flat-Track Bullies?
Chris Sutton calls them flat-track bullies, and few Celtic fans would disagree. Domestic football keeps proving to be a lousy barometer of Celtic’s European capacity: beating up Hearts made nothing better, as Thursday showed. After losses to Rangers, LASK, Ferencvaros and Benfica, Celtic have now lost three from three in Europe, scoring three and conceding nine. Martin O’Neill insists there are “loads of points to play for,” but from a position of such weakness, it reads as desperation.
Celtic’s European Irrelevance
Even at their best in recent decades, Celtic struggled to win European games on the road — right now, even winning at home looks beyond them. With standards plummeting on and off the pitch, the responsibility stretches from O’Neill and the players to the board and its broken relationship with the support. There are technically enough points to escape the Europa League dungeon and reach the play-offs, but in their current state, that looks more like a philosophical thought than an attainable reality.
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Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.
