CELTIC'S Champions League campaign ended in a creditable but cruel draw in Munich, and the feeling as the club and supporters reeled for the deflating last-gasp equaliser which saw them leave Europe’s top table was that Celtic had shown that they can play up and match the top level teams in Europe.
What a shock to Celtic fans, then, that the visit of their city rivals saw them look incapable of negotiating 90 minutes against a side that could most generously be described as reasonably competent.
There was no big name in the visiting XI, and certainly no tactical mastermind on the touchline, but Celtic limped to a depressing 2-0 deficit at half-time without mustering anything by way of resistance.
Granted, the second-half opened with some drive and speed and Celtic reduced the gap to one through Daizen Maeda, but rather than being spurred on to overturn their visitors Celtic reverted to the lumbering and predictable football which got them into so much trouble during the opening 45 minutes.
An equaliser followed when Celtic woke up once again after the introduction of Yang Hyun-Jun, but just as the home crowd began to expect that a flurry of chances would be forced in the closing phase Celtic withdrew into ponderous and easy football.
The result was richly deserved—a foray up the park resulted in Rangers snatching three points and the bragging rights at the death. Celtic have now coughed up nine goals to them win three matches.
Another wake-up call
For all that Celtic are winning the league at a canter, the wake-up call has now well and truly been delivered. To continue staggering into these ambushes is beneath Celtic.
They have shown in their European exploits that they have the capacity to compete at a high level, but the inability to deliver the derby victories their fans expect is developing into a problem for Brendan Rodgers and his charges.
Credit rightly goes to them for the way in which they have dominated the landscape in Scottish football this season, but this is nothing new for the Celtic support. The standard set over the last decade means that the bar has been raised, and the standards are a lot higher now than in Rodgers’ first spell. Winning the league has been done so often that the Celtic support are all too aware that it can be done. Seasons now start with the hope of unexpected results, European progress and new heights being hit. It takes more than league victories for the Celtic fans to consider their manager a success.
When the investment made in manager and the playing squad is considered, then the level of performance that the squad have offered in the last three derbies becomes all the more unacceptable.
This is not a Celtic facing great difficulties or insurmountable obstacles who require understanding from the support to help bring the club to where it should be. The club now has money in the bank and talented players assembled at great cost for the use of an experienced and successful manager. In those circumstances, a morale-sapping defeat at home in the Glasgow derby as the clinching of the title approaches is rightly being met with severe criticism.
Sorry to supporters
Rodgers seemed to understand the scale of the failure in the derby match as he offered an apology supporters in the aftermath.
“Firstly, the message to the supporters is, we apologise because we always want to win games here and against our big rivals, so, for them, it’s not a great feeling,” he said. “Our message to the players is, we have to be much better. That’s what we spoke about afterwards. In every facet of the game we have to be much better and if you’re going to be a champion this year, you’ve got to go and show that you’re a champion and you’ve got to earn it.
“So there are eight games to go, with 13 points, but we’ve got a lot of big games to play."
The difficulty for Rodgers is that of those eight games, only one will be against Celtic’s city rivals, and thus there is only a solitary opportunity to correct these shortcomings. With a semi-final on the horizon and the prospect of yet another treble for Celtic this season, glory still waits for this Celtic team. They can write their name with those select Celts who have hit such a pinnacle.
They must be aware, though, that to do it with any kind of authority and swagger, a victory at Ibrox after the split has to come. Being turned over in another derby will leave supporters thinking a little bit less of them all, and the only people who can remedy that are the players and manager themselves.
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