Chris Sutton has claimed that Bayern Munich’s bench made the difference between Celtic winning and drawing in the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night…
Brendan Rodgers’ team put in a performance for the ages against the might of Munich and had the Germans rattled, after Nicolas Kühn put the Bhoys 1-0 in the second-half.
Kompany feeling the heat from Celtic pressure
Vincent Kompany was on the sidelines and you could just tell he was feeling the heat from the pressure Celtic had heaped onto both he and his team’s shoulders, heading into the closing stages of a pulsating match. The Belgian scrambled like mad to get the ball back into play from the sidelines and ended up on his backside, after rushing onto the park from his technical area at one point.
However, Kompany did have the luxury of bringing on Leroy Sane, Kingsley Coman and subsequent goalscorer, Alphonso Davies for his troubles, and it was those changes that made a world of difference, according to Sutton. Analysing the game afterwards in the Sky Sports studio, he said: “If there is a tiny ounce of criticism and regret, from this Champions League campaign, with me, it would be Bayern’s bench made a difference.
Davies got the winner, Sane made an impact
“Davies eventually ended up with the winning goal. Sane came on and made an impact. Celtic sold Kyogo in January – the Japanese striker – and never really replaced him. And you think with Bayern having that difference off the bench, Celtic, you know the bench was little bit bare. You know, that’s being ultra-critical, because the performance was absolutely first-class. I was really impressed with them.”
Celtic’s weak bench
The Celtic Board must now realise that they have dropped a golden opportunity to really go and stamp our authority back in the big time, with the decision to let our star striker leave mid-season and not bring in a replacement. Regardless of whether or not it was a great result and fills us all with pride, the decisions that are made at boardroom level in respect to recruitment are stunting the club’s growth at this level.
Rodgers has shown he can compete even with a fraction of the budget
Brendan Rodgers has proven now he can compete with a fraction of the budget of the elite teams in Europe. It would be utter folly if we were to treat him unfairly and deny him access to valuable funds this summer transfer window, to rejuvenate a talented squad that is certainly going places by the looks of it.
With a UEFA Champions League play-off to navigate this August too, our business should be concluded early doors and give the new signings a chance to assimilate properly over pre-season with the squad.
I won’t hold my breath though…
Paul Gillespie
You’re wrong Chris. You’ve had this bee in your bonnet since Kyogo left and wasn’t replaced. But some of us remember how you reacted when your time was near the end under Strachan. If a player doesn’t want to play, he won’t play. You proved this yourself!
Apart from this, Bayern’s stronger bench didn’t miss our better scoring chances in the first half on Tuesday! We did. Bayern’s stronger bench didn’t deny our blatant penalty claim at home last week. A poor referee did. Bayern’s stronger bench didn’t have better scoring opportunities over the tie than we did! They just took theirs.