“Jozo looks like he’ll be struggling,” Brendan Rodgers said, late last night in Leipzig. “He took an awkward landing when he jumped for the ball.
“He will be a question mark for the weekend,” the manager stated, but as we mentioned last night, one thing Jozo is not is a fast heeler so we’d expect him to be missing for a few weeks rather than a few days.
The idiocy of the Dedryck Boyata sending off in Perth in the last minute of the Betfred Cup quarter final was always going to come back to bite Celtic. Boyata was our Man of the Match last night and the manager agreed with that assessment.
“Unfortunately Boyata – who I thought was outstanding tonight – won’t be available at the weekend. But Jozo will struggle to make it.”
So it looks like Jack Hendry, who has featured since his flat footed performance in Salzburg, will be playing alongside Filip Benkovic – who appeared to sit out last night’s 2-0 defeat with Murrayfield in mind.
Celtic were awful last night. The two goals conceded were dreadful – just like the gifts donated to the Austrian Red Bull side a few weeks ago. On both occasions the Celtic Fans turned up and the players did not.
The second half last night was frankly unacceptable. Sitting with 9 outfield players surrounding our penalty area while 2-0 down demonstrates a complete lack of ambition and confidence. Where was the stand up and play, the Glasgow Celtic way? It certainly wasn’t in Leipzig last night.
Brendan tried to sound optimistic though.
“We have seen enough to know that we can win the game at home when some of our players come back. From tonight’s performance, I believe it’s something that’s well within our capabilities,” he said at the post match media conference.
“It will be a great night with our supporters. Their support was amazing throughout tonight. Having 60,000 at home will be a great opportunity.
“But if we are going to have any aspiration of getting through the group, it’s a game first and foremost we have to win. That will be our objective.
“We’ve obviously lost two matches now against two very good sides away from home we’ve got three points on the board but we always knew our home games would be vital for us and try to pick up something away.
“There are three other sides, two who really are Champions League level, but we are still in with a great chance.
“We have to look to the next game at home and look to win that – if we don’t it becomes really difficult. It gives us a great chance but we know we have some work to do.”
Picking through the bones of such a pitiful defeat as last night is far from enjoyable. Brendan gave it a go.
“Of course it’s frustrating, especially when you make a good start in the game.
It’s not any great piece of play that’s undoing us.
“It’s mistakes that cost you. It’s unfortunate for us because it hurts you at this level. We will go away and analyse what we can do better defending those moments and then try to correct it.
There were a lot of positives from the game. We started very, very well, imposed our style on the game.
“The players that came in tonight did fantastic. They haven’t been playing a great deal. Lewis Morgan came in and gave everything in the game. These guys would get great experience from that.
“It’s unfortunate we have so many injuries but it’s not the fault of the players. They gave absolutely everything.”
While we can agree with Brendan that there is still a chance for Celtic to progress in this group the tactical play after conceding those two goals was frankly unacceptable.
Here’s what David Potter had to say on the match last night…see HERE.
And here is our immediate post match thoughts, posted shortly after the final whistle…see HERE.
And have a look at Part 1 of Matt Corr’s Leipzig Diary…see HERE.
