Cameron Carter-Vickers of Celtic during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between Celtic FC and BSC Young Boys at Celtic Park on January 22, 2025 Photo JustPictures.ch/ Richard Callis IMAGO
GET CARTER – 7/10 – If he’s got any weaknesses it’s height and pace against, well, height and pace. So tonight – in the isolation of his defensive duties – was a proper test. And after a few tempestuous tussles in the opening half hour, the grizzly in him was out and snarling. Some centre backs are made for this intensity, their game lifted by a real challenge to their fortitude. CCV is one of them; absorbing the physical combat like a cage fighter, thriving on the fraught moments when a well-timed tackle may be the difference between win or lose. Result: Swiss Alps, zero, The Rockies, one.
Callum McGregor celebrates with his Celtic teammates after winning during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic FC and BSC Young Boys at Celtic Park on January 22, 2025 Photo JustPictures.ch/Richard Callis.
CALMAC – 8/10 – Fantastic first-half for the skipper. Dominated the middle, snappy passing and rousing bursts through their lines. So good, that people around me were wanting him dropped for fear we won too easily…* Not a surprise then, that as he drew breath after the break, the YB resurged. At these times we need the likes of young Engels deep beside him until we re-establish control. But on nights like this, we see his true quality as a captain and playmaker; exemplary glorification of the jersey at top-level.
*No they weren’t. The Judean People’s Front For Resting Calmac were disbanded twenty minutes in, and the Rest Calmac Front Of Judea turned in their badges at half-time.
Arne Engels takes a penalty kick, which is saved by Marvin Keller during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic FC and BSC Young Boys at Celtic Park on January 22, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
THE TERMINATOR – 6/10 – Jeeeee-sus, the kid had to miss one sometime, right? What a game to pick to scuff a pen. And he’d been swanning around, firing in some great balls prior to it, getting the tackles in, providing some great midfield synchronicity with Calmac and Reo. Hope the outcome puts it out of his mind and he cracks in his next one.
Reo Hatate during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic FC and BSC Young Boys at Celtic Park on January 22,2025.Photo:JustPictures.ch. Richard Callis (IMAGO)
HAKUNA HATATE – 8.5/10 MOTM – The sublimely magnificent enigma of Reo. Always fraught with tension on these occasions to see which Hatate we pull out of the hat-ate…Tonight, it became evident from opening spells of possession that he was well engaged, with his mercurial movement a-tuned to the flow of the team and his distribution sharp and incisive. I mentioned on Saturday that watching him receive a pass from deep is a hell of a tell as to Reo’s form – the Zidane half-cocked swivel, effortlessly shuffling the ball across his body and pivoting the entire momentum of that instant in the game, powerfully in our favour. To wit, he’d already pulled a few through proceedings but saved the gem until the death, silken rotation and a sweeping pinpoint pass from deep that spun them onto their heels, caught in-behind for the final time, and at last we got the precious goal. All the frustration of his up and down season put to bed right there in our most defining moment for over a decade.
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