Celtic fans with scarves during the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round First Leg match between Celtic and Kairat Almaty at Celtic Park on August 20, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
SUBS –
YING – 6/10 – Is his burd in the country? Energy injection by the Korean enigma sparked off a second period of hope and elevated excitement. Good feet and admirable attacking intent gave us reasons to finally think we would get something.
FEIN – N/A – Blustered about, Triaded their reserve keeper, still managing more damage than Idah in his short stint.
TONY THE TIGER – 5.5/10 – Steady as he goes. Never a worry when Tony’s thrown in, despite lack of recent game-time. Suspect he’ll see plenty now; handled this unexpected involvement with panache and a good trolling of intermediate Zombie boolin’ club committee chairman Martin Russell by guising as him.
THE TERMINATOR – N/A – The bhoy for the job. If he’s ever going to prove himself in a Celtic shirt, next Tuesday’s the game made for his aloof gallusness. He got a taster of them tonight, found plenty openings; now go win the tie with the attitude of dismissive superiority we sorely lack, yet often get slapped about in the CL by.
CRUSTY THE CLOWN – N/A – Just on to keep things tidy and safe. Did okay.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not the players failing to get up to tempo (barring Idah), it’s Brendan not allowing them to take any risk whatsoever. It’s like watching Craig Levein’s Scotland all over again. 0-0 is a good result the mantra. I’m over it. He should never have been taken back but the board knew he was a pushover and so they did.