Things have gone pretty well this season. We topped our Europa League group for the first time in history, we won away in Italy for the first time, we lifted the League Cup and we’re champions elect. With that said, there have been a couple of bumps along the way – defeat at Livingston, losing at home to a team calling themselves Rangers for the first time in nine years and exiting the last 32 of the Europa League with a disappointing home defeat against Copenhagen.
This break from football, whilst boring, has given us time to ponder on the season’s biggest mistakes. Here’s our shortlist:
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Ajer’s clumsy tackle in Rennes : It could have had big ramifications for Celtic, but fortunately didn’t. The Hoops put in a superb performance in France, but this foolish tackle gave Rennes an undeserved lead. Thankfully, Ryan Christie levelled the scoring and Celtic took the point to kick off their Europa League group campaign.
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Broony’s handball v Cluj: Celtic’s 4-3 defeat at home to Cluj in the Champion’s League qualifiers was an absolute disaster from start to finish. Firstly, Neil Lennon’s decision to play Callum McGregor at left back was baffling, particularly as Rodgers had made the same error at Ibrox a season earlier. Despite that, Celtic were leading 3-2 until a corner was whipped in and Scott Brown made the crazy decision to handle in the box. The resulting spot kick was converted and the Romanian’s then went on to add a winner in injury time.
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Christie’s Livi red card: Celtic succumbed to their first defeat of the season at Livingston with a 2-0 loss at the Tony Macaroni Arena. With the score at 0-0, Ryan Christie launched into an X-rated tackle on Scott Robinson, which put Celtic down to 10 men. The Hoops went on to lose the match and ‘Rangers’ capitalised by thumping Hamilton. Disgracefully, Christie took some abuse on Twitter but the player didn’t help matters when he tweeted that Celtic fans had ‘short memories’ and deleted his account!
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Forster’s drop at Livingston: Celtic dropped points at the Tony Macaroni Arena for the second time this season, just a few weeks ago. The Bhoys went in front early on, but the hosts were soon level when a long throw in made way for the Celtic box and Fraser Forster came to collect. Unfortunately, Forster dropped the ball and Livingston took advantage of the clanger to level up proceedings.
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Simunovic’s backpass v Copenhagen : Celtic performed admirably in Denmark to bring a 1-1 draw back to Paradise in the 2nd leg of the Europa League last 32. The Hoops were dominating the play against Copenhagen in the first half once more at Celtic Park, yet failed to capitalise with a goal. Nevertheless, the Bhoys were expected to finish the job in the second half and were in good stead to do so. That was until Jozo Simunovic’s terrible backpass allowed the striker to nip in and Copenhagen to take the lead. It left Celtic with an uphill battle, which an Edouard penalty overcame – yet Celtic ultimately lost the match 3-1 and exited Europe.
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The funny thing about these mistakes is that the majority of them came from reliable players who have performed outstandingly well this season. There’s certainly no blame or finger pointing here, it’s just an exercise in fun as we look back at the action so far this term, with all this free time on our hands.
Let us know your thoughts on which mistake is the worst and any other similar shockers from the Hoops this season, it is just for a bit of fun, email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk
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