If potential sponsors were scouting Celtic’s starting line-up last night, there would be more interest from Junior Meccano than Gillette Mach 3, such was the tender age of the youthful eleven Ange Postecoglou sent out to face Betis. Yet baby faced as many may have been, the lesser seen members of Celtic’s threadbare squad put in a performance beyond their years and experience.
A 3-2 win over a club like Betis is not to be sniffed at, and yes, the Spaniards, like Celtic, may have started the game with their own lesser lights, you’d still assume given the discrepancies in budget and depth that Betis B should have more than enough to handle those classified as squad players at Celtic, particularly with the personnel at Celtic in such a transitional phase.
Well for large parts of last night’s Europa League swansong Celtic’s back up team more than matched the opposition and not only won but did so deservedly.
A goal to the good from Stephen Welsh’s deft header it took until the 69th minute for Betis to reply and even then, it was a fortunate goal and bad luck for Scott Bain. However Celtic were back in front within three minutes with Johnston superb and Henderson clinical, and even when thwarted again as Iglesias converted from a Canales assist Celtic still didn’t lie down. Abada won a penalty superbly and Turnbull fresh from 65 minutes of rest this season, stuck away the spot-kick like a veteran of 12 yards and Celtic had won out.
The performance was impressive and it was clear the tactical approach is ingrained from the training ground in every player, as despite rarely troubling the first eleven, the players employed last night mirrored the movement and patterns of those usually filling the shirts do week in week out.
This was a clear sign the Postecoglou process is seeping through everyone at the club and all involved are embracing it. And that bodes well for the weeks and months ahead, as Celtic appear to be collecting hamstring injuries akin to the pandemic run on toilet rolls, and as such some if not many of those staking a claim so valiantly last night may well be needed, possibly more often than expected, ahead of the winter shutdown. Many looked like they can be trusted.
Liam Scales was perhaps the standout but namesake Shaw ran him close when it game to imposing physicality on the opposition. And although the pair perhaps lacked a little in taking care in the execution of their passing, they more than made up for it in endeavour, incessant pressing and positional awareness. They simply didn’t give Betis a moments peace when the opposition had the ball and they tried manfully to progress Celtic up the park when Celtic held possession.
Meanwhile a player described by a Sheffield reporter earlier in the season as having a lot to work on but plenty to work with, Urhoghide showed that description was accurate. There may well be a rawness but there is certainly a great deal of potential too after a night’s work the Celtic full back can be proud of.
Of course, there were blows as well as progress last night. The loss of Ajeti and later Kyogo to hamstring injuries is simply a by-product of an intensive training regime mirrored in the style of play Celtic employ on matchday.
You can argue all day long if the likes of Kyogo or Callum McGregor should even have been on the bench last night, but both were, had to be called upon and now it looks like from three available strikers Celtic are down to none. But in truth such injuries could have happened on the training ground as much as in a game itself.
You can question the decision to introduce Kyogo – and as he warmed up, I like many others did just that – but there was little else in the way of options for a manager witnessing an opposition gaining traction and dead rubber or not, still wanting to win a Europa League encounter against the sort of club we’d like to benchmark ourselves against.
A win on the night saw the end justify the means. We owed Betis one and we gave them one, we ended the Europa League campaign with nine points and plenty of what might have beens, but we saw a team, and indeed a squad on last night’s evidence, growing as a European outfit when most of us would have been satisfied with simply producing a team capable of domestic consistency this season. That in itself offers a lot of hope and a great sense of pride.
With knockout football ahead and a 25th of May Conference League Final in the distance, there won’t be too many teams who will fancy facing this Celtic team over two legs, and that is enough to dare to dream.
Meanwhile it is back to the bread and butter on Sunday and a visit of Motherwell and seven more games one of which is a Cup Final, before tired minds and stretched hamstrings can get some much-needed downtime.
We’ll have to find a striker from somewhere, could Abada step up? And several positions may require more than one player to see us through a tough old schedule, but on the evidence of last night there are a few young players who may not look like they are ready to pick up that Gillette sponsorship deal, but certainly look good enough, if called upon, to handle the cut throat nature of December in the Scottish Premiership. And it’s starting to look like they may just be needed.
Niall J
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Totally agree with you that Kyoto’s & Ajeti’s injuries could’ve happened at anytime. Also agree that the young Bhoys gave a good account of themselves and gives us reason to hope that there’s a future for them in the coming weeks and months ahead. If only Johnston had shown the same self-confidence as the young Bhoys, then we could’ve added 1 more when he has through 3 on 1 with the keeper at the end. A player with more confidence would’ve beat the keeper himself. All in all, a very good result and looking forward to lore European nights.
HAIL HAIL
KEEP THE FAITH🍀🍀
There was no one to “ benchmark ourselves against “ unless we value reserve team football very highly. If he didn’t play last night he would still be fit……end of story. He might scored a hat trick before half time on Sunday as well…..by your logic.