When I was watching the first leg of the tie against Zenit St Petersburg at Parkhead last week, I was less than impressed by the Russians.
They were well drilled, obviously, but lacked some drive, initiative and pace. So, I was fairly hopeful that Celtic would do well against them in the second leg.
However, the first thing a manager has to get from his players on a big occasion is a performance and last night too many Celtic players were well off the pace.
To win, Zenit needed to be no more than average and take the easy chances that were offered. And my goodness, what opportunities they were given!
Very poor marking for the first, allowing the scorer to come in late and alone.
The second must be put down to a piece of mis-judgement of the flight of the ball by the keeper.
And as for the third, our defender was on the wrong side of his opponent; that makes life easy for the forward and he took his chance.
Every Celtic fan will be really disappointed.
It will be quite galling to be watching the big boys in action between now and May without the involvement of our team.
All the players and management can do now is reward the supporters with another treble.
That will be like pouring some helpful ointment on our wounds but deep down, it is tough to accept the truth, that we are not good enough at this level of European competition.
Jim Craig
Базука! ???? Первый гол Далера в еврокубках! #ЗенитСелтик pic.twitter.com/Otp2THHzQ8
— ФК «Зенит» (@zenit_spb) February 22, 2018
I think we have proved in flashes that we can compete in Europe. We lack consistency of performance. That is down to the base level ability of the players. We require players to be excellent our over achieve not just play to their ability to get results.
How many times are we going to hear the same excuses from the manager and players. When are THEY going to do something about it. Even in Scottish matches and with all our possession we give the ball away too easily. Against better opposition in Europe we are constantly vulnerable and will continue to be so until we learn but more importantly spend decent, NOT stupid, money on players. Time to take the cheque book out Celtic. Time to clear out the under performers, Brendan.