Ryan Christie’s header from a brilliant cross from Liel Abada got Celtic back into the game earlier in the second half as Ange Postecoglou left Vasilis Barkas in th dressing room at the interval repacking him with Scott Bain. And moments later Anthony Ralston reached the byeline and Christie’s volley into the ground almost brought Celtic level.
Ryan Christie claws one back for Celtic! 🍀
Darren Randolph won’t be pleased with his efforts to keep that out of the West Ham goal 👀 pic.twitter.com/6JzyiLCavc
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) July 24, 2021
Then just as Celtic’s revival seemed to be gaining pace West Ham broke away again and this time it was Bain who was helpless as the visitors restored their two goal advantage through Benrahma who made it Celtic 2 West Ham 4.
The Celtic manager then on 55 mins replaced his ten outfield players bring on among many others Leigh Griffiths who was immediately booed by a sizeable percentage of the 18,500 Celtic fans in the stadium. A few moments later Griffiths took a corner and was applauded by many others, in a similar situation to the Boyata return to the side after refusing to play for Celtic in Athens in the Champions League defeat to AEK Athens in August 2018.
GOAL! 🇩🇿🧙♂️
What composure from Benrahma!#CELWHU 2-4 (54) pic.twitter.com/cQQjkicogv
— West Ham United (@WestHam) July 24, 2021
Bowen has just made it 5-2 with a neat finish. And it could have been six! Defensively Celtic have HUGE problems. Former Celtic reserve striker Oko-Flex has just come on for West Ham.
I was present at this game today and I have to say I was ashamed and disgusted with those so-called supporters who booed West Ham at the beginning when they came out to start the game and those who singled out Griffiths for the same treatment when he came on as a substitute. There are some very unpleasant people in our support, with a .”holier than thou” outlook. Fortunately there are others who try to support the players out there and who respect the players of the other team.
Game sounds bad. Let’s hope it’s an experiment.