On Saturday Celtic fans experienced the highest of highs in football, with essentially two late winners. On Wednesday, the lowest of lows as Lazio silenced Celtic Park with virtually the last touch of the ball. Compared to last years results in Europe where you could see we were outclassed despite signs of promise, this game could not have been more different.
The first half was sluggish from both sides with neither really getting a foothold of the game, but the one moment of real quality from Celtic was more than befitting of the highest stage. Maeda cut inside and found O'Reilly who in turn excellently played it through to Kyogo. Last year the Japanese star was guilty of passing up on guilt edged chances but made no mistake on Wednesday night burying it into the net.
The movement from Furahashi to create the chance was top class and proved that when we click, we can cause top teams problems. Unfortunately however we cannot seem to piece that together for sustained periods of time in these games, most likely due to the huge change in intensity from domestic football to European.
Whilst Celtic prepare for these games against the likes of Motherwelll, Aberdeen and Hibs, Lazio are preparing against the likes of Milan, Juventus and Napoli. Players such as Hatate and O'Reilly show glimpses of real class in spells against top opposition, but are also regularly caught out with the speed of the game.
Lazio's goal in the first half was avoidable to say the least but the Italian's probably shaded the first half without creating any other chances of note. On the ball they looked sharper and passed the ball forward with far more intent than Celtic. Callum McGregor consistently looks comfortable at this level, however if there is one criticism that could be levelled at him it would be the rate at which he chooses to pass the ball backwards or side to side, instead of taking a risk and driving forward. On the occasions that he was more adventurous in the first half, he caused all sorts of problems.
The second half was perhaps one of the most comfortable halves I have seen Celtic play against a Champions League level team. Whilst Lazio created a few openings, Celtic generally controlled the flow of the game and restricted any danger on the counter attack.
McGregor was brave in possession, Hatate created openings and shown innovation with O'Reilly to go close from a free kick, and Palma was inches away from winning the game with a goal that was narrowly ruled out for offside.
Brendan Rodgers spoke of how performing at 98% at this level is not enough and something you will be punished for. With Lazio seemingly happy to see the game out, Carter Vickers made an error on the ball and they swarmed forward. Geundouzi found himself in space and delivered a pin point ball for Pedro who delicately placed a header into the corner of the net with practically the last touch of the ball.
It was cruel, and didn't seem to match the pattern of previous European games at Celtic park when you could almost sense a goal coming. It was all Celtic but we just didn't have that cutting edge required. in hindsight, rushing Carter Vickers back into the team for a match of this magnitude was incredibly risky.
Given that this was probably one of the friendliest draws Celtic could have been handed this year, finishing with a similar points tally as last year could be quite demoralising for the support. It is frustrating that once again this year we have players starting who quite clearly are not ready for this level, Yang is one example who was completely out of his depth. Whilst there needs to be a sense of realism that we may never be able to afford the finished article, it's hard to ignore the fact that we have once again gone into a champions league campaign without taking slightly more of a risk in the transfer market.
The latest financial results from Celtic point towards a record level of disposable income burning a hole in the board's pockets. If they want us to be more competitive at the highest stage and they do not view our current status as the clubs ceiling, it would be nice to see some form of strategy regarding how they plan on getting us there with this current level of spending, because at present it is far from clear.