CELTIC’S wretched winless run in the Champions League group stage continued at Parkhead tonight in the cruellest circumstances imaginable when they conceded an injury time goal to a Lazio side they had outplayed and suffered an excruciating defeat.
Brendan Rodgers’ men had taken a deserved early lead against Maurizio Sarri’s charges and sent the majority of the sell-out crowd inside the packed Glasgow ground into raptures when Kyogo Furuhashi struck.
But Matias Vecino levelled at a corner on the half hour mark after Liam Scales and Matt O’Riley had failed to clear the ball to safety.
The Scottish champions, though, dominated the Italians thereafter and thought they had clinched a their first triumph since they beat Anderlecht away back in 2017 when substitute Luis Palma scored with nine minutes remaining.
But the effort was chalked off for offside following a lengthy VAR check and their agony was compounded in the 95th minute when Pedro Rodriguez headed beyond Joe Hart following a counter attack.
Here are five talking points from the Group E encounter.
KYOGOAL
Rodgers had told Furuhashi that he could attain the same sort of legendary status as his revered Celtic predecessor Henrik Larsson if he scored in the Champions League on a consistent basis before the opening Group E match against Feyenoord in Rotterdam last month.
The Japanese internationalist was obviously paying attention. He duly opened his account in Europe’s premier club competition in his eighth outing when he rounded off a slick attack in the 12th minute.
His countryman Daizen Maeda cut inside from the right wing and fed Matt O’Riley on the edge of the visitors’ penalty area. The playmaker dinked a delicious first time ball through to his team mate who kept his composure and slotted between the legs of Ivan Provedel.
It is fair to say the forward, not to mention his fellow Celtic players and the crowd, rather enjoyed the moment. It had been a long time coming. The £4.6m man failed to add another. Still, he will take confidence from getting off the mark.
NAT BEST
Cameron Carter-Vickers returned to the Celtic squad for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury against Aberdeen at Pittodrie back in August tonight – but the United State internationalist was not considered fit enough to start.
So that meant Nat Phillips, the Liverpool loanee who made his own comeback from an ankle problem, when he came on in the second half of the cinch Premiership match against Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday, started alongside Liam Scales in the heart of the defence.
The 26-year-old centre half had previous Champions League group stage experience having played for his parent club in the competition proper on several occasions, including against Real Madrid away, in the past.
But it was asking an awful lot of Phillips, who had played less than 90 minutes of competitive football since January, to shackle Lazio talisman Ciro Immobile. But he intercepted a Luis Alberto pass to the Roman icon early on and handled him well thereafter. He was certainly not at fault for the Vecino leveller.
He was booked by Lithuanian referee Donatas Rumsas just before half time for a rash challenge on Immobile. That meant that he had to be careful during the second half. But having seen Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm red carded a fortnight ago he was obviously wary.
He received a standing ovation when he was replaced by Carter-Vickers after an hour.
YANG LEARNING CURVE
Yang Hyun-jun has shown great promise since completing his transfer from Gangwon in his native South Korea to Celtic in July. So much so, that he was preferred to his fellow new boy Luis Palma out wide this evening.
Yang had made his debut in the competition in the De Kuip when he came on for Maeda with eight minutes remaining when his team was down to nine men and the match was lost. Starting against Lazio was a far more demanding ask.
The 21-year-old could not be faulted for application. But he struggled to trouble the opposition defence, test goalkeeper Provedel or create an opening for his fellow forwards to exploit.
He did well, however, to win a free-kick which Reo Hatate very nearly scored from in the second half. He was replaced by Palma and will learn much from the outing.
FACE PALMA
The goal that substitute Palma netted with nine minutes of regulation time remaining was no more than Celtic deserved. They had laid siege to the Lazio goal for much of the second half and appeared to have finally got their just rewards.
However, after a lengthy VAR check Rumsas disallowed it for offside as a replay showed that Maeda had got a touch in the build-up. The margins between success and failure in the Champions League are infinitesimal.
RODGERS NOUS
The Northern Irishman has to take great credit for the Celtic display this evening. He is missing a few key men to injury and his team has not been playing with their same swagger of late because of that.
The understrength hosts, though, performed with confidence and maturity and created enough in the final third to prevail comfortably. The showing still augurs well for the remainder of their campaign.
