ANGE POSTECOGLOU, it appears, doesn’t back down. He doubles down. His attacking principles may not have garnered the rewards he felt his team deserved from their opening four matches in the competition, but rather than be discouraged on matchday five, he was seemingly emboldened.
The Celtic manager decided to go for broke against Shakhtar Donetsk, being as it was that a win was the least he required to keep his team’s hopes of making the Europa League knockout stages alive. He has been asked about the possibility of pairing Kyogo and Giorgos Giakoumakis far more often than he has dared to roll that particular dice, but now he decided was the time to go all in.
For a time, it looked as though the gamble would pay off. Giakoumakis got the opening goal in the first half, and Celtic looked to be on their way to their first win in the Champions League this season.
Alas, at this level, sometimes you are undone by brilliance, and there is no doubt that Mykhaylo Mudryk has it in spades. For the second time in this section, a stunning individual equaliser from the Ukrainian wonder-boy denied Celtic the win they needed to have any hope of European football beyond Christmas.
Postecoglou, in fairness, had hardly sent out a defensively minded midfield behind his forwards either, with Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate the two central players and Sead Haksabanovic and Liel Abada out wide in what was effectively a 4-2-4 when in possession. When Shakhtar had the ball, Kyogo would drop back and help out, leaving Giakoumakis as the out ball.
For the last time this season, the Champions League anthem rang out at Celtic Park, and it was greeted with the usual gusto by the home support, so much so that a few of the Shakhtar players were looking a little bemused by what was going on around them.
That nervousness lingered into the start of the game, with Celtic pinning the visitors in and the Ukrainians sloppy in possession.
The grandstand start didn’t quite materialise though for Celtic, with a Giakoumakis shot that comfortably cleared the bar the sum result in terms of goal threat, and Shakhtar settled.
Half an hour came and went with little to nothing to report in front of goal, and the supporters needed something to feed off.
Giakoumakis tried hard to oblige, robbing Mykola Matviyenko high up on the right and forcing the centre-back to haul him down at the cost of a booking. Haksabanovic wasted the free-kick though on the edge of the area.
That was rather symptomatic of Celtic at that stage, with a lot of hard graft being let down by the final ball. Somewhat ironically, the bold formation put out by Postecoglou had resulted in his team providing a less consistent attacking threat than in the other matches in the section.
But just when a few moans and groans were becoming audible, Celtic finally found the finishing touch.
Haksabanovic got in down the left and put a low cross in that Abada attacked with a trademark run across the front of goal from the opposite flank. Valeriy Bodnar slid in to block, but the ball squirted out to Giakoumakis with time and space to pick his spot.
This time, the Champions League yips that seem to have afflicted Celtic’s forwards in this season’s competition so far didn’t get the better of him, and the Greek buried it low into the corner.
That spiced things up, and Giakoumakis had another crack from long range soon after that Anatoliy Trubin had to be at full stretch to tip wide.
Shakhtar star man Mudryk - who was presumably the focus of attention from the several top English Premier League club scouts in attendance - had been a fleeting menace to this point, but he almost announced himself on the game as he burst through onto Joe Hart, the Celtic keeper spreading himself well to block his attempted dink.
The Shakhtar number 10 threatened again though at the start of the second half, getting turned in the Celtic half and causing panic in the home defence. The eventual shot from Lassina Traore was deflected to the back post, where thankfully for Celtic the angle tightened too quickly for Oleksandr Zubkov to convert.
Celtic failed to heed the warning though, and they were made to pay.
Hatate gave the ball away on the edge of the Shakhtar area, and suddenly Mudryk was away again. His touch seemed to get away from him at one stage, but Josip Juranovic seemed scared to commit to the tackle given who was on the ball, and that proved fatal.
Mudryk shimmied this way and that before powering a stunning effort into Hart’s top right-hand corner from the edge of the Celtic area.
To their credit, Celtic tried to respond, and should have moved back ahead as Giakoumakis played Kyogo in, but his finish was tame and straight at Trubin, who easily blocked.
That was to be his last involvement, as Postecoglou reverted back to a more familiar shape, sending on Aaron Mooy, James Forrest and Daizen Maeda for Kyogo, Haksabanovic and Abada.
A brilliant reverse ball from Greg Taylor soon had Maeda in behind, and his low cross could have gone anywhere off a Shakhtar leg, but flew wide of the target.
Then there was the let-off of all let-offs for Celtic at the other end, Mudryk springing away from the desperate lunge of Cameron Carter-Vickers to square for substitute Danylo Sikan, but with the goal at his mercy he seemed to freeze, and his attempt at controlling the ball somehow saw it only slide the wrong side of the empty net.
Celtic were going for broke, and O’Riley just squeaked one wide as the ball broke in the area, but on the night – as they have in this competition, they simply fell a little short.
