Celtic 1 Club Brugge 1
Brendan Rodgers proved a sound judge in the end. To maintain a solid, steady path to the play-offs of the Champions League, this was a night when Celtic had to suffer.
There can be no sugar-coating this; for 60 minutes this was an agonising test of nerve for Scotland’s champions.
Falling behind to an excruciating,Keystone Kops own goal from Cameron Carter-Vickers, the home team were second best for extended periods.
There was no control and no composure to speak of. Truth be told, Club Brugge could — and should — have been out of sight.
An equaliser came from nowhere, with timely substitutions changing the course of the game.
The introduction of Paulo Bernardo and Alex Valle reaped an instant dividend when, just a minute later, Daizen Maeda curled a sublime strike into the far corner of the net, off the inside of the post, for 1-1. And the power of Parkhead finally flicked on.
Maeda runs away in delight after his precious equaliser for Celtic
The Japanese international winger scored on the hour mark with a wonder strike
Rodgers congratulates scorer Maeda after the 1-1 draw with Club Brugge
The final stages of the game threatened a late, improbable Celtic win. Against a fast, talented, dangerous Brugge side, a point was fine in the end.
With five games played, eight points preserves hopes of a finish in the top 24 of the single league format. After a torrid, unnerving first half, Rodgers and his team would have taken that.
They lost a goal after 26 minutes, which was careless, panic-stricken, and error strewn. In truth, it summed up their general performance for an hour.
After three home wins on the bounce, hopes of striding into the play-offs with a performance to match the exhilarating drama of the last game against Leipzig proved overly optimistic.
A good deal better than anyone gave them credit for pre-match, Nicky Hayen’s Brugge side passed the ball calmly with precision, attacked with menace, closed down the space and pressed and harried Celtic into mistakes. And, as they say often enough, at this level, the home side were brutally punished for those errors.
With his back to the opposition goal, Nicolas Kuhn was forced to run towards his own. The only option for a pass was Carter-Vickers in his own 18-yard box.
Over his three years in Glasgow, the American has missed more Champions League games than Celtic would have liked. How he must have wished he’d given this one a wide berth when, to gaping mouths and aghast reactions, he turned towards his own goal and, without checking the position of goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, passed it straight into the bottom corner of his own unguarded net.
The goal was a just reward for 26 minutes when the Belgians had clobbered Celtic. As players in blue and black celebrated, not quite sure who to congratulate, Callum McGregor gathered the home team for an impromptu huddle. They’d been so far off the pace, so comprehensively outplayed, it couldn’t go on.
The American defender didn’t know where to look after his howler of an own goal
Carter Vickers was consoled by his fellow defender Johnston
Losing the opening goal to RB Leipzig, Celtic had found a way back. This one looked a good deal tougher. By half-time, they were thankful to get in a single goal down, the performance the polar opposite of what had gone last time out.
Brugge had only scored four goals in their last nine Champions League games and a failure to take chances cost them again here. They should have been out of sight long before Celtic gained a foothold in the game.
There had been an ominous portent of what was to come when Reo Hatate surrendered possession with his back to goal after four minutes. Ferran Jutgla’s left-foot strike fizzed inches wide of Schmeichel’s left-hand post.
In the opening 12 minutes alone, the visitors enjoyed 60-per-cent possession, reducing the crowd to an apprehensive hush. Passing the ball as if they were performing in slippers. Celtic’s midfield — Hatate and Arne Engels in particular — couldn’t get near them.
Not for the first time, this was a night when £11million signing Engels — a former Brugge player — was off it.
Celtic’s threat was too sporadic. When Kuhn cut in from the right at the end of the half and floated one of his crosses into the six-yard box, Hatate threw himself at a diving header which gave Simon Mignolet no real issues. It was something, at least.
At no point in the first half had the home team exerted any measure of control.
How close they came to going two behind in the opening seconds after the restart. A lightning quick Brugge counter crafted a shooting chance for left-back Maxim De Cuyper. It took a superb fingertip save from Schmeichel to prevent the game slipping away.
Club Brugge proved a tough opponent and Celtic were often second best to the Belgian side
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was happy enough with the point after a difficult night
Celtic’s best effort on goal came moments later. Foraging for the ball in a way they’d conspicuously failed to do in the first half, McGregor rolled a square pass to Hatate in a rare shaft of space 18 yards from goal. A thumping left- foot strike went inches wide.
When Andreas Skov Olsen blazed a glorious Brugge chance over the bar on the volley, something had to change.
The introduction of Bernardo for a flailing Engels was overdue. The impact of the lively Valle for Greg Taylor was instant.
The Spaniard had been on the pitch a matter of seconds when he laid the ball on for Maeda on the left side of the area. A drag back and a cut inside Joaquin Seys ended in a strike careering off the inside of the upright.
Minutes after he was jeered for giving the ball away, the Japanese attacker had dragged Celtic back into a game where they’d been second best.
The relief looked short-lived when Brugge, working in tight confines, squeezed the ball into the net via Jutgla. The celebrations of the away players and support were cut short by the narrowest of offsides. How welcome VAR was when the striker’s heel was just inches off.
Game management saw them through on a night when a late Parkhead winner would have been an act of grand larceny.
As the manager said, there’s no code to cracking the Champions League. When the pain and the suffering ended, this was a very acceptable point.
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