A combination of poor decision making in the final third, wasteful striking and a linesman who really shouldn't get offside decisions like that wrong saw Celtic drop two points that they really should have not.
Celtic started the game in their usual 4-4-2 formation with Nakamura and Hinkle getting restored to the first team, with the later being included due to the injury of Mark Wilson. Paul Hartley was dropped to the bench in order to give Celtic the attacking potential to create enough chances to win the match and although that did leave us open to counter attacks it did ensure that we could play the majority of the game in the oppositions half.
Celtic created chance after chance in the match with Maloney, Samaras and big Jan missing a plethora of chances throughout the game that they really should have buried. Celtic's reluctance to shoot on site also cost us dear and although Maloney won the penalty that Barry Robson scored was there really any need for him to turn the defender when he had a clear site of goal?
What can you say about the referee and his assistants? Glaring errors will see that referee getting relegated to officiating pub leagues after he failed to see the distinction between a 6ft tall blonde Scandinavian player and a 6ft 7 Aussie with black hair but that was not the only error the flapping Italian made.
Whilst I cannot bring myself to admonish Barry Robson from any blame in relation to his penalty miss the fact that the ref allowed the Aalborg goalie to be fully two yards off his line before the penalty was struck was an indication of things to come from this bungling official. Robson's decision to blast the ball down the middle was the wrong one and I for one hope that he is either removed from this duty or schooled in how to hit a penalty. Another error that the ref made was he failed to notice that the Aalborg left back clearly and deliberately used his right hand in getting the ball clear.
And then this brings us on to the linesman. I am of no doubt that making a correct decision in relation to flagging a player offside is one of great difficulty, but I would expect a Linesman who is rated highly enough to be officiating a match of this magnitude to get at least one decision correct in the match. He unfortunately didn't and Celtic had a perfectly legit goal chopped off as a result of his ineptitude.
So where does this leave us now? Well despite the over-reaction to this result in the Press I had to remind myself that no prizes are handed out at this stage of the season. Yes we had the opportunity to top the group and make our trip to Villarreal a little more comfortable but the fact that both games last night ended in a draw means that we are far from out of it yet. All this means is that we will have to win at least one away game and if we are to progress with any comfort then we really must get a point from at least one other away game plus win our remaining home fixtures.
Finally I have to ask all of the so called supporters who booed last night do they really feel that venting their frustration in this manner will help? I certainly don't think so and I would suggest that these people maybe take a look at the game again and see if their reaction to what was a disappointing result was really justified? I personally don't think so and I feel that opinion is vindicated by the amount of possession we had and the range of chances that we created from it.
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt