Prior to last night’s game, my only worry was that we would be found out in Europe. Found out for not spending money, found out for not having good enough players and found out for not having the quality needed for this level. I have always stuck by the board and the manager but the bottom line here is if you are not willing to spend money you won’t win big games. Last night, Celtic were well and truly found out.
Our failure to gain points away from home in the Champions League is now becoming rather disturbing. We have also conceded three goals in our last four Champions League outings. Something’s not right.
Our bid for Champions League progression is now over, and it remains to be seen whether we will even make it to the UEFA Cup. We are bottom of Group F with no points. Shakhtar are one place and three points ahead of us, but a plus for us is that they have to play two away games – one at Celtic Park in a fortnight - while we have two home games.
Celtic fielded a predictable line-up last night, Bobo Balde made it despite being a doubt. He joined Stan Varga, Jackie McNamara and Didier Agathe in defence. The midfield saw Stan Petrov, Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon all sit behind Juninho, Henri Camara and John Hartson.
Celtic managed to weather the early Shakhtar storm, and were only subjected to a couple of half chances at David Marshall’s goal. We were playing well enough, without creating much ourselves.
Chris Sutton saw a shot blaze just over the top of the Ukranian’s crossbar and was enjoying an attacking midfield role.
A worrying point was the amount of fouls and free-kicks we were giving away. Hartson, Balde and Varga all saw themselves booked, and played the rest of the game on edge. From a free-kick, David Marshall produced a good stop after 25 minutes.
Jackie McNamara seemed to have a re-occurrence of the injury he picked up against Barcelona and was stretchered off the park. While down to ten men, Chris Sutton was unlucky again to find the net, following a John Hartson knockdown. Young Stephen McManus was McNamara’s replacement and the Captain’s armband was passed to Neil Lennon.
Celtic’s best chance of the first half came when Chris Sutton returned the favour and knocked the ball down to John Hartson, who volleyed over the bar. It was a glorious chance and it could all have been so different if he had scored it.
Chris Sutton was hit hard on the face by a thunderbolt of a shot at the tail-end of the half, and was knocked down for several minutes. He appeared to be fine though and there was a sigh of relief when he re-appeared. Shakhtar had a good chance to open the scoring right on half time, but 0-0 seemed to be a fair reflection on the events of the opening period.
The first blow of the second half was the non-appearance of Sutton. Apparently he has sustained concussion and it is unknown whether or not he will be out for a long period of time. He was replaced by Ross Wallace.
Celtic looked all over the place from the start. We never did recover from losing our Captain in the first half then arguably our most influential player at the interval.
Donetsk’s first goal came on 57 minutes when a poor Stan Varga clearance landed at the feet of Matuzalem who blasted past Marshall. Celtic tried to pick the heads up and go for the equaliser, but five minutes later, we were 2-0 down. Once again, Matuzalem was the goalscorer after Celtic’s midfield had been cut through like a knife going through butter. Matuzalem cost Shakhtar £14 Million this summer. That is the difference.
Celtic could have pulled one back soon later, when Henri Camara forced a stop from the Donetsk ‘keeper, when the ball fell to John Hartson, everyone thought he would burst the net. Unfortunately, he blasted over the bar and it goes down as another bad, bad miss.
Aiden McGeady replaced the non-existent Juniho to make his Champions league debut but it was asking far too much of the youngster to come on and turn the game. Right enough, he did more in twenty minutes than Juninho done in the full game. Once again he done nothing and I am not impressed by this signing at all.
It wasn’t long before Celtic were 3-0 down. Once again, we were non-existent in defence and it was Brandao who scored the goal. It was then a countdown to the final whistle, when we were finally put out of our misery. Beaten 3-0 by nothing more than a decent side.
Our best hope is now a UEFA Cup spot. It is not impossible but our defence needs to pull themselves together as we are losing far too many goals. I feel we lack any source of luck at all, but that’s life.
In the end, you have to look at the situation. Shakhtar Donetsk have spent millions in the summer and are clearly wishing to make an impact on European football. Celtic, spent £1.5 Million on a loan signing, brought in a Bosman transfer and seem quite content just to be here. Not good enough.
We are punching above our weight in the Champions League and until we spend vast amounts of money, we will never progress. That is the bottom line.
Onwards to Livingston, Over and Over.
Celtic:
Marshall – 7
Varga – 6
Balde – 6
McNamara – 7 (McManus - 6)
Agathe – 7
Lennon – 7
Sutton – 8 (Wallace - 6)
Petrov – 6
Juninho – 5 (McGeady – 5)
Camara – 7
Hartson – 6