Celtic’s rookies shine against Serie A stars

Disappointed to be honest, and not just by the fact we lost to a soft penalty with two minutes to go. I genuinely thought Udinese were there for the taking and we should have beat them.

After scoring an early goal we should of went gung ho after a second because defending a one goal lead would not be considered our strongest point. Most Celtic fans would have taken the draw before the game though and there are some positives to be taken from it.

We scored a penalty, had solid performances from Victor Wanyama and Mohamed Bangura and we dictated the first half against a very good Serie A team.

One thing that annoyed me yesterday in the pre match build up and the reports of the game afterwards was how under strength and inexperienced Udinese were.

The BBC match report went as far as stating that Udinese had seven players aged 23 or under. That is fair enough I suppose, but most neutral fans reading these reports will think Celtic drew a game they should have won.

Guess how many players aged 23 and under we had playing for us? Seven. Also Adam Matthews, Bangura and Wanyama had a total of six starts between them, is that considered experienced?

I am certain there is not one Celtic fan out there who would have predicted our starting lineup last night, so how can the media go on about Udinese not fielding their strongest lineup yet not mention us doing the same.

This is what I am most disappointed with, why did we not play our strongest side? You could make a case for Matthews now being our starting right back, he looks better every game but why give Bangura his first start and Wanyama his second? Why Zaluska in nets?

Now if this was the line-up against Ross County last week I could understand. That is the type of game to bleed the new players and give fringe players a run, but to do it in the Europa League that we fought tooth and nail to get into raises a few eyebrows.

Surely this is a game you play your most experienced players available, rather than a team of players that have hardly any game time playing together and with two of our best players playing out of position, Ledley and Ki. It is a good thing the team played well, if they got beat comfortably there would be even more question marks on Neil Lennon’s managerial ability and more fans turning against him.

I am equal parts happy with the performance, disappointed with the result. A win and we could still look to get out of this group, now we need four points from our Stade Rennes games to stand a chance. After two games we have only one point but we have shown glimpses of not being entirely out of our depth. Let’s smash Hearts at the weekend to cheer us up.

Anyone happy with our performances so far? Anyone think we should be doing better?

CLICK HERE for Neil Lennon and players praise the Green Brigade

CLICK HERE   for Carlos Tevez incident in the Bayern Munich dug out

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