Celtic fans looked on in despair tonight as their side lost 2-1 at home to Molde.
The fall out from the 3-1 defeat in Norway last month was dramatic with more criticism bound to follow on after a another dis-spiriting display in which Kieran Tierney was the only player to earn pass marks.
Although it is possible for Celtic to qualify from Group A no one will be kidded that the team is progressing after back-to-back defeats from the side currently sitting in sixth place in the Norwegian League.
For the sixth successive European match Celtic lost two goals with tonight’s action a re-run of a depressingly familiar movie.
Ronny Deila has only lost one domestic match of note, the highly controversial Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Inverness Caley Thistle, but his European record makes for grim reading.
Last season’s double defeats to Legia Warsaw and Maribor were more or less accepted by a support hopeful of a new direction that would see the club competing meaningfully in the Champions League group stage rather than making up the numbers.
Deila’s wishes have been embraced by the support, a younger, fitter, leaner squad that sacrificed a striker to accommodate a 4-2-3-1 system with the emphasis firmly on the midfielders.
After the defensive collapse against Malmo cost the club a place in the Champions League the concerns from a year ago escalated with Virgil van Dijk departing for Southampton in the aftermath.
Jozo Simunovic, Tyler Blackett, Dedryck Boyata and Efe Ambrose have all been tried in the bid to find a settled defence but regardless of the personnel the flow of goals lost have continued with Craig Gordon’s form taking a dip.
Losing 2-1 at half-time the team was booed off the pitch, within a minute of the restart Blackett and substitute James Forrest has misplaced passes as the first half nerves returned.
There was a growing desperation about Celtic’s play in the second half against well drilled opponents who knew exactly what they were doing as they soaked up Celtic’s possession before breaking with menace and purpose.
At the slightest sign of threatening the Molde goal the vocal support was increased with headers from Mickel Lustig and Nir Bitton coming close to finding the net on the hour mark.
Any flicker of hope that something could be salvaged from the game died when Bitton was red carded with the Israeli moved back into defence after substitute Blackett was replaced by Nadir Ciftci.
Bitton and Stefan Johansen will be suspended for the match against Ajax but much bigger questions will be asked before Celtic face the Dutch side who have also failed to win any of their first four group matches.
As the final whistle blew there was a silent resignation among the home supporters left in the stadium as they applauded the Norwegian side whose competence had outsmarted Celtic twice in a fortnight.
No more lame excuses from our manager I hope after a very poor performance once again,
I don’t think you will see Blackett again in a Celtic shirt he was abysmal, Boyata not much better and why Armstrong started ahead of Forrest beats me,Rogic and Johansen also poor.
At the end of the day it will be all down to the manager and rightly so. This team had no fight tonight and a few of them should hang their heads, slow tippy tappy football will soon see the attendances fall.
Forrest was non existent. He was worse than Armstrong!
Paul……agreed!
No pace no fight no chance just the usual rubbish we cannot keep selling our best players and expect manager to work miracles in Europe with sub stardered players we are not even a Europe team standard
No fight and no passion…This isn’t Celtic out on that pitch!
Woeful performance from us tonight.
Goodbye Ronny!
Kieran Tierney the only player in a Celtic shirt who even tried tonight. Could someone find out if he has any brothers or sisters at home,they would give more than most of the Celtic team. You should be ashamed of yourselves to wear a hoops shirt. As for Ronnie, you need to take the blame.
Indeed. I’d rather lose with a youth team putting in a shift than win with that shower.
And why did we start Simunovic if he was already crocked?
Worst celtic performance I’ve seen in europe in last 30year .
We’ve the worse two centre backs in British football
No supporter with any wit can now still support Ronnie. Enough is enough, hopeless!
He arrived from the Norwegian league, he knows that league inside out and yet we lose 5-2 on aggregate …………says it all really, no more excuses, I’m fed up, time tae go :'(
Celtic wur sh**e tonight, everyone goes on how commons should start, yet again nonexistent in the first half, whole midfield is lacking any kind of drive no one willing to take the ball through the middle and at least have a dig at the edge of the box, ronny tactics wur sh**e again, but if he’s sacked who do we all actually think is going to take that job, no money to spend an unambitious board who happily accept the 10ms for our star players and fail to replace them, no one’s going to be stupid enough to come to parkhead
Haven’t seen the game yet here in Adelaide however the result was the same! At what point do the board act!!!!
You pay peanuts you get monkeys !
Disgraceful performance again from a team with no courage.
The decision to play a crocked player means enough is enough. Ronnie has to go.
Every week he brings on effe, he should have had the balls to do it again but sh#t it.
Celtic park should be buzzing on European nights with the team up and at them from the off not this team it’s slow predictable and backward.
We need to change managers and do it quickly. So we are ready for next season.
Ronnie says we will fight to get to the last 32 !
No fight, no tactics, a severe lack of skills…right Ronnie!
Taxi for Delia !!!
The board at Celtic once again display their inability to get it right, they continue to pocket large sums of money from the sale of players yet provide a pittance for player investment.
No wonder Celtic are the predictable laughing stock of Europe.
Who knows what they are thinking of Scottish football as a whole……laughable !!!
That was the worst performance I have witnessed at Celtic park on a European night we are becoming a laughing stock in Europe now
This is one of the weakest Celtic teams seen for years. Total lack of spirit, determination, and any idea what it should mean to play for the jersey, KT the exception. A seriously poor performance. What exactly they are practicing on the training ground, who knows. Ronny’s a nice guy but this team ain’t going forward. Defence a total shambles. Time for a change, Paul Daniels is free apparently with Debbie as his No.2.