Scott Brown is still haunted by Celtic’s Champions League exit from Cluj.
Celtic were leading 2-1 with 15 minutes left to play when the midfielder stuck his hand out in the penalty box with no real danger anywhere around.
Two minutes after Billel Omrani scored from the penalty spot Ryan Christie restored Celtic’s lead but the night got worse as the Romanian’s scored twice to send the hoops out of the Champions League qualifiers at the third round.
A couple of days later Celtic laboured their way past Dunfermline in the Betfred Cup but qualification for the Europa League and a six match winning run in the SPFL- including a win at Ibrox- got the season back on track.
While Celtic were earning a credible 1-1 draw away to Rennes, Cluj were beating Lazio 2-1 at home to set up Matchday 2 with revenge in the air for the Celtic skipper as he told The Sun:
I think we owe them one to be perfectly honest — and especially me. In the last match I gave away a hand ball, and that is not like me. It was just one of those freak moments.
Is it still in the back of my mind? There’s a LOT in the back of my mind! There’s a big book there but you don’t dwell on it too long. The good thing about football is that there is another game three or four days later where you can go out there and prove everyone wrong.
We’re in a good place just now — but we were in a good place before the Champions League game as well. It was just one sloppy game where we probably didn’t perform as well as we should have.
It was a disappointing performance but we are in the Europa League now, and we’ve got Cluj yet again. We know how they play and they know how we play. It’s going to be a good game.
After sitting out the Champions League qualifiers Christopher Jullien and Boli Bolingoli are both likely to start Thursday’s re-match.