‘Sickening’ ‘Missed opportunity’ ‘a sore one’ leading pundit delivers brutally honest Celtic verdict
Soccer Football - Champions League - Group E - Celtic v Lazio - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - October 4, 2023 Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates scoring their first goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Chris Sutton watched Celtic’s Champions League defeat from Lazio as a fan last night, there was no cameras or microphones looking for his commentary, analysis and viewpoints.
The pain wasn’t reduced as a famialar story was played out, the promise and excitement eventually overcome by the inevitable pain of defeat.
Over the last half dozen years the former Blackburn striker has observed at first hand Celtic’s European adventures for BT Sport which inevitably ended in post mortems over failings.
Four years ago Lazio were beaten home and away in the Europa League, last season there was hope and promise in the return to the Champions League under Ange Postecoglou.
This season there is no mega club or Group of Death to contend with but familiar failings were brutally punished as the wait for a home win in the Champions League stretches beyond 10 years.
That’s a sore one for Celtic. Missed opportunity… never did enough to win it but losing to a team in all truth on the night who were beatable even at this level was sickening…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) October 4, 2023
Without Liel Abada and Jota out wide and with a makeshift central defence Celtic were exposed and beaten by a side struggling at home. With seven points from seven matches in Serie A Lazio should have been vulnerable but left Glasgow with a confidence boost.
Brendan Rodgers has his work cut out to make this squad competitive in the Champions League, it doesn’t get easier with back-to-back matches coming up against Atletico Madrid. Sutton’s objective analysis won’t be far off from the thinking of most Celtic supporters.