It is not impossible for Celtic to tip the balance of Wednesday night’s tie against AEK Athens back in their favour but I think you have to appreciate that it will be very difficult now.
I do think that Celtic really had to take some kind of lead from the game before going into the second leg.
You can’t underestimate the condition in Athens. It will be hot, it will be volatile inside the stadium and AEK will be a week further on in terms of their own fitness.
We could all see that they were a cut above what Celtic have faced in the competition so far. It will be a really difficult night over in Athens now as Brendan Rodgers’ side look to get the result that would take them through.
I actually thought that Celtic started very brightly on Wednesday night. It was a really well-worked goal. But the manner in which they lost a goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of them a bit – as well as giving them a huge boost.
Celtic switched off entirely for the goal. Mikael Lustig looked as though he expected the ball to go out of play so the cross got over and the central pairing seemed to think that same.
They were caught out, I don’t think there is any question about that. It was sloppy and that seemed to play on Celtic a bit.
And when Athens went down to ten men I thought Celtic looked even less likely to score. It will be an extremely difficult test not to try and find a way through.
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