Celtic surrender late lead at Celtic Park to Celta Vigo in Europa League loss
Callum Osmand and Celtic lost at Celtic Park in Glasgow on Thursday, surrendering a late lead to Celta Vigo in their Europa League fixture and walking away with no points.
Mika Baur scored early in the second half and, for a period, Celtic enjoyed intensity, momentum and belief; Liam Scales had a header that bounced off the top of the crossbar while the La Liga visitors registered more than 350 passes in the opening half but only one attempt on target.
The game turned in the closing half-hour, notably between minutes 68 and 71, when Celtic went from three points to none after a Celta Vigo turnaround; Celtic stopped playing and stopped believing as the match slipped away.
Celtic have already complained about an unpunished foul on Camilo Duran immediately before the equaliser, but errors followed: the side failed to deal with a free-kick, did not pick up the initial goalscorer and compounded those mistakes in conceding the second goal.
Long before the final whistle Celtic were described as psychologically spent, and the defeat was their third successive loss in European competition; the club sit 35th out of 36 teams in the Europa League table, with only a team from Armenia below them.
Domestically there has been recent success — including a 7-1 win over Hearts — but that has not silenced critics after prior defeats to Rangers and failures against LASK, Ferencvaros and Benfica, and some supporters responded after the Hearts victory with the message: 'what are you saying to it now?'. Manager Martin O'Neill told reporters on Thursday that there are still loads of points to play for, and he later said he "can't ask anything more" from his players.
The club's hierarchy was also criticised for its absence from news conferences — "no chief executive, no chairman, no major shareholder and no major shareholder's son" were present, leaving the manager and assistant to answer questions — and the article highlighted televised reminders of past European nights alongside empty seats and early departures, asking whether Celtic will continue a slide from Champions League to Europa League and, as posed in the coverage, to the Conference League.
