5 Reasons Why Celtic Are Out Of Europe
So I sat on my couch with my friends on Tuesday night with my head in my hands for about 15 minutes. Van Dijk had just missed a glaring opportunity to equalise against the mighty (if not currently mighty) AC Milan and 30 seconds later it was 2-0. That feeling of such deflation is almost unbearable. I couldn't figure out where it all went wrong.
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I've suffered through every group Celtic game this year and I'll try to dissect 5 key elements to our disappointing Champions League campaign. After the dizzy heights of beating Messi & Co and reaching the last 16 it's hard to believe we lost 4 of 5 games after performing so courageously. Celtic are swamped in oppositional quality in the Champions League which is a direct role reversal to Scottish league football, and for such a financially dwarfed club in Europe Celtic supporters could be forgiven for expecting to struggle in the Champions League. Prior to last season's campaign I lost count of the amount of journalists who had written Celtic off as 'wont score a goal, won't get a point' and Neil Lennon proved them all wrong. So to expect such a performance this season after losing a number of important players could be a little naïve. I firmly believe that this Celtic team were good enough to compete in this season's group but we were exposed to a number of weaknesses. There are plenty of reasons for Celtic to crawl out of Group (of death) H with their heads held high but I believe the following areas will need to be addressed before next season's European adventure...