5 Reasons Why Celtic Are Out Of Europe

2. Luck

OK so Kayal's goal was lucky but that was the only luck we had in the 5 group games. I don't want to say 'base your approach on the best teams in the world making mistakes' but Celtic really haven't had the rub of the green this season. Players need to be on the very top of their game and mistakes are frequently punished in the Champions League. If we look at last season; Xavi missed a simple clearance for Tony Watt's goal against Barcelona, Benfica & Spartak missed a couple of glaring opportunities in the 0-0 draw and 1-0 win, Messi hit the woodwork a handful of times, Common's penalty crashed off the underside of the bar and across the line, etc. Now I wouldn't dare take anything away from last season because I am so proud of my beloved club reaching the last 16 but there are certain elements of luck that it would be ignorant to ignore. This season, such luck evaded us completely. Izaguirre deflected a shot which would've probably hit the corner flag into the bottom corner of the net, Valdes made an incredible save from James Forrest at 0-0, Van Dijk, Kayal, Forrest & Mulgrew each had opportunities to score against Milan this week and Brown had a big chance against Milan in the first game. Sure these can be addressed as poor finishing / great goalkeeping but there's no way Valdes makes that save 10/10 times, we were just unlucky! I'm bringing a monkey's foot, a four leaf clover and Harvey Dent's mangled coin to the Nou Camp. Do your worst Neymar.