Another disappointing night in Europe that offered so much for Celtic. What’s clear is that this is not the same RB Leipzig team that played Shakhtar in the first round of matches. So how did our players do individually tonight. Here are my player ratings…
Joe Hart: 5- Little to do other pick the ball out of the net. Was alert on a couple of occasions to sweep up potentially dangerous through balls. Howler for their second after VAR reprieve. These are the days when you see why Pep didn’t have faith in his distribution.
Josip Juranovic: 6- Tried to get forward as much as possible but seemed to have little faith in linking with his Maeda. Difficult night for him when pulled out of position through midfield errors.
Greg Taylor: 6- Gave his all as usual but lacking height against his opponent made it a difficult night. Ball watched at times which gave his opponent 5 yards on him.
Moritz Jenz: 5- Distribution poor, never seemed alert to potential dangers. Always a half step off the Leipzig frontmen.
Stephen Welsh: 6- He’s young and makes a lot of positional mistakes but he often is able to get back into position. Coped better than his defensive partner and made some solid interceptions.
Callum McGregor: 5- Sloppy control cost him in build up to first goal. He should have brought Silva down and took the booking. But his absence was certainly noticeable in the second half. Hopefully the injury isn’t too severe for the skipper.
Reo Hatate: 7- One of the few players who can leave that game with their head held high. Quality pass to set up the goal. Tried to control the midfield and his passing range was as usual superb. Ran out of steam near the end.
Matt O’Reilly: 6- Plenty of endeavour but still doesn’t offer enough threat in that ‘Rogic’ role. Tracked back well before substituted.
Daizen Maeda: 5- Plenty of running again, failed to deliver again. Huge questions must be asked of his place in the team now, particularly at this level.
Jota: 6- Clearly the targeted man by Leipzig, was never allowed to turn or run at his opponents. Goal showed his quality but all too fleeting. Frustrating night for the Portuguese star.
Kyogo Furuhashi: 8- Best player on the park for us. Had some good chances with his movement across the frontline. Terrific assist for the goal.
Substitutions
Oliver Abildgaard: 6 ½ – Disagree with Sutton’s comments here, he did the defensive job well. Not to be expected to play the passing role McGregor does. May be the way forward in Europe as holder allowing McGregor and Hatate to dominate midfield.
Saed Haksabanovic: 4- 15 minutes to change a game, not much doing as we hung on to a 2 goal deficit.
James Forrest: 4- Other than a fresh swipe on 18 yard box did little in last 15 minutes
Georgious Giakoumakis: 4- Plenty of heart as always but game was done
James McCarthy: 4- Best pass he’s made in a Celtic shirt came to nothing.
Ange says it’s a learning curve in the champions league, well the only guy at Celtic not learning is Ange!!
I said before kick off we should have played Abilgaard from the start with Cal and what was evident was we had no centre midfield even when Cal was on the park. Abilgaard has been there for 5 weeks but no match sharpness. Only one person to blame for that, Ange!
Also Maeda, the worst player on the park in 3 champions league games. He seems blinded buy this.
Play Haksabanovic, again 5 weeks and hardly any game time. It has to be asked, what is Ange doing???
The only thing that may help us is that Real Madrid are beating everyone else, keeping us in with a chance from this league.