Celtic 1-1 Midtjylland: Three Things We Learned

We’re still very much in the early phases of this season’s Champions League but with the qualifying rounds underway, we’re already seeing a lot of interesting results take place regardless of which way we turn. One such instance occurred last night when Celtic hosted FC Midtjylland in the first leg of their tie, and while it may not have been full to the brim with beautiful football, we did get an entertaining game that ended 1-1.

As both sides look ahead to the crucial return leg, we’re going to take a look at some of the deeper talking points coming out of the evening.

Postecoglou’s honesty

After what some considered to be a disappointing result on home soil, new manager Ange Postecoglou had the following to say regarding the performance.

“I don’t think we will ever be as badly prepared as we were tonight and that’s on me,” he said.

“I haven’t done a great job so far because with the disruptions we’ve had, we haven’t been able to bring the players in. My role is to try and reinforce and prepare this squad.

“To their credit, the players didn’t look for excuses. They put in a solid shift and I’m just disappointed they didn’t get the rewards for what I thought was an outstanding performance.”

A scrappy affair

Nir Bitton received a second yellow card for reacting to simulation from an opposing player before that same player, Anders Dreyer, was sent off for repeating his actions. It was a decisively strange game of football to say the least with an abundance of talking points, but it does make us wonder what kind of future either team has in the competition. Plus, on top of that, they’ve got the following to deal with in the next round.

The end of the road for both?

PSV Eindhoven or Galatasaray.

There truly is no rest for the wicked with the victor of this tie being forced to kick on and play one of two really tough European sides. The winner is going to be the underdog no matter what happens and while building momentum off the back of a strong second leg outing is still likely, that doesn’t mean all of the questions are simply going to disappear.

This season’s Champions League is going to be full of many elite clubs and we’re pretty sure neither of these two fit that delightful description.