There may have been apathy towards the Europa League among Celtic fans and anger at the club’s board for the team being in the competition in the first place, but the Scottish champions gave their lot to secure a point in the hostile Rajko Mitic Stadium to give themselves a platform to attack the tournament.
Half time substitute Kelechi Iheanacho had an instant impact as he kept his cool to slot Celtic ahead, but an avoidable equaliser from Red Star Belgrade’s Marko Arnautovic meant that Brendan Rodgers and his men had to settle for a point. Still, that was a more than acceptable outcome, and probably a fair result over the piece.
Here are the talking points from Belgrade.
Iheanacho makes his mark after ineffectual Maeda display
If there was a little bit of a surprise prior to kick off when Celtic manager Rodgers opted to drop Iheanacho to his bench and play Daizen Maeda through the middle, there was certainly none when he turned to the new arrival at the interval, after a first half where Maeda touched the ball eight times and was offside on almost as many occasions.
Celtic posed more threat in the opening 10 minutes of the second period than they had for the entirety of the first half, with Benjamin Nygren spurning a glorious chance after great work from Kieran Tierney and then Iheanacho somehow failing to score from a couple of yards after Nygren had atoned for his miss with some fine set up play of his own.
In fairness, it was a wonderful save from home keeper Matheus Magalhaes. The striker wasn’t about to pass up another opportunity, though, and when Nygren again picked him out in the area with an incisive pass into his feet he took a touch, steadied himself, and cooly finished into the top corner to send the small wedge of Celtic fans wild.
He might have put Celtic ahead again with 20 minutes to go, just failing to lift the ball over the advancing Magalhaes, but he provided a real spark up top and showed quality to boot.
There may have been fears that Iheanacho’s star was on the wane, but he is showing promise in these early days of his Celtic career that there is still a player in there alright, and one that may prove a very useful signing – even if he was a rather panicked one.
Celtic handle raucous atmosphere
The sweltering heat of the last couple of days in the Serbian capital had given way to torrential rain about half an hour before kick-off, which the Celtic players were no doubt grateful of. Especially as they had been promised a hot reception from their hosts.
‘Welcome to Hellgrade’ said signs outside the stadium, but while the atmosphere inside this throwback of an old bowl was lively enough, the fact that the locals aren’t too enamoured with their own team at the minute due to their own Champions League exit at the hands of Pafos FC meant that it was far from full.
The club expected a crowd of around 40,000, which was 10,000 or so short of capacity, with the 2000 or so Celtic fans tucked away in a corner and situated as far as was humanly possible from the home support.
It was only really as the game got underway that things heated up, with a huge, choreographed display and song and dance routine in the one end behind the goals that was packed out a sight to behold. But it was still unlikely to intimidate the Celtic players, and indeed, they settled into some early possession that dispelled any notion that they would be cowed by what they had walked into down the Marakana’s famous 73-metre-long tunnel.
The big fear was after the equalising goal, when the stadium exploded, and willed their team to go on and find a winner, but Celtic stood tall.
Though, a cheap concession costs Celtic again in Europe
Having got their noses in front, Celtic will be desperately disappointed with how they ceded their advantage. A simple ball into the area wasn’t dealt with, squirting to the back post where Schmeichel had to cover with no defender reacting. The ball was subsequently cut back for Arnautovic to tap home from a couple of yards.
The concession of cheap goals on their continental travels have been an Achilles heel of Celtic’s for long and weary, but Rodgers may have thought they were a thing of the past after finding a way to bolt the door after the thumping in Dortmund last season.
Unfortunately, their good work at the start of the second half was undone by the reemergence of that slackness, but at least they then managed to steady the ship instead of going under, something we have also seen in the past.
In the end, the draw was a good result, but had they stayed switched on at the back it could have been even better.
Composition of midfield remains a live issue
When the game started, it became apparent quite early on that Red Star were happy enough for Celtic to have the ball in deep areas before pouncing on any errors or turnovers to spring forward. And thanks to the slackness of the Celtic midfield, there were plenty of them.
There are rarely any six out of 10 performances from Reo Hatate. He can swing from the sublime to the ridiculous within the course of a single match, never mind week to week, but here he was in one of those moods that must frustrate the life out of his manager.
Time and again he ceded possession in the first half, and he was extremely lucky not to be punished for his carelessness as his poor ball led to home captain Mirko Ivanic swinging a ball to the back post that Arnautovic volleyed just wide.
In fairness to Hatate, he was hardly alone. Nygren was struggling to hold onto the ball at all in the first half and even Callum McGregor was at it, the captain playing a hospital pass to Yang Hyun-jun that led to Bruno Duarte forcing a fingertip save onto the crossbar from Kasper Schmeichel.
The lack of physicality is one thing in the middle of the park for Celtic, but the flip side is that the three first picks are normally much more technically proficient than they showed here.
Impressive Colby Donovan repays manager’s faith
Celtic manager Rodgers spoke highly of Donovan in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, and said he would have no qualms about throwing the youngster into this sort of environment. His faith was more than rewarded.
Strong defensively, always willing to get forward to help out in attack, tidy in possession when coming inside to play as an inverted full back at times and throwing in a couple of wicked crosses, the 19-year -old can be proud of his display. He looks to have a bright future.
