It was a frustrating and disappointing afternoon for Ange Postecoglou and his squad as they missed the chance to go top of the league with a victory over Livingston.
The best chance of the game, of course, came the way of striker Giorgos Giakoumakis who stepped up from the penalty spot in stoppage time and saw his spot-kick saved, to the frustration of the majority of people within Parkhead.
Despite the late error, which meant the Hoops took home just a single point from the game, Giakoumakis’ fellow team-mate and deadline day signing – Jota was quick to back the Greek frontman in the aftermath of the game.
“I think a moment doesn’t describe a game. So we just have to be with each other, support each other and be a team,” he said as quoted by Sun Sport.
“It’s not because of him that we drew this game. We are a team. You have to work together and fight together to win together.”
‘Asked if Giakoumakis had apologised afterwards, the on-loan Benfica winger responded’: “I don’t think it’s the way he should be.
“It’s a penalty, and it’s a moment in the game, but it doesn’t describe it.”
As previously mentioned, of course, there was plenty of disappointment oozing around Parkhead after a problematic 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon.
However, it wasn’t just Giakoumakis to blame for dropping points, even if he did squander the best chance to do so in the dying moments of the game.
It is good to see some togetherness within this squad, which we have slowly been beginning to see across the last month after some tough victories on the road.
From here, though, we now must bounce back with a win in another massive game for our season on Thursday against Ferencvaros.
You would be disappointed if his team mates did not rally round him. But he made a complete mess of this and was ineffectual all afternoon. He looked terrified and looked as if he was going to miss in his pathetic approach to the kick. And to top things off he does not look like much of a player and should not have been on he pitch in the first place as Ange made a huge mistake not playing Kyogo and then keeping the big fella on when he should have been subbed off. It is a huge moment even this early and our bottle is called into question. The pressure is all off them today and they will win convincingly because of this. I don’t think we will reach the top the rest of the season. There are serious doubts about this team. Most Celtic supporters have real doubts about it and the manager. Winning a few games against quite poor opposition builds confidence but dos not completely convince. And very poor performances like yesterday shatter that confidence I do believe this will be the pattern of the season. They will win the league with about 86/87 points. What an opportunity we are blowing. CL money guaranteed. We cannot afford to let unconvincing players take vital penalties when better options are on the park. Not winning the league this season will probably result in 5 in a row. It will certainly save them. Maybe that is the plan keep the blue pound, don’t let therangers die.
Let’s be brutally honest, the greek overhead kick specialist is absolutely bang average who should be nowhere near Celtic.
Wow ..if you studied Gia’s goals from last season almost half were penalties. He is roughly a quarter of the price of Edouard, who also missed key penalties, so maybe we can cut him some slack..Some Celtic guys think we can buy a Larsson every other year… won’t happen.