CELTIC fell to another humiliating defeat to Sparta Prague and exited the Europa League with a whimper on matchday four of the competition.
Celtic and Neil Lennon had learned zero lessons from the first tie at Celtic Park where they lost 4-1 and for all their possession, they didn’t show any killer instinct. Something the Czech media picked up on during the game. Pressure from Celtic was great but Sparta Prague dealt with it well and for all the Scottish Champions possession, particularly in the second half, there just wasn’t any edge to their play.
It felt as if it was just a matter of time before Sparta broke away and it transpired to be the case. One media outlet in the Czech Republic wrote Celtic just dropped out completely in the end.
Here’s how some media outlets in the country called it:
IrozHlas said: With the score 2: 1, after the change of sides, Sparta could hardly get to the ball at all, for a long time only Celtic played, but he had only a minimum of opportunities and after the second Juliš’s shot, the guests dropped out completely.
https://www.eurofotbal.cz/ Wrote: Instead of lowering the result from Glasgow, Sparta hammered the proverbial nail into the coffin in the fourth minute. Again, it was thanks to a quick transition from the defensive half to the offensive, Srdjan Plavšić then overcame the running Bain, bypassed McGregor and ended up in a half-empty goal.
Sportz.cz summed things up: Celtic pressure was strong, but Sparta’s lightning break was utilised to perfection.
Celtic look like they have no answer to the way teams set up against them. There’s no confidence among the support we can win any given game.
It’s testing times for everyone and with the way things look in the league, we’re on a downward trajectory.
