Celtic’s hopes for a Champions League trip this season are already over after they crashed out of the second qualifier in Midtjylland’s hands on Wednesday, after which manager Ange Postecoglou admitted that he was less than impressed by the condition of the squad he received.
After pulling the first leg 1-1, Celtic took the lead in this game through Callum McGregor, but his effort was soon interrupted by a strike from But Mabil who took the game to extra time, where a 94th minute bet from Raphael Onyedika was enough to see Celtic miss the Champions League group stage for the fourth season.
The rings are knocked out from @ ChampionsLeague. # FCMCEL
– Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 28, 2021
Celtic have made five summer deals, but Kyogo Furuhashi and Carl Starfelt are both in quarantine and the young former Sheffield Wednesday duo Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide did not even leave the bench on Wednesday, leaving 19-year-old Liel Abada as the only new face to function. .
After the match, Postecoglou did his best to stay cool, but he could not help but express his frustration with those responsible at Celtic for not strengthening the squad and keeping the team competitive.
“I take responsibility,” he said (via The Guardian). “I am the person who has been given the responsibility. We do not have players, I have obviously not done a good enough job of convincing people we needed to get people in.
“I’m not going to hide it. I’m not saying that because I’m a kind of martyr, I just think it’s my responsibility, that’s why I was taken in.
“I have tried to be as forceful as possible about what we need to take in, and the challenges we have had are well addressed. Regardless of the result tonight, we still need reinforcements. We had a really young squad out there, young players on the bench. That is not a situation we need to be in. “
Postecoglou was then asked if they in the boardroom had not understood the difficulty of the situation, and although he ended up accusing the board of betraying the team, his message was clear.
“I may not have been clear enough, I do not know,” he said. “I think I have been quite consistent in saying that we need more players.
“The club is working hard to bring in these players. I’ve talked endlessly about the challenges we face. Our supporters just want to see us bring in the reinforcements we need, and I just have to keep reinforcing my views on what’s strong. I can.
Postecoglou wants more from the board / Steve Welsh / Getty Images
“I can not blame the players’ effort, they worked off the socks. We controlled the game, scored, had a good chance to go 2-0 up and immediately they scored and we lost some speed. We just looked a little tired in the end and lacked a little energy to get back to the game.
“Great moments cost us. Moments change games and we had some pretty good moments. It’s frustrating, but looking at the four backs we put out there, the average age of these boys, it was a huge attempt to keep us in the tie. ”
