CELTIC have been serial treble winners under Brendan Rodgers but for a few minutes at least yesterday some observers wondered if the club might be on the cusp of racking up an altogether less fortunate hat-trick. The Parkhead side haven’t lost three successive matches for 11 years but when Partick’s Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo capitalised on some excellent work by teenager Aidan Fitzpatrick to cancel out an early Leigh Griffiths strike and level things up with quarter of an hour to play, the home side fancied their chances of turning last week’s drama at Parkhead into a full-blown crisis.
Instead, regardless of those setbacks against Hearts and AEK Athens in the last seven days, Celtic simply did what good teams do – they found a response. Raising the level of their play, they scored two goals in three minutes through Moussa Dembele and Tom Rogic, the holders moving their domestic run in the cup competitions under Rodgers to 19 as they moved into the last eight of the Betfred Cup. Having held little than criticism for the best part of a week, this group of players walked off Firhill with praise ringing in their ears. That must have come as a particular novelty factor to Costa Rican full back Cristian Gamboa, who got assists for each of the last two goals.
With Dedryck Boyata working out with the club’s development squad ahead of his return to what should be an interesting return to first-team training tomorrow, another man feeling the effects of a minor muscle strain was Kieran Tierney. Having missed training on Friday, he was omitted from the squad yesterday, facilitating a return to first-team duties for Emilio Izaguirre after his return to Scotland after a spell in Saudi Arabian football.
While the little Honduran looked like he had never been away, there were six changes in all from the side which experienced that humbling reverse against AEK Athens in midweek. Michael Johnston looked enterprising and eager for a goal on the right of the front three, with Kris Ajer and Jack Hendry the preferred pairing at centre half.
After seeing their heroes’ wings clipped in such fashion, it must have gladdened the hearts of the Celtic supporters to see Leigh Griffiths back and firing. Having been stuck on 98 Celtic goals since April, he enjoyed the moment, 18 minutes in, when he grabbed his first goal of the campaign and moved one closer to becoming the first man to hit a century of Celtic goals since John Hartson.
Rogic had already tested Cammy Bell by the time Scott Sinclair, showing signs of life after an underwhelming previous campaign, wriggled to the byline and had the composure to roll over a fine cut back. Griffiths had found space and his low finish was cleanly enough struck to trickle over the line despite a touch from a back-tracking defender along the way. Noted for his goal celebrations, Griffiths’ yesterday included helping a steward deal with one of two green smoke bombs thrown onto the park.
There wasn’t much in the way of fireworks from Celtic on the field yesterday – Oliver Ntcham struck the bar with a nice dipping shot before half time and Rogic and Johnston went close – and we had a match on our hands when the lively Fitzpatrick fed in Mbuyi-Mutombo to level things up.
But the arrival of reinforcements from the bench, not least Moussa Dembele, galvanised Celtic. Soon Gamboa, Celtic’s forgotten man, working in tandem with another substitute James Forrest down the right, was exploiting the space down the left. Rather than overlap, he went inside Forrest to send over a cross which Dembele cleverly nudged into the bottom corner with his knee. Two minutes later, in almost a carbon copy, he scampered down the right again, this time sending in a delivery which was dispatched with a right-foot Tom Rogic volley.
“It was a good result but not a very good performance,” admitted Rodgers. “We were too passive, although I know we made lots of changes to give some of our players a chance. We got into a hole at 1-1, turned the tempo up a bit, and got two more very good goals. But performance wise we need to be much better. Cristian Gamboa did great with Emilio coming back in on the left and doing well.”
“Their substitutes were stronger than ours, I think that showed,” said Archibald. “But we probably gave them a wee fright there. We did well, it got a goal. Fitzpatrick is only 17 but he has a bright future if he keeps working hard.”
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