Flat-track bullies Celtic continue descent into European irrelevance

By admin — In News — October 23, 2026

   ​Callum Osmand and Celtic had a frustrating night in Glasgow [SNS]When Mika Baur scored early in the second half against Celta Vigo, so much in Celtic’s garden was rosy. The team had an intensity now that they didn’t have before. They had momentum. Belief. They had a Liam Scales header hopping off the top of the crossbar. The La Liga visitors were under the pump.It was easy to conclude in those naively optimistic moments that Celta Vigo were all passing and no penetration. They passed it to death and got pretty much nowhere. More than 350 passes in the opening half and one attempt on target. All very pretty. All very technical. All very tippy-tappy.The question that Celtic fans will be asking now, some with pitchforks in hand, is what the hell happened in the last half-an-hour of this game. Particularly, what happened from minutes 68 to 71. From three points to no points. From building on the hiding dished out to Hearts to another loss and getting shunted back to bitterness and rancour.Celtic suffer third Europa League defeat in row after Celta Vigo turnaroundO’Neill bemoans marginal moments but are Celtic just not good enough?Latest Celtic news, analysis and fan viewsCeltic stopped playing and stopped believing. They were hit with a bit of adversity and they were bowled over by it. Knocked to the ground, never to rise up again.They’ll complain – as they already have – about a foul on Camilo Duran that wasn’t picked up just before the equaliser, but there is no talking to the errors they made thereafter. The inability to deal with a free-kick, the failure to pick up the goalscorer in the first instance and then multiple calamities in the concession of the second goal. How many chances does one side need to get a ball away to safety?Long before the end, Celtic were gone. Psychologically spent. This is nothing new. Something new would have been the sight of them kicking on at 1-0, but in Europe such strength is a dying art form in this team. A third straight loss in Europe, 35th out of 36 teams in the Europa League table, only a side from Armenia keeping them off rock bottom. This is their place in the grand scheme now. Domestic football proves lousy barometerChris Sutton calls them flat-track bullies. How many Celtic fans would disagree with that depiction? Not many.Thursday was yet another example of domestic football being a lousy barometer of Celtic’s capacity to win – or even draw – games in Europe. In the wake of the 7-1 trouncing of Hearts, some Celtic folk with desperately short memories rounded on a few commentators who were critical of Martin O’Neill, his players and this Celtic board following their losses to Rangers and their failures against LASK, Ferencvaros and Benfica. As if beating up Hearts made it all better. The message, after the goal deluge, was ‘what are you saying to it now?’ The answer: Exactly as we were saying before.O’Neill said on Thursday that there are still loads of points to play for – and there are. But it was a cla  

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