Shakhtar Donetsk: Brandao (6) , Lucarelli (8)
Gordon Strachan set his team out in almost exactly the same way as for the trip to Moscow to play Spartak with Hartley replacing McGeady on the left, the only change from that side being Gary Caldwell who retained his place from domestic duty at the expense of John Kennedy.
If the Celtic players thought they would have a chance to settle into the match, they were in for a rude awakening when Stephen McManus was put under pressure by Scott Brown pass and the centre back's awful touch fell to Brandao who shot Shakhtar ahead in six minutes.
It almost got worse one minute later when Lucarelli fired just over but the Italian had only seconds to wait before taking his chance for Shaktar's second. At that stage, Celtic were ragged and the full-backs, Wilson and Naylor, yet to report for duty.
It was shooting practice for the Ukranians with Celtic looking a hapless bunch. Scott Brown in particular, so outstanding recently, was having a Champions League night to put Thomas Gravesen to shame, picking up a yellow card in the 16th minute. At that stage he looked unlikely to finish the game, the only doubt being about whether his exit would be at the behest of Strachan or the referee.
He had little time to think about it - Lucarelli shot at Boruc a minute later and Brandao had the ball in the net only to lose out to a tight offside decision on 19 minutes. Bratislava was beginning to look like a day out at Troon.
Just when Lee Naylor, making Kirk Broadfoot look like Paolo Maldini, was mouthing off to Scott McDonald (presumably fancying a punch from someone smaller than his goalkeeper), Srna was fancying his left-back vacancy and firing in a cross that Artur Boruc did well to smother.
Naylor wasn't the only man at fault - Celtic were passing the ball like a team of blind men on stilts. It wasn't looking good.
In the 29th minute, Celtic had their first meaningful attack, Shunsuke Nakamura finding McDonald whose shot was adjudged to have been deflected for a corner. However, the Japanese international failed to beat the first man from the set piece. Moments later, Nakamura had a free-kick wide on the right which he fired in only to see Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink head over from six yards.
Celtic were gaining some possession but finding Shakhtar closing them down 25 yards out with text book defending.
On 33 minutes, Scott McDonald drew the first save of the match from Pyatov after a splendid one-two with Massiomo Donatti. Nakamura again squandered the resultant corner.
Things were starting to look better for Celtic and a sweeping move which had Vennegoor of Hesselink combine well with McDonald saw the Aussie striker harshly adjudged to have fouled the goalkeeper.
But then, panic again. Crosses from the right had been the order of the night and Jadson almost benefited only to be denied heroically by Boruc who held a second shot from the same player half a minute later.
Celtic went straight up the pitch and the front two put the Shakhtar keeper under all sorts of pressure to offer a glimmer of hope. There were definite signs that the home defence had weaknesses for Celtic to exploit as the half-time whistle approached but there was to be no goal despite another corner on half time which led only to another Shakhtar attack and a further scare.
Much talking required by the Celtic manager.
But 15 minutes is a long time, memories are shoret and people are stupid so those who haen't out their house on Shakhtar with stupid online live betting are probably imagining all kinds of heroics.
Whose afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf...
Shakhtar Donetsk: Pyatov, Srna, Hubschman, Kucher, Rat, Ilsinho, Lewandowski, Fernandinho, Lucarelli, Jadson, Brandao. Subs: Shust, Duljaj, Castillo, Gay, Byelik, Gladkiy, Yezerskiy
Celtic: Boruc, Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor, Donati, Hartley, Scott Brown, Nakamura, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink. Subs: Mark Brown, Zurawski, Sno, Killen, Kennedy, McGeady, O'Dea.
Booked: Brown (16)
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
1 comment:
Unfortunate but not totally unexpected result, centre of defence not good enough for this level. Big Mick is a wholehearted honest player but no real quality maybe a bottom half SPL defender, forget a short pass for the first goal his first touch was a joke considering he was open and the ball was his 'favoured' foot. Fullbacks too slow in starting the game as usual but to br fare not much support in frint of them. No need to start with 2 players up front, we normally struggle away from home against top euro teams with their quick passing and relentless running through the middle. Hindsight, maybe we should have started with 5 in the middle and tried to stiffle Shaktar. Never mind 5 more games and 15 points to play for, c'mon the hoops!
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