Celtic 1-3 Ferencváros: Three Gifts, One Miserable Night at Paradise
Three goals. Three gifts. One miserable night at Paradise.
Celtic opened their Europa League campaign with a 3-1 home defeat to Ferencváros on Thursday 17 September, and they had nobody to blame but themselves.
Bright start, brutal punishment
It started well enough. Celtic had the ball and the Hungarians on the back foot. James Forrest crossed for Camilo Durán after eight minutes, but the Colombian's double touch took him too wide and the chance went past the post.
Then the mistakes began. On 20 minutes Kieran Tierney failed to deal with a cross. Bamidele Yusuf shot, and the ball took a final touch off Liam Scales on its way into the net. An own goal. A sore one.
Baur strikes, then the roof falls in
Celtic dug in. Haissem Hassan and Callum McGregor both went close. And with half-time looming, Tierney found Mika Baur, who slammed the ball home on 44 minutes. Level. Game on.
It lasted barely two minutes. Yusuf beat Tierney and McGregor far too easily and set up Kristoffer Zachariassen to flick it past the returning Viljami Sinisalo in first-half stoppage time.
Two minutes after the restart it was over. Celtic gave the ball away cheaply and Daniel Arzani smashed a brilliant strike into the top corner. 3-1.
No way back
Celtic huffed and puffed. Kasper Høgh just missed a Durán cross. Benjamin Nygren curled wide and then fired over. Sebastian Tounekti forced a save from Adam Varga. Nothing went in.
It was back to back defeats for Martin O'Neill after the League Cup loss at Ibrox.
What O'Neill said
"We're naturally disappointed getting beaten," O'Neill told BBC Sport. "We started off very, very brightly. Their first proper attempt on goal yielded a goal for them. We come back into the game, got the equaliser just before half-time and then conceded a really poor goal. We're hit on the break for the third goal."
That sums it up. Celtic created. Celtic conceded. Europe does not forgive sloppy defending, and Ferencváros made them pay every single time.
Celtic 1 Ferencváros 3. Scorers: Baur 44. Scales og 20, Zachariassen 45+1, Arzani 47.