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Celtic 5-1 Slovan Bratislava: Rodgers was right...
his team are more ready than ever for the Champions League Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sport By Stephen Mcgowan Published: 18:34 EDT, 18 September 2024 | Updated: 18:34 EDT, 18 September 2024 e-mail View comments Contesting their first Champions League game at this stage in their history, Slovan Bratislava were rated 10/1 rank outsiders by the bookies before a ball was kicked. Celtic ’s pre-match price of 1/5 odds-on favourites, meanwhile, felt like a bold expression of faith in a team with just one home win in the Champions League in the last 10 years. A side who hadn’t won their opening game against the European elite in the last 12 torturous attempts.
Turns out there’s a reason why the men in camel coats drive bigger cars than everyone else. Like Brendan Rodgers , they just might know what they’re doing. Strong bookmakers favourites to take advantage of a revamped Champions League format, Rodgers’ side overwhelmed the visitors with a performance of power, pace and relentless energy.
The quiet confidence of Celtic’s manager was almost unerring before this one. Declaring his side as ready as they’d ever been for Europe’s elite, the conviction was fuelled by a summer of long overdue ambition in the transfer market. At this level you get what you pay for.
And, in £11million record signing Arne Engels, Rodgers secured the thing he craved most over the summer. Defender Liam Scales heads in Celtic's opening goal of their 5-1 win against Slovan Bratislava. Alistair Johnston earns the penalty that would be converted by new signing Arne Engels .
Daizen Maeda rounds off an impressive individual display by slotting home Celtic's fourth goal. Control isn’t a word you’d associate with Celtic in the Champions League. This? This was calm, measured clinical control from start to finish.
The biggest win at this stage in the club’s history, the Scottish champions had a grip on the game from the first whistle. They could have won by six or seven. When Adam Idah smashed in the fifth goal with four minutes to play, some overdue bravery and ambition in the summer window was rewarded with bells on.
After a decade of waiting for their first home win in the group stage — against Feyenoord in December — Celtic are on a roll. Buoyed by a rare goal from a corner from Liam Scales, their command of the first half was almost total. Their command of the second was equally relentless.
The first bars of Champions League anthem Zadok the Priest were the cue for an explosion of noise around Celtic Park. And the team responded to give Rodgers his fourth win in 24 games at this level. This was, by far, the most resounding.
You’d go back a long way to find the last time the home side created as many chances in a half of football at this level. Or had quite so much possession. Celtic claimed their first goal after 17 minutes.
Given his price tag you expect Engels to take a decent set-piece. An area where the Parkhead side have been woeful in recent years, the Belgian curled the ball into a crowded area. Taking advantage of Slovan’s zonal marking, Scales swooped to bullet a header at goal.
Dominik Takac got something on it, but not enough.. The ball spun into the roof of the net and Celtic Park erupted.
Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sport Advertisement Scales was supposed to be the weak link, the player Celtic simply couldn’t afford to risk in the Champions League again, but became the first player from the Republic of Ireland to score in the competition since Darron Gibson for Manchester United in May 2011. Rodgers is paid the big bucks to do it his way. Despite the £5million capture of Auston Trusty — a late debutant sub — Scales provided vindication for his manager’s judgment by heading Celtic into the lead.
They should have doubled that lead instantly. Nicolas Kuhn picked out Kyogo Furuhashi with a piercing pass into the danger area. The first touch was good, the second blocked by the legs of Takac.
They missed chances to put the game to bed in the first half. Real good chances. Kyogo scooped one over the bar when he should have scored.
It took another strong save from Takac to prevent Engels removing the net from its riggings with a thundering strike and you wondered if Celtic would regret their failure to score more goals in a dominant first half. Comfort came early in the second half. The VIPs and prawn sandwich brigade had yet to return to their seats when Celtic extended their lead in the 47th minute.
The doubts and the quibbles over Furuhashi’s first-half finishing were swept aside by the easiest goal the main man will ever score. If there’s a criticism of Kuhn it’s the German winger’s tendency to cut inside and run into trouble; his reluctance to take men on the outside and swing in a cross. Not this time.
A mazy run to the byeline beat two or three defenders, a driven cross picking out the unmarked Kyogo. The ball struck the striker’s thigh and, eventually, the net for 2-0. The Huddle in full swing, Celtic Park was already in party mode before the penalty award which gifted Engels his second goal from 12 yards in two games.
Getting to a high ball first, Alistair Johnston took a clip to the heel, Dutch referee Danny Makkelie awarding the penalty instantly. Repeating the trick he performed in his first start, against Hearts, Engels sent the keeper the wrong way and planted the ball calmly in the corner. With 56 minutes played, Celtic had a three-goal lead.
It was all going a little too well. Just as Celtic threatened to go to town and rack up their most convincing group stage win in years, a quite brilliant finish from Kevin Wimmer offered sign of life in the visitors. A poor attempt at a clearance from Greg Taylor looped up high into the air in his own penalty area.
When it came down, Wimmer needed no backlift to loft the ball into the top corner of the net. An apprehensive silence fell upon Celtic Park. There were no grounds for panic.
No grounds for the men in white coats. A fourth goal settled the issue, a fifth put the icing on the cake. With 20 minutes to play, Celtic’s Japanese trio combined brilliantly, Kyogo feeding Reo Hatate, the midfielder showing quick feet to poke the ball into the path of Daizen Maeda.
Redemption for those missed chances early in the game was swift and clinical as the winger fired home. Replacing Kyogo with 13 minutes to play, Idah repaid a little more of his £8.5m fee by racing on to a devastating through ball from fellow sub James Forrest to slot the ball into the far corner.
Slovan coach Vladimir Weiss had slid to a 4-0 thrashing on his last visit to Glasgow’s east end with the now defunct Artmedia in 2005. This felt like a reprisal of history. The last time Celtic had scored in the opening game of the Champions League was Shunsuke Nakamura against Manchester United in 2006.
Five goals felt like an emphatic statement of intent. Champions League Share or comment on this article: Celtic 5-1 Slovan Bratislava: Rodgers was right..
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