Celtic were left frustrated as the first leg of their Europa Conference League knockout tie ended in a defeat at Parkhead on Thursday night.
The Hoops were beaten 3-1 by Bodo/Glimt on their own turf and they have left themselves with a mountain to climb heading into the reverse fixture in Norway.
Daizen Maeda had managed to pull it back to 2-1 in the 79th minute with a sublime glancing header into the far corner, but their opponents responded instantly to restore their two-goal lead with a deflected effort from distance.
Ange Postecoglou’s side dominated the ball with 63% possession and ended the match with 16 efforts on goal in comparison to the visitors’ seven, with the away side scoring three goals from their four shots on target.
Whilst a number of players were disappointing in green and white, one player who let his boss down badly was midfielder Matt O’Riley.
The summer signing from MK Dons struggled on Thursday night and his performance left plenty to be desired from his play on and off the ball.
Defensively, he was a lightweight for the Hoops. As per SofaScore, he lost six of his eight duels (75%) and only completed one tackle in the match, whilst being dribbled past twice in his 74 minutes on the pitch.
He did make three interceptions, but his lack of strength in his individual duels and his poor positional play allowed him to be taken out of the game at times. This shows that he was a liability against the ball as he was far too weak in physical battles, allowing the opposition to get the better of him too often.
The £405k-rated dud had a mixed evening on the ball. As per SofaScore, he managed two key passes and completed 86% of his passes. However, he was only successful with one of his three attempted dribbles (33.3%) and had the same completion rate with his crosses (1/3). This suggests that he was inconsistent in possession and was caught lacking on the ball at times, which may have frustrated Postecoglou.
Therefore, the 21-year-old let the Australian down badly, as he allowed himself to lose control of the game in the middle of the park. He was not strong enough off the ball and did not produce enough quality on it to make up for his lightweight defensive display.
AND in other news, Forget Taylor: Celtic “wizard” who had 39 touches proved Ange got it wrong vs Bodo…