GIO’S LOSERS ON £40m EURO TIGHTROPE

SHELL-SHOCKED Giovanni van Bronckhorst admitted his side were “a little bit lucky” just to lose 2-0 to Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium last night.

The Dutchman now realises his players will step onto a £40million Champions League tightrope at Ibrox on Tuesday – and there isn’t a safety net in sight.

Van Bronckhorst’s men were overrun in the qualifying encounter in Leuven that could see Celtic scoop all of the TV revenue as Scotland’s only representatitives in Europe’s elite competition this season.

Strikes from Teddy Teuma and Dante Vanzeir gave the Belgian minnows a two-goal advantage, but the lead could have been doubled late in the game when keeper Jon McLaughlin made a superb rescue save in a one-on-one situation and James Tavernier hacked a header off the line.

IN THE FIRING LINE…Giovanni van Bronckhorst gives his frank assessment of 2-0 loss in Belgium. Image courtesy Premier Sports.

The Belgians bossed the confrontation and Van Bronckhorst, speaking to Premier Sports, admitted: “Very, very disappointing, we have so much at stake in this month, qualifying for the Champions League, but the performance, for me, was below par.

“It was hard for us to get in the game. We didn’t do anything with our ball possession, sloppy, not winning the duels, slowly they became better and better, we didn’t react well to that.

“We were never really in the game, giving. a lot of transition moments away, we are a little bit lucky it’s only 2-0, although, the penalty decision I was surprised at, they gave a penalty, if you have so much at stake, for all the clubs involved, you want to take the right decisions.

“I think we couldn’t do anything else with the deflection and with the handball, the penalty was given and they scored, the most important thing is we reflect on our own game because we need to change it around on Tuesday.

“We need to change it around big time, the performance needs to be much better.”

He added: “We’re still in the tie, 2-0 difference we are capable of making that up at Ibrox, but, first of all, we need to concentrate on our performance.

“If we have the same performance like we did today, we have NO chance next week.”

The Govan club face missing the opportunity of a cash of bonus of around £40million due if they can gate-crash the group stages and gain access to TV revenue, commercial deals, prize money and gate receipts.

The winners of this qualifier will meet either Monaco or PSV Eindhoven in the play-off. The clubs drew 1-1 in their tie in France.