KAIRAT ALMATY 0 CELTIC 0 (AET) Kairat win 3-2 on pens
DAIZEN MAEDA was the main culprit as Celtic blew the chance to earn a £40million Champions League windfall in Kazakhstan this evening.
The Japanese striker, a hero so often last season, blew the opportunity to settle this play-off encounter four minutes from the end of regulation time when he thumped an effort waywardly off target when he only had the keeper to beat.
He lost his composure at the crucial moment and walloped the ball wildly over the bar. It was an atrocious miss.
When it went to penalty-kicks – and Adam Idah and Luke McCowan had squandered the first two attempts with Callum McGregor and Arne Engels converting – it was down to the Japanese ace to make sure the home side did not go through 3-2 on spot-kicks.
DOWN AND OUT…blunder Bhoy Daizen Maeda.
Unfortunately, Maeda compounded his earlier miss when a terrible penalty-kick that was easily saved by the rookie keeper who had also denied Idah and McCowan. Incredibly, all three kicks were practically identical to the shotstopper’s right .
Celtic only have themselves to blame for this calamity in Almaty.
Fingers of blame will be pointed in all sorts of directions. The bottom line is Celtic could not beat a team that are rated TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE places below them in the UEFA rankings.
Simply put, that is bewildering. The team could not score a goal against minnows in over three and a half hours of actual play!
We couldn’t put together an eleven good enough to take care of business against a club who had never made it through to the latter stages of Europe’s elite competition.
Now it’s the consolation prize of the Europa League. That’s the reality of it. This was one of Celtic’s worst nights in European football. No argument.
There were early warnings when, in the sixth minute, Kasper Schmeichel had to scramble across his goal after a shot had been deflected low towards the left-hand corner of the net, but, thankfully, the effort swept just wide of the upright.
It was a red flag for the Hoops against opponents who showed they were up for it right from the start.
Jorginho was never far from McGregor’s side as the hosts tried to snuff out any creativity from the Celtic skipper, as they did fairly successfully at Parkhead last week.
There was no respite for the captain’s team-mates, either, as the Kazakhs snapped into challenges all over the park.
MISS ONE…Adam Idah squanders his penalty-kick.
MISS TWO…Luke McCowan blows the second spot-kick.
MISS THREE…Daizen Maeda completes the unwanted hat-trick.
Yang Hyun-jun was struggling to pick up the rhythm of the game and his passing was well out as he demonstrated in the 20th minute with a ball that went right out of play as Maeda looked eager to get something to run onto.
In the 24th minute, James Forrest snapped in an eight-yard header following a sweeping move down the left with McGregor, Kieran Tierney and Yang involved before Reo Hatate sent over a clever cross, but keeper Temirian Anarbekov leapt high to touch the ball over the bar.
The visitors looked to be getting frustrated by the antics of the home players and their enthusiasm to embrace the turf any time they were challenged. Worse still, Italian referee Maurizio Mariani was buying into the theatrics and awarding a stream of free-kicks.
Benjamin Nygren was clearly annoyed when a Kairat rival fell over after the merest touches and the match official, only 10 yards away with a clear view of the incident, blew for an infringement.
Deadball situations were obviously the hosts’ main avenue for threatening the Hoops danger zone and, worryingly, the whistler was playing an unwitting role.
With McGregor practically shackled, it was left to Nygren and Hatate to provide some imagination from the middle of the park, but, unfortunately, neither the Swede nor the Japanese had stepped up to the plate.
Meada was virtually anonymous throughout a frustrating 45 minutes due to the lack of service.
The uneven playing surface wasn’t helping Celtic’s passing game and too often the final ball was going astray to add to the frustration of a nervy evening.
There was a break on early into the second period after McGregor and Forrest combined to set Nygren on his way, but he was caught dwelling on the ball and the chance was lost.
The referee awarded the hosts an indirect free-kick only six yards out after a dodgy passback from McGregor had created problems for his keeper. The ball was touched back and smashed at goal, but the effort hit the shoulder of Maeda and ricocheted to safety.
As anticipated, the Kairat players screamed for a penalty, but VAR was having none of it as boos engulfed the stadium.
It had been an anxious moment for Celtic, but, thankfully, they survived.
Schmeichel then showed a safe pair of hands as he held onto a high ball whipped in from the right.
In the 70th minute, Brendan Rodgers made his first change when he withdrew Forrest and Yang and put on Engels and Idah.
Five minutes later, Dane Murray came on for Tierney with Scales moving to left-back and the youngster taking his place alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers.
UP AND AWAY…Daizen Maeda fires wildly over the bar just minutes from time.
In the 86th minute, Maeda missed a golden opportunity to hit the winner when he was sent clean through and blazed over the crossbar from 18 yards with just the keeper to beat.
It was a dreadful miss from a player who was scoring goals for fun last season. This effort, though, could be filed in the x-certificate category. Unfortunately, worse was to come.
Moments later, Schmeichel had to get down swiftly to his right to push away a netbound header for a corner-kick.
Inevitably, the game then crept towards extra-time with both sets of players being tasked with going again for another tension-laden half-hour.
Five minutes into the restart, Idah set up Hatate with a low cross from the left, but the midfielder’s low drive was blocked by a desperate defender when it looked again as though Celtic were about to grab the breakthrough goal.
Moments later, Nygren swept in a 20-yarder that saw the keeper sprawl to his left to push the effort away.
Hatate was booked for absolutely nothing with an opponent going down yet again. If the Italian referee ever gets around to watching replays of this game, he might do us all a favour and hang up his whistle.
Things were breaking down too often at Idah as he was caught continually on his heels when balls were delivered towards him. On one occasion, he provoked the ire of his manager on the touchline.
Coby Donovan and McCowan came on for Ralston and Hatate at the start of the second period of added-on time.
Moments later, McCowan whipped in a low angled drive that forced Anarbekov to save low down at his left-hand post.
Nygren was next to be denied by the keeper after being set up by Donovan on the right. However, the Swede’s near-post effort was beaten away by the netminder for a corner-kick that was wasted by Engels.
McGregor picked out Maeda with a searching pass, but the opportunity was lost when the winger failed to control the ball. It was another escape for the home team.
Then it all went down to penalty-kicks.
And Celtic’s Champions League adventure was over before it started.
Now the blame game begins in earnest.
TEAM: Schmeichel; Ralston (sub: Donovan 106), Carter-Vickers, Scales, Tierney (sub: Murray 75); Nygren, McGregor, Hatate (sub: McCowan 106); Forrest (sub: Engels 70), Maeda and Yang (sub: Idah 70).
