ALISTAIR JOHNSTON reckons Celtic made a point – as well as earning one – during the 1-1 deadlock with Club Brugge at Parkhead last night.
The Canadian international defender and his team-mates toiled in the first-half of their crucial Champions League encounter with a Belgian team well up for the challenge.
The Hoops spent most of the opening 45 minutes on the back-foot as the visitors dictated the flow and tempo of the game in front of a strangely-subdued crowd in the east end of Glasgow.
And Brendan Rodgers’ men did nothing to ease the tension when Cameron Carter-Vickers rolled the ball into an empty net to present Brugge with the gift of an opening goal in the 26th minute.
DANGERMAN…Daizen Maeda puts the pressure on the Brugge defence.
Thankfully, the American centre-back’s blushes were spared when Daizen Maeda flashed in a spectacular equaliser on the hour mark to push the hosts’ points total in Europe’s most prestigious and lucrative competition to eight from five games.
Johnston, who produced his usual selfless shift at right-back, said: “At this level, every point is hard-earned and it adds up, I think that’s the most important thing.
“The gaffer made a great point that if you’re not going to win a match, you make sure that you don’t lose it at this level, especially at home.
“We didn’t have a great first-half, we went in 1-0 down and they were causing us quite a bit of problems, but we came out in the second-half and made some tactical changes.
“I think that really helped and, again, I can’t fault the guys’ effort, the guys put everything into that.”
Johnston, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “We got a great equaliser from Daizen, some finish that was, and we had chances to find a winner.
POINT TAKEN…Brendan Rodgers applauds at the full-time whistle.
“But, at the same time, I think both teams will look at that and feel that a draw is pretty fair.
“I don’t think they created a ton, I don’t think we created a ton. I thought we were in the ascendency and looked more likely to score a winner after their ‘goal’ was called back.
“But we’ve got to move with one point and take it from there.”
The energetic back-four operator added: “I think that we expected them to come out and be pretty positive, but, at the same time, they’ve shown in previous matches they were a bit more aggressive at home than away.
“That kind of surprised us a little bit, but I think that our ability to change at half-time shows how far we’ve come in terms of that we weren’t just going to let that go idle and just accept that.
“We know we really changed how we pressed and it was a lot more difficult in the second-half for them to get out.
“We saw then we were a lot more compact and comfortable with going man to man all over the pitch and making it more difficult for them.”
BLUNDERS AND BRILLIANCE IN STALEMATE
