CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS suffered a defeat in his first-ever Champions League appearance as Celtic captain.
With crocked skipper Callum McGregor sitting in the Parkhead stand, the World Cup-bound US international centre-back led out the team for the crucial Group F encounter against RB Leipzig.
When the smoke of battle cleared, Carter-Vickers, who made his debut as the team’s onfield leader in the dramatic 2-1 stoppage-time win over St Johnstone in Perth at the weekend, was a loser on this occasion.
CAPTAIN CAMERON…Celtic stand-in skipper Cameron Carter-Vickers leads out Joe Hart before the 2-0 home loss to RB Leipzig.
The defender was helpless as two goals in the last 15 minutes from Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg gave the Bundesliga outfit a 2-0 victory to end the ambitions of Ange Postecoglou’s men in Europe’s elite competition.
Carter-Vickers, speaking to the Daily Record, said: “It was disappointing not to get a result. I thought for large parts of the game we played quite well.
“It’s Champions League football and you need to take your chances. This is high-level football. You need to capitalise when you are on top and if you don’t it can be difficult.
“We need to keep working hard on the path we are going and, hopefully, we’ll get there. We have two games left and we want two positive results.”
Shakhtar Donetsk are next up at Parkhead a week on Tuesday and the curtain comes down against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on November 2.
A place in the Europa League is still up for grabs, so the pressure on the Hoops players to deliver is relentless.