Celtic must have been very disappointed with how their Champions League campaign turned out. Despite several solid performances, the Hoops had little to no end product. The result is that they are now guaranteed to finish bottom of their group and are out of Europe altogether following their game against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
While the results might not have been up to the mark, nobody can say that Celtic looked out of place in the Champions League. In fact, if they had been able to take their chances, they could taken something out of the games against Real Madrid and RB Leipzig, and should have beaten Shakhtar Donetsk.
It was not enough to impress former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur defender, Jason Cundy, though, who ended up branding Celtic as a ‘fourth tier’ side.
Chris Sutton was unsurprisingly not amused at those claims though. The former Celtic striker wrote in his column in the Daily Record:
"People are generalising Scottish football and just lumping results all into one bracket. Wrong. Coming out with phrases like disaster and humiliating for all. It is lazy and it is stupid. I’m hearing pundits south of the border making statements about the Scottish game being fourth tier and it’s just plain ignorance."
Celtic hero hits back at Cundy’s ‘fourth tier’ claims
It is safe to say that Celtic did well for themselves in the Champions League this season, considering after how long they were making a return to the competition.
It is almost impossible to compete at this level if you make the Champions League once every five years. Ange Postecoglou has made it very clear that he wants Celtic to be a regular in the competition.
This was a good learning curve for the players and if they do end up making it back to the Champions League next season, then they will be much better prepared for this level of football and will know what they have coming their way. Perhaps the first half performance vs Real Madrid had raised expectations way too high. The Hoops have nothing to be ashamed about. ‘Fourth tier’ claims are just laughable.