Familiar problem haunts Celtic again vs Young Boys

Celtic FC v BSC Young Boys - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7
Celtic FC v BSC Young Boys - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 | Ian MacNicol/GettyImages

Celtic fans will have been bewildered to see their team head into the break with the scoreline reading 0-0. The Hoops did everything possible in the first-half except score. In fact, even that would be a wrong assessment of the game. Kyogo had the ball in the back of the net on three occasions and all of those goals were ruled out.

Then there was the penalty miss. Celtic did well to win a spot-kick late in the first-half but then Arne Engels, who is usually assured from the spot, saw a terrible effort saved by the BSC Young Boys goalkeeper.

Nobody can be blamed if they went into the break feeling that it was going to be one of those nights. You know, the ones in which Celtic seem to do everything right except for the final bit and end up paying the price in the end.

That has been a familiar story for them in Europe for a long time now. Earlier on in the campaign, it had felt like they had put those ghosts in the rearview mirror, but now, it feels like they are well and truly back and haunting them once again.

Familiar problem haunts Celtic again vs Young Boys

Celtic will know that they need to be more clinical after the break. Not only with their finishing, which was pretty good from Kyogo, but everything leading up to it as well.

They cannot afford to foul in the build-up or end up in offside positions. The less said about the penalty kick from Engels the better. He just needs to forget about it and somehow not let it affect his performance in the second 45 minutes.

This still feels like a winnable game for Celtic. But it also seems like a familiar European story that has rarely had a happy ending for the Hoops.