{"id":12758,"date":"2025-08-21T00:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12758\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T00:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:54:09","slug":"five-things-we-learned-as-celtic-face-7000-mile-trip-with-champions-league-fate-in-the-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12758\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things we learned as Celtic face 7,000 mile trip with Champions League fate in the balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Celtic have a daunting trip awaiting them after they were held to a goalless draw against Kairat Almaty.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kairat, the little-known side from Kazakhstan<\/a>, arrived as underdogs but proved to be troublesome opponents for the Hoops.<\/p>\n

Brendan Rodgers\u2019<\/a> side had one clear-cut chance all game but looked well off the pace at Parkhead.<\/p>\n

The draw against Kairat<\/a> now means they face a mammoth trip where they know they will have to return to Glasgow with a win.<\/p>\n

So, with that, here are five things 67 Hail Hail<\/strong> learned from Celtic\u2019s 0-0 draw with Kairat Almaty.<\/p>\n

\"BrendanPhoto by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesAlistair Johnston injury could force transfer rethink<\/p>\n

Celtic were already short of options in the left-back and winger departments but the injury to Alistair Johnston<\/a> may mean that Rodgers has to rethink his plans for the rest of the window.<\/p>\n

Johnston gave a thumbs up to the crowd as he was stretchered off after 36 minutes but if he is to be out for some time, that leaves Anthony Ralston<\/a> as the only senior option available.<\/p>\n

Colby Donovan\u2019s potential loan away<\/a> may be put on hold for now as they assess Johnston but it may mean that Celtic now have to look for short-term cover at right-back too.<\/p>\n

Celtic fans chant for the board to go <\/p>\n

Frustrations clearly crept in at Celtic Park<\/a> as growing cries for the board to leave the club were heard loud and clear.<\/p>\n

Like most years, Celtic are preferring to wait until the end of the window to get their business done, but supporters are concerned that those promises won\u2019t come to fruition.<\/p>\n

Cries for the board to leave are nothing new, but they did seem quite loud and took place on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Nygren is the jack-of-all-trades for Brendan Rodgers<\/p>\n

Benjamin Nygren<\/a> wasn\u2019t the best player on the pitch but he is simply undroppable. Partly due to his ability to conjure something out of nothing, but also because of his versatility.<\/p>\n

Arne Engels<\/a> was brought on for James Forrest<\/a> in the second half which forced Nygren to move into the wide role on the right before being subbed off for Shin Yamada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beneficial tool for Rodgers to have up his sleeve and deploy whenever necessary.<\/p>\n

Celtic must be more ruthless in possession<\/p>\n

Kairat are no slouches by any means and they proved that by being stubborn to break down.<\/p>\n

However, when you have as much quality as Celtic do, you must take advantage of it. <\/p>\n

Over the course of the game, Celtic had eight shots and two on target throughout the entire game \u2013 desperately disappointing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to create chances against a defensive side, but they must take advantage of having the ball so much.<\/p>\n

Has Brendan Rodgers lost patience with Adam Idah?<\/p>\n

Adam Idah<\/a> has proved before that he is a capable goal scorer. <\/p>\n

In the 2024\/25 campaign he found the back of the net 20 times and in the season before, scored the winner in the Scottish Cup final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BrendanPhoto by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rodgers has kept faith in Idah<\/a> and started him in every league game before Wednesday night but, after failing to even register a shot on goal, he was withdrawn at half time and replaced by Hyunjun Yang<\/a> to allow Daizen Maeda<\/a> to go up front.<\/p>\n

To take your number nine off at the break seems to suggest that time could be up and another striker may get given the nod against Livingston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celtic have a daunting trip awaiting them after they were held to a goalless draw against Kairat Almaty.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,9571,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-12758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}