Kasper Schmeichel made eight saves during the second leg of Celtic’s play-off tie against Bayern Munich
With 90 minutes of normal time played in the second leg of Celtic’s Champions League play-off tie against Bayern Munich, the Scottish champions were on course to take the Bundesliga leaders to extra time in their own backyard.
Brendan Rodgers’ side drove 1-0 on the night on account of Nicolas Kuhn’s last part strike, and it might have been more.
A few first-half possibilities went back and forth as Celtic squeezed and bugged Bayern all around the pitch.
Bayern looked shook, unfit to find the responses against a group they were weighty top picks to beat.
But, in the last moment of four added on, Alphonso Davies mixed home from short proximity after Kasper Schmeichel had mauled away Leon Goretzka’s header to send the German side through.
“Dissatisfaction, disillusionment… I thought it was a gallant exhibition, exceptionally valiant,” Schmeichel said following such a devastating blow.
Courageous was the word for the vast majority of entertainers in green, yet Schmeichel particularly.
The Denmark goalkeeper, a veteran of defining moments, made eight recoveries as Celtic repulsed all that Bayern tossed at them, until they didn’t.
“Football is a horrible game at times, that is the feeling right now,” he added. “I was cherishing consistently so another 30 would have been astonishing.”
Chief Brendan Rodgers was gushing in his recognition for how his side took on one of European football’s most lofty outfits.
“We were exceptional, played with no apprehension,” the Northern Irishman said. “Shielded so all things considered, with discipline, squeezed at the right minutes, gave them issues on that side, and had the option to be minimal and tight in the right second.
“It never seemed as though we planned to surrender the objective that we did. I can invest wholeheartedly from the exhibition – the folks gave everything.”
A little more than four months prior, the discussion around Celtic in European football was totally different.
They were destroyed by Borussia Dortmund, beaten 7-1 on a pathetic evening, apparently hopelessly lost at the top table.
But they refocused and thought of replies.
Wins against RB Leipzig and Little Fellows followed, alongside decent draws against Atalanta, Club Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb, which all set up a masterpiece tie against Bayern.
Bayern, who sit 26 focuses and 10 spots above Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
Bayern, who Celtic deservedly drove in Munich until the perishing stages.
Regardless of the awfulness, it was telling proof of how far Celtic have advanced in four months.
“There’s such a lot of dissatisfaction; however, when we make a stride back and examine the reality we’re away to Bayern and are disheartened in drawing, I feel that says a great deal when you consider where we began,” Schmeichel said.
Previous Scotland forward James McFadden repeated those contemplations: “Celtic experienced out there and they refuted individuals,” he said on Sportsound.
“Individuals watching that will go, ‘Celtic are a great side.’. Everybody in question will be destroyed at the moment since they will feel they might have won this tie.
“That lets you know how far they have come.”
Pushing ahead, Rodgers sees the establishments that will permit Celtic to rival Europe’s top groups indeed next season.
Just Aston Estate beat them in the association deliberately work after the drubbing in Dortmund and the Celtic supervisor demands his players will be better for their mainland encounters.
“We took in a few significant illustrations en route, played some astonishing football,” he said.
“It permits us to construct. We’ve gained the headway that got us back in the game, and presently we need to polish the season’s major areas of strength for off.
“My unswerving arrangement is to make it a carefully prepared club at this level, where we can go and truly hurt large rivals like Bayern Munich.”
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