Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League at the third qualifying round stage following a defeat in Athens.
Chris Sutton has taken to Twitter to urge Celtic to sort their mess out following the Hoops’ defeat to AEK Athens which saw Brendan Rodgers’ men knocked out of the Champions League at the third qualifying round stage.
The Bhoys went into Tuesday’s contest knowing that they had to score in Greece if they were going to set up a play-off tie after a 1-1 draw at Parkhead in the first-leg. However, they got off to a terrible start, conceding the game’s opening goal inside six minutes.
And it appeared that their hopes of progressing were all but over when the home side doubled their lead and made the score 3-1 on aggregate five minutes after the break.
A Scott Sinclair header with 12 minutes to go set up a nervy finish, but Celtic struggled to break down the defence in the final moments and Jozo Simunovic’s flicked effort that curled round the post was probably as close as they came.
The defeat sees Celtic head into the play-off phase of the Europa League instead. It is the first time that the Scottish Premiership champions have failed to reach the Champions League group-stages since Rodgers’ arrival, and there are certainly plenty of concerns regarding the direction that the side appear to be going in.
The Hoops have endured a quiet summer thus far, with only a couple of signings through the door. And Sutton has slammed the club’s hierarchy for allowing this situation to happen.
The former Celtic striker has insisted that the Hoops need to act quickly if they want to get back on track, and suggested that the starting point needs to be addressing the situation surrounding defender Dedryck Boyata who missed the game in Athens.
Here is what Sutton posted after the game…
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