Celtic lost 2-1 at home to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night after Dedryck Boyata gifted the Bundesliga giants a first-half lead.
Any Manchester City supporters turning in to watch Celtic loan star Patrick Roberts take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday night might have suffered a bout of déjà vu when another player they are more than familiar with gifted the German giants the lead.
Dedryck Boyata’s costly moment of hesitation allowed Kingsley Coman to pounce and put Bayern a goal up at Parkhead midway through the first-half, a lead the visitors re-established late on to seal a 2-1 win that ends Celtic’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase.
It was the sort of naïve mistake that Boyata made all too frequently in his formative years at City.
“It’s something you don’t see very often, especially in games at this level,” stricken Celtic ‘keeper Craig Gordon said after the game, per The Mail. It is something that City supporters were quite used to seeing, however, from a defender who has always suffered from lapses in concentration.
Deja vu
Celtic, however, are far less used to seeing these sort of mistakes from the Belgian international – at least not recently. Boyata has been a regular in Celtic’s starting XI since the turn of the year and has been in the form of his life in 2017.
Yet, that chastening display against Bayern provided an untimely reminder why Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers took until January to hand Boyata his first start in 2017/18.
The 26-year-old was criticised heavily and frequently during his debut season in Scotland under Ronny Deila, his performances in the Europa League coming under fire on more than one occasion.
Rodgers, however, will be hoping that such an error is a one of for a player who has been nothing short of immense throughout this calendar year.
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