Craig Levein insists his St Johnstone side lost to pair of ‘wonderful’ finishes after Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley turned the game around for Celtic on Sunday afternoon.
In truth, the Hoops can probably sympathise with their hosts. Think back to Real Madrid last term, or Atletico Madrid this. Celtic know how it feels to perform so brilliantly against a team with far greater resources, only to see all that hard work fade away thanks to a couple of goals of such pure, unfiltered quality.
For Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr at Parkhead in September 2022, see Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley at McDiarmid Park 15 months on.
Celtic fight back to beat St Johnstone
“We did a lot of good things and defended really well,” St Johnstone’s former Scotland boss Craig Levein sighs, via Yahoo Sport.
“We’ve lost to two wonderful pieces of skill. Those two goals were like a kick in the whatsits. The last goal, I’m not bothered (about). We were gung-ho by then.”
Captain McGregor drew Celtic level with a beautifully struck finish from the edge of the box. O’Riley’s effort, with around ten minutes of normal time remaining, was even better. Lashed into the roof of the net with his weaker right foot from around 25 yards.
St Johnstone could still have clawed a deserved point at the death, Stevie May hitting the post before James Forrest killed off the contest on the counter.
Matt O’Riley and Callum McGregor score stunners
“In the second-half, the players responded really, really well. And they virtually gave nothing to St Johnstone,” Brendan Rodgers tells the Celtic website, ‘angry’ at the interval and relieved at the 90.
“They were dynamic, the intensity was good and they scored some outstanding goals. The goals were very, very good and we had other chances to score more.
“But, yeah, to be totally honest I’m still angry after that first-half because it’s not what I expect. But you’ve got to give huge credit to players for the second-half, because they reacted how we would want.
“And that was more like the level I expect.”
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