Gordon Smith critical of Celtic quartet ahead of ‘even tougher’ Europa League trip to Valencia

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Celtic will travel to Spain to take on Valencia in the second leg of their Europa League tie.

Gordon Smith has criticised Celtic quartet Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Scott Brown & Dedryck Boyata for their performance against Valencia in the first leg and warned it will be ‘even tougher’ on Thursday in the return leg.

Brendan Rodgers side, who needed a last-minute goal to beat Kilmarnock in the Premiership over the weekend, will be hoping to take that momentum to Spain and overturn a two-goal deficit against the La Liga outfit.

They produced a poor display in the first-leg as Denis Cheryshev and Ruben Sobrino scored the only goals of the game in what was a pretty comfortable win for the away team.

Nonetheless, Smith insisted that their problems last Thursday were ‘self-inflicted’ and reminded them that it won’t get easy now they are on their travels.

“The disappointing thing from a Scottish perspective was that while Celtic were outclassed a lot of their problems were self-inflicted,” Smith told the Sunday Post. “We saw player after player mishit their passes, either out of play or put them straight to an opponent.

“It wasn’t just the fringe guys who were guilty of the wastefulness, either. Rather it was the mainstays of their successful campaign who were at fault. I am talking about the likes of Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Scott Brown.

“Dedryck Boyata, a big success for Belgium at the World Cup in the summer, had a particularly uncomfortable night of it. They will have to do it all again this week – only this time it will be even tougher because the second leg is away from home.”

If the Bhoys do manage to walk away with a victory and progress through to the next round then it will no doubt be one of their greatest performances and results since Rodgers arrived at the club.

From a domestic standpoint, they have dominated under the stewardship of the Northern Irishman and it seems like they are heading in the same direction once again.

The treble treble and eight in a row is on the cards for the Glasgow giants, who currently hold an eight-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.

But it is in Europe where Rodgers will be most disappointed, while there is a significant financial gulf, he would have wanted to make more of a mark on the biggest stage in domestic football.