Celtic cruised through to the next stage of their Champions League qualifiers with a 3-0 win at Parkhead.
Celtic may have cruised through to the second qualifying round of the Champions League with an emphatic 3-0 win at Parkhead on Wednesday, but there appears to still be issues for Brendan Rodgers to address before the season gets properly up and running.
The Hoops replicated their first-leg win to breeze through 6-0 on aggregate against Alashkert and set up a tie with Rosenborg in the next round. However, while the Bhoys may have dominated, they did have to cope with playing with only 10 men for the majority of the game as Jozo Simunovic was sent off early on.
Simunovic’s dismissal will concern Rodgers, but there seemed to be another source of frustration for many Celtic fans on social media after the contest: Olivier Ntcham’s ability to take set-pieces.
Ntcham has done little wrong since arriving for £4.5 million last summer – fee reported by BBC Sport – and his general performance on Wednesday was lauded by the large majority of supporters.
But many clearly feel that he is too wasteful from dead ball situations and thus, should be taken off free-kick and corner duty as soon as possible. Luckily for Celtic, it should not be too difficult for a replacement for Ntcham to be found with the amount of quality that the current side boast.
And it should perhaps send out a message to Celtic’s rivals that Rodgers’ men can cruise through a European tie – with only 10 men on the pitch for much of the game – and still identify a number of areas for improvement.
Here is what some of the Celtic fans made of Ntcham’s display…
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