Celtic suffered a humiliating 6-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League Group E game on Tuesday night (7 November).
Jamie O’Hara said on talkSport (8 November) that it was a “pathetic” viewing for the Celtic fans and he asked the question of whether the Bhoys are actually improving by playing in this competition.
With just one point from four games, Celtic are rooted at the bottom of the Group E table. They showed great fighting spirit at Celtic Park in the previous Champions League fixture, but they have been very poor away from home.
Once Daizen Maeda was sent off after a booking was reassessed via the monitor in the 23rd minute, the Bhoys appeared to have no clue how to frustrate the home side. Instead, the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata scored for fun and inflicted heavy damage.
“It was a pretty pathetic viewing for Celtic fans,” said O’Hara on talkSPORT.
“Is there any point in Celtic being in the Champions League? Where are they going? They are not improving. They are not getting any better.”
🫣 “It’s pretty pathetic viewing.”
🤔 “Is there any point in Celtic being in the Champions League? They’re not improving.”
Jamie O’Hara questions what the point of #CelticFC being in the #UCL is 🏴 pic.twitter.com/aY6yCtkkXe
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) November 7, 2023
Humiliating defeat
Both Morata and Griezmann scored twice while Samuel Lino and Saul added another to complete a convincing win. The Rojiblancos lead the way on eight points, one ahead of Lazio, who Celtic visit next.
Obviously Celtic have reached the Champions League group stage on their own merit. It’s a different question whether they are good enough to compete with big teams.
Rangers did extremely well a couple of years back in the Europa League where they reached the finals. Celtic should aim for a similar sort of performance.
O’Hara has a valid point here. Celtic are not giving the impression that they are actually improving in Europe. It is getting very easy for them to win the domestic league but they need to do better in European games as well.
