Smirking Kris Boyd couldn’t hide his relief as he joked about Celtic’s heartbreaking Champions League exit on Tuesday night, following their agonizing late defeat to Bayern Munich in Germany.
The Hoops’ European journey came to a crushing end after Alphonso Davies’ 94th-minute equalizer sent the Bundesliga giants into the last 16 by the narrowest of margins. Nicolas Kuhn had earlier sent Celtic into dreamland by firing Brendan Rodgers’ side into a deserved second-half lead.
The goal gave Bayern an almighty scare as Celtic came tantalizingly close to pulling off one of the greatest results in their history. However, their hopes were dashed in gut-wrenching fashion as Davies spared the German giants’ blushes with the final kick of the ball.
It was a devastating night for the Scottish champions, and Boyd, ever the wind-up merchant, couldn’t resist the opportunity to revel in their 3-2 aggregate defeat during his Sky Sports analysis.
The grinning Rangers legend quipped: “I’ve never been so delighted to see the ball hit the back of the Celtic net in all my life! No, listen… when you look at how far Celtic have come under Brendan Rodgers in such a short period of time, when you consider they were on the end of a really, really embarrassing defeat in their last visit to Germany by losing 7-1, they have recovered from that and put in some terrific performances.
“They have grown. I think there are players who have matured within the games they’ve played. With this new format, I think it gives teams like Celtic more of an opportunity to get to the knockout stages. You look at the way the games panned out and Celtic have beaten three of the teams at the bottom, but you’ve still got to beat them.
“They are all at Champions League level, they are all different games and that’s where Celtic have fallen in the past. You look at the performances, going to Atalanta and coming back with a draw, Celtic have not been disgraced apart from that humiliating defeat to Borussia Dortmund. Apart from that, they’ve acquitted themselves well, and you could see the longer the tournament went on, Brendan Rodgers adapted his style, and the players bought into it.
“It can be difficult as well because of the way Celtic play at home and they dominate every single game. That’s not been the case as much in Europe, but there have been signs that they have been able to implement their own style of play on the same big guns in Europe.”
