Celtic crash out of Champions League in humiliating fashion as minnows win play-off

Celtic’s failure to strengthen their attacking options came back to haunt them as they missed out on the Champions League following a goalless 210 minutes against Kairat Almaty.

The Scottish champions lost 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out in Almaty, an eastern Kazakhstan city 250 miles from the Chinese border. The relationship between the Celtic fans and their board will now be equally distant after manager Brendan Rodgers did not get the attacking options he has been calling for since July.

Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda all saw their efforts saved by Kairat’s 21-year-old second-choice goalkeeper Temirlan Anarbekov in the shoot-out after Maeda missed a glorious chance shortly before Celtic dominated in extra time.

Celtic have failed to add any wingers following Jota’s long-term injury in May and the sale of Nicolas Kuhn to Como more than six weeks ago. And Shin Yamada, the only experienced striker to arrive since Kyogo Furuhashi left in January, stayed on the bench throughout the second leg.

Rodgers’ desire to build on last season’s run to the knockout phase play-offs, when they suffered a late defeat to Bayern Munich, have been undermined by an as-yet-unexplained delay in crucial transfer activity.

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They will now miss out on an estimated £20million in income after dropping into the Europa League.

This was Celtic’s first Champions League play-off since they triumphed against Kazakh opposition under Rodgers seven years ago courtesy of a 5-0 home win over Astana. They failed in earlier qualifying rounds in four successive years before qualifying automatically for the past three seasons.

Celtic were uninspired in the first leg but Kairat had troubles of their own. On top of losing their first-choice goalkeeper Alexandr Zarutskiy to injury and 17-year-old Chelsea-bound attacker Dastan Satpaev to suspension at Parkhead, Brazilian winger Edmilson picked up an injury in training on Monday.

Kairat started on the front foot without troubling Kasper Schmeichel. The visitors were struggling to make any inroads and Yang Hyun-jun in particular was struggling, giving the ball away, passing it straight off the pitch and failing to keep hold of it.

The South Korean was involved in Celtic’s best first-half moment though when he laid the ball back for Reo Hatate to cross. James Forrest saw his header tipped over. Celtic failed to build on the effort as Benjamin Nygren took a short corner and lost the ball for a goal kick.

The sloppiness continued after the break. Nygren saw a promising move falter when he dallied on the ball with options either side and Callum McGregor gave Schmeichel little option but to handle a bouncing back-pass on his goal-line.

From the resulting indirect free-kick on the six-yard line, Maeda appeared to block Jorginho’s shot with both hands but got the VAR decision in his favour given they were right in front of his body.

Celtic continued to face danger, needing a Cameron Carter-Vickers block and a Schmeichel save to keep them level.

Maeda should have won it in the 86th minute when McGregor’s pass sent him clean through. But with a defender close on his trail, the Japan attacker shot over from 18 yards.

Schmeichel still had to parry Ofri Arad’s header to take the game into extra time, when Celtic enjoyed their best spell of the tie.

Hatate had a shot blocked after substitute Idah’s cutback presented him with a good chance and both McGregor and Nygren tested the home goalkeeper from long range.

Celtic increased the pressure in the second period and sub McCowan forced a scrambling save before Nygren was twice denied from near-post efforts. And the home goalkeeper continued to foil the Hoops after the full-time whistle.

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