Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League is a bitter-sweet one for the fans.
Knowing a win would take them straight into the play-off places, anticipation was high amongst Celtic fans, especially after the Bhoys hammered RB Leipzig just over three weeks ago.
Brendan Rodgers went with the same Celtic starting lineup that beat Hearts at the weekend against the Belgians but, in the end, the Hoops played out a draw against Club Brugge in a result that was probably fair to both teams.
However, the game wasn’t without incident so here, 67 Hail Hail points out what Celtic fans may not have realised about Brugge before the game and what Kasper Schmeichel did right after the Belgians opened the scoring.
Club Brugge’s European exploits last season that may have been overlooked by Celtic fans
Club Brugge finished fourth in the Belgian Pro League last season but still managed to qualify for this season’s Champions League group stages.
How? Well, the Belgian league currently has two Champions League spots with the winners of the league making it into the second-round qualifying stage in the Champions route.
Brugge, placing 4th in the league, was still crowned champions as the Pro League introduced a play-off system where the top six placed teams challenge for the title and the second Champions League spot. Confused? You’re not the only one.
But what Celtic fans may also not realise is that Brugge were also European semi-finalists last season. Entered into the Europa Conference League, the Belgians had to qualify for the group stages beating Denmark’s AGF, Iceland’s Knattspyrnufélag Akureyrar and La Liga side Osasuna on the way.
Winners of a group which had Bodo Glimt, Besiktas and Lugano, Brugge also beat Molde in the last 16, and PAOK in the last quarter-final. But their luck ran out after they were knocked out in the semi-final stages by eventual runners-up, Fiorentina.
Kasper Schmeichel proves why Brendan Rodgers signed him after Club Brugge scored vs Celtic
Kasper Schmeichel has been an excellent replacement for Joe Hart between the sticks after the former England international hung up his gloves at Celtic.
The big Dane has shown he is more than reliable between the sticks and has already made some big saves for Celtic in the Champions League.
But it wasn’t his saves that fans might have missed last night as Schmeichel drew on all of his experience to lead Celtic after Cameron Carter-Vickers’ own goal against Brugge.
Watch what the Celtic goalkeeper does here.
Leadership, direction and organisation. All traits that Hart brought to Celtic are carried on by the big Denmark international.
And whilst it would be easy to apportion blame to Carter-Vickers, in truth, it was an unfortunate mistake that Celtic’s high-risk and reward football can sometimes cause.
