Celtic extended their unbeaten run in the Champions League to four matches after a hard-fought 0-0 draw away at Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night.
The Hoops may not have clinched the three points but they avoided defeat and have now only lost one of their six matches in the competition so far, which came at the hands of Borussia Dortmund.
Brendan Rodgers’ side had 69% of the possession but only mustered up seven shots on goal and failed to create a single ‘big chance’ to find the back of the net.
There were a number of underwhelming performers for the Hoops with their work in possession, with Reo Hatate one of the stars who struggled in Croatia.
Reo Hatate’s performance against Dinamo Zagreb
Rodgers opted to go with Paulo Bernardo and Hatate either side of captain Callum McGregor, leaving Luke McCowan and Arne Engels on the bench, and did not get much back in the way of quality on the ball from his starters.
The three of them combined for one chance created in the entire match, which came courtesy of McGregor, and zero ‘big chances’ created at all.
Hatate was particularly wasteful with the ball at his feet. He ended the game with a pass success rate of just 71%, whilst the skipper completed 97% of his and Bernardo completed 87% of his passes, and lost possession a whopping 18 times.
The Japan international did, however, win five of his eight duels and made two tackles and one block, which shows that he fought hard out of possession to preserve a point for his side.
There was a Celtic star who was even worse than Hatate, though, because they struggled with their work both on and off the ball on Tuesday night.
Kyogo Furuhashi’s struggles against Dinamo Zagreb
Kyogo Furuhashi was selected over Adam Idah from the start, and justifiably so after his excellent goal against Hibernian on Saturday, but failed to make the most of his opportunity.
The Japanese marksman simply struggled to get involved in the game and ended his 72 minutes on the pitch with seven touches of the ball and three passes completed, despite Celtic’s dominance in possession.
Whilst you can point to the lack of creativity from Hatate and the other forwards, Kyogo has to do more to get involved in matches when the team are not functioning at 100% creatively.
Adam Idah had nine touches, completed a dribble, had a shot, and won 100% (2/2) of his duels in just 18 minutes off the bench, which shows that it was not just a team issue for the Japan international.
As you can see in the table above, Kyogo lost 100% of his duels and did not contribute with a shot or a key pass to help his team at the top end of the pitch.
He was a lightweight out of possession and did not do enough to make a difference on the ball and that is why he was even worse than Hatate, who was dominant defensively but struggled with his use of the ball.
