Kris Boyd is the latest pundit to offer his thoughts on Celtic’s Champions League draw with Bayern Munich.
And, to be honest, many fans will wish he hadn’t bothered. Boyd’s job as a pundit on one of the biggest broadcasters in the UK is to talk up Scottish football and put rivalry aside whenever it comes to European performances.
But when it came to assessing Celtic against Bayern Munich, the former Rangers man couldn’t hide his pettiness.
Whilst pundits all over Europe have praised Celtic’s display against one of the biggest teams in the world, Boyd took a different slant and couldn’t put his rivalry aside and be professional in his analysis of the Bhoys’ overall Champions League campaign.
Kris Boyd’s embarrassing Champions League comments show Sky Sports pundit’s bitterness
Boyd laughed on Sky Sports, “I’ve never been so delighted to see a ball hit the back of the Celtic net in all my life.
“In terms of Brendan Rodgers and Celtic when you look at how far they’ve come in such a short period of time, considering the last visit to Germany, they were on the end of a really, really embarrassing defeat for Celtic losing 7-1 in Dortmund.
“But they have recovered from that and put in some terrific performances, I must add, between that Dortmund performance and going out of the competition last night
“But they have grown. I think there are players that have matured within the games that they’ve played and have shown that with this new format, I think it gives teams like Celtic more of an opportunity to get to the knockout stages, I must add.
Kris Boyd says Celtic ‘acquitted themselves well’ in the Champions League
“You look at the way the games panned out,” continued Boyd, “and Celtic have beaten three of the ones who were the bottom, but you still got to beat them.
“They’re all at Champions League level. They’re all different games, and that’s where Celtic have fallen in the past.
“Whereas you look at the performances, Atalanta as well, going there and coming back home with a draw, Celtic have not been disgraced, apart from that humiliating defeat in Germany to Borussia Dortmund.
“But apart from that, they’ve acquitted themselves well, and you can see as the longer the tournament went on Brendan Rodgers had obviously adapted the style, but the players had bought into it.
“And it can be difficult as well, because the way Celtic play at home, they dominate every single game. That’s not been the case as much in Europe. But I think there have been signs that they have been able to implement their own style of play on some big guns in Europe.
Not a single comment about Celtic’s superb performance against Bayern Munich but plenty to say about the Dortmund result, beating teams at the bottom of the league and a dig about how the new format helped the Hoops get out of the group stage.
This had to be one of Boyd’s worst analysis pieces of Celtic and it’s little wonder fans get fed up with listening to his snipes on the major broadcasting channel.
As said before, Boyd’s job is to promote Scottish teams whenever they perform well in Europe and, of course, criticise when it is warranted.
It’s just a pity the Sky Sports pundit didn’t realise that before his embarrassing two-minute segment this morning.
