Former Celtic great John Hartson has slammed Brendan Rodgers’s side after they succumbed to a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Valencia on Thursday night.
Goals from Denis Cheryshev and Ruben Sobrino either side of half time secured victory for the Spanish side in the Europa League Round of 32 clash.
It is safe to say that Hartson was fuming with what he saw from his old team at Parkhead as they allowed the Spaniards to take a commanding lead ahead of the second leg and questioned their priorities, suggesting their focus lay elsewhere.
“Celtic fell way short tonight, passing was poor, wrong decisions, the eyes are on a different prize!,” he said on his personal Twitter account.
“Go again Sunday,” he finished.
Celtic fell way short tonight, passing was poor, wrong decisions,the eyes are on a different prize ! Go again Sunday.
— John Hartson (@JohnHartson10) February 14, 2019
OPINION
Hartson is right, here, Celtic simply weren’t good enough for large portions of the contest on Thursday. They started alright, indeed they looked quite bright early on, but they faded fast. As soon as the visitors got a grip on the game it was over at Parkhead. Valencia are, at this moment in time, simply a much better team than Celtic. They have far more resources and can attract a better quality of player, so is anyone really surprised at this result? Yes, maybe we were expecting the hosts to put up more of a fight, but Valencia were the favourites for a reason. They are seasoned European competitors, they’ve been there and done it at this level. Celtic have too, of course, but not for a long time now. This was always a bit of a mismatch on paper and that’s how it turned out on the pitch, too. Still, Celtic weren’t good enough and should have done better in front of their home crowd. Now they need to refocus on what is a big game on Sunday against Kilmarnock.