Chris Sutton was left to drool over Dedryck Boyata after the defender made a superb challenge on Kevin Gameiro in Celtic’s 1-0 defeat to Valencia at the Mestalla on Thursday night.
The Bhoys crashed out of the Europa League due to a 3-0 defeat on aggregate, but Brendan Rodgers will surely be pleased with the overall performance by his players, who probably would have done a lot better if they weren’t reduced to 10 men when Jeremy Toljan was sent off in the first-half.
Boyata really impressed Sutton at one moment in the game for a top piece of defensive work inside his own penalty box when he won the ball cleanly off Gameiro.
“Brilliant defending,” said Sutton during his live match commentary on BT Sport ESPN [07:20pm].
“Really brilliantly read from Dedryck Boyata.
“Didn’t dive in, timed that challenge to perfection.”
OPINION
Boyata hardly had a great game against Valencia but you have to admit, that challenge on Gameiro was brilliant. Unfortunately, the French forward scored the winning goal for Valencia a matter of seconds later, but that should not take anything away from what was a top piece of play by Boyata. Overall, the Belgium international didn’t play that well. In the first-half, his passes were sloppy and in the second, the challenge on Gameiro was all he had to brag about. Jozo Simunovic and Kristoffer Ajer played a lot better than Boyata, which should be a concern for Rodgers when the Belgian is meant to be above them two in the pecking order at centre-back. Filip Benkovic is definitely the Hoops’ best centre-back but after that it appears to be up for grabs, based on Thursday night’s action. It does not really mean a lot for Celtic now anyway. They will win the domestic treble again with ease. However with Ajer being so young, it might be worth showing more faith in him.