Brendan Rodgers extended his miserable personal record in the Champions League after Celtic were stunned by Lazio on Wednesday night.
Celtic thought they had scored a late winner themselves in Glasgow when Luis Palma fired in at the back post in the 81st minute to make it 2-1. But his effort was ruled out for offside and former Barcelona and Chelsea forward Pedro headed in Matteo Guendouzi’s cross in the 95th minute to win it for Lazio.
The frenetic finish came after Kyogo Furuhashi and Matias Vecino exchanged first-half goals. It was a sickening blow for Celtic, who are bottom of Group E, having now suffered back-to-back defeats.
Pedro’s pinpoint header also means Rodgers is statistically the worst manager to have taken charge of 20 games in the Champions League. Across three seasons with Celtic and one with Liverpool, the 50-year-old’s record reads: played 20, won two, drawn five, lost 13.
His last win came way back in September 2017 when Celtic beat Anderlecht 3-0 in his first spell at the club. The only other was a 2-1 win over Ludogorets with Liverpool in September 2014, which came courtesy of a 93rd-minute Steven Gerrard penalty.
Celtic are still waiting for a home win in the Champions League, having gone 10 years without victory in front of their fans in the competition. Rodgers was understandably disappointed with the nature of the result against Lazio. He told TNT Sports: “Disappointed in terms of the result of course, but really for the players because they gave so much. We scored a fantastic goal and we’re disappointed with the one we conceded.
“Apart from one chance early on in the second half, we looked like we could go on and take it. Disappointed with the winning goal, you just have to secure the game at that point, that’s just game management. Just that one moment of quality sees us lose the game.
“I can’t fault the players for their effort shown in the game. I can’t be critical of this group of players after what they gave. We should have had more from that game.”
Leave a Reply