Celtic's revival beneath Martin O'Neill got here juddering to a halt in Jutland after they had been overwhelmed 3-1 by Midtjylland. The Hoops' hopes of prolonging their Europa League marketing campaign into the knockout phases suffered a serious blow because the Danes hammered in three targets in eight first-half minutes.
The teenage substitute Callum Osmand received a late penalty which Reo Hatate transformed, however the 19-year-old was then taken off on a stretcher in tears after struggling what gave the impression to be a hamstring harm on a horrible night for the Scottish champions.
Celtic really had the primary shot on aim after simply 25 seconds, with Johnny Kenny firing straight at dwelling keeper Elias Rafn Olafsson. It was Celtic's solely effort on the right track for the following 80 minutes. They had been shortly beneath the pump. The previous Rangers right-back Kevin Mbabu was denied twice by Kasper Schmeichel and Mads Bech Sørensen guided Osorio's free-kick over the crossbar. The hosts got here even nearer when Philip Billing dummied a low cross for Cho Gue-sung, who compelled a point-blank save from Schmeichel, with Anthony Ralston taking the rebound proper within the face.
Schmeichel, again on dwelling soil a day after his thirty ninth birthday, was at full stretch to tip a 20-yard volley from Pedro Bravo large. However he may solely maintain again the tide for therefore lengthy and the dam lastly burst following the ensuing nook. Celtic cleared the preliminary cross however Mikel Gogorza reached the byline once more and his chip throughout aim was nodded in by Martin Erlic.
Inside two minutes, Midtjylland doubled their lead when Arne Engels and Ralston let Gogorza squirm in between them and whip a low drive previous Schmeichel. It was three by half-time from a Sørensen lengthy throw, the thrilling Guinea-Bissau ahead Djú amassing the second ball and curling his 18th aim of the season contained in the far put up.
O'Neill threw on Osmand at half-time and the 19-year-old earned his facet a penalty when he was introduced down by Erlic. However Hatate's spot-kick couldn't masks what was a chastening night for Celtic, whereas Osmand's late harm dampened the temper even additional.
“It was a troublesome night, there's no query about it,” stated interim supervisor O'Neill.
“We conceded two targets inside a minute or 90 seconds of one another and the sport goes away from you very, in a short time. They rating a 3rd and it's a good distance again. The targets that we conceded weren't good. However when it comes to European soccer, they're a really tremendous facet, there's no query about it.”
Nottingham Forest stay unbeaten away from dwelling within the Europa League after they battled to a goalless draw with Sturm Graz on the Merkur Enviornment. Sean Dyche additionally continued his undefeated begin in Europe since he took over at Forest and ensured they took some extent again to England after their 2-0 victory over Porto of their final sport within the competitors.
Forest spurned a golden alternative to make their early dominance depend when Morgan Gibbs-White had a first-half penalty saved by Oliver Christensen after Maurice Malone had a aim dominated out for offside.
The second half was a scrappy stop-start affair as each side did not register a shot on the right track after the interval however Nicolás Domínguez was denied the winner in stoppage time by the crossbar.
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Arjan Malic introduced down Williams on the left fringe of the field which handed Forest the primary alternative, Domínguez pulling it again to James McAtee who dragged his first-time effort simply large of a put up. Forest managed the early proceedings in Austria and nearly had the opener however Ryan Yates had a close-range header cleared off the road by Malic within the seventeenth minute.
Sturm Graz thought they'd taken the lead earlier than the half-hour mark with their first foray ahead. Otar Kiteishvili's run put the Forest defence on the again foot and his strike was parried by John Victor into the trail of Malone who tapped into an empty internet however was marginally offside.
Forest got an opportunity to open the scoring from the penalty spot after Williams struck the ball off the hand of Emanuel Aiwu. Gibbs-White assumed the accountability however his spot-kick was stopped by Christensen who went low to his left to maintain it out.
Dyche introduced Gibbs-White off for the defender Murillo with 13 minutes to play as Forest set their stall out for some extent away in Europe. Forest nearly snatched victory on the finish when Domínguez let rip with a firecracker outdoors the field however he was denied by the crossbar.
Afterwards, Dyche expressed frustration that Forest couldn't take their probabilities. “Apart from the penalty, the possibilities we had from set-pieces, a few of these remaining moments the place we simply didn't capitalise,” he stated. “There have been some actually good performances. You come away pissed off total as a result of I assumed we had been the strongest facet total.
