Captain: We need to take the positives and move forward

Celtic F.C.

·4 October 2023

Captain: We need to take the positives and move forward

Celtic were inches away from another famous 2-1 win over Lazio, and then seconds away from a more than deserved draw.

But as the full-time whistle blew, the Hoops were left shell-shocked as Lazio had somehow left Celtic Park with all three points after the latest of late winners.

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Callum McGregor was left to reflect on how one point looked to be three, only for Luis Palma's late goal to be ruled out for offside and then for the Serie A side to score a 96th-minute winner.

Speaking after the game, the Celtic captain said: “If the game finished as a draw we would probably be unhappy with that as we wanted to win the game and I felt like we did enough.

“I felt we merited it if we went and got the winner, so for it to turn the complete other way, we speak about it all the time but at this level that’s the difference.

“It’s one moment that gets a little bit scrappy and Pedro shows unbelievable quality in his header to get the goal. It's a tough one in terms of how the game finished.

'We have got to learn again from that but ultimately we have got to get points on the board if we want to get out of this group.'

“The next game here is massive in terms of that.”

It’s a game that promised so much as Celtic took an early lead through Kyogo, but even in the second-half with the score at 1-1, the Hoops were the team pushing for the winner.

They thought they had it when Luis Palma found the back of the net with nine minutes left, only for VAR to rule it out for offside.

The Celtic captain, while clearly disappointed not to get anything from the game, says the team has to take positives into the clash with Atletico Madrid on matchday three at Celtic Park.

He added: “We dominated the start of the game and were really comfortable and probably as good as we have been here at home for a long time in a Champions League game.

'You have to take the positives from that as well. The boys are growing all the time and in the second-half it looked like there was only one team that was going to win that game.'

“We just need to learn and try and cut out those little bits of concentration where it’s costing us at the minute.

“It’s been two opposite ends of the scale this week where we get a last-minute winner and then we concede that.

“It shows the highs and low you go through as a group, and especially when you’re trying to build, you have got to take those and stay in the middle and learn and progress all the time.

“We can take positives that we were dominant at home and deserved to win the match, and you have to take the learning from that and the next home game is massive.”