Benfica thrashed Celtic 4-1 at the Estadio Da Luz on Thursday night, with the Scottish side suffering a second successive Europa League defeat after a nightmare first half.
Lisbon will forever be the setting of the greatest night in Celtic's 138-year-long history. But the current crop of players were unable to invoke the spirit of the famous European Cup winning team as they were torn apart by Benfica in the Portuguese capital.
Martin O'Neill's side were soundly beaten 3-1 at home to Ferencvaros in their Euro opener and with barely five minutes on the clock at the Estadio Da Luz, found themselves behind again. Benfica were awarded a spot kick when Dane Murray brought down Jhon Duran after Hoops failed to clear their lines. The Colombian frontman made no mistake from 12 yards, dinking his penalty straight down the middle as Viljami Sinisalo dived off to his left.
Nightmare First Half
Benfica doubled their lead on the 23 minute mark. Lively winger Gianluca Prestianni was allowed far too much room outside the area and he was able to clip a cross towards the back post that the on-rushing Alexander Bah finished with aplomb by side-footing the ball past Sinisalo.
O'Neill's men almost delivered a quickfire response to that second strike, with summer signings Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran ruing their luck after both hitting the woodwork in quick succession. But they were made to pay once again with nine minutes of the half remaining when Prestianni pounced on a slack pass in midfield to feed Duran, with the ex Aston Villa man able to beat Sinisalo at a tight angle.
Second Half Revival
In an attempt to stem the side, O'Neill introduced Haissem Hassan and Callum Osmand at the half-time break in place of Hogh and Sebastien Tounekti. The further arrivals of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Benjamin Nygren gave Celtic a much needed boost and Duran got on the end of Hassan's cross to head the ball into the net under pressure from Benfica keeper Anatoliy Trubin.
They went mightily close to reducing the deficit even further on 71 minutes when Duran lashed another strike off the woodwork from inside the area before Osmand forced a good save out of Trubin 11 minutes later. Celts continued to press the advantage in order to set up a grandstand finish but it was Benfica who rounded off the scoring with a minute of normal time remaining. Greek goal machine Vangelis Pavlidis appeared as a second half substitute and beat the offside trap to pass the ball into the net past the helpless Sinisalo.
That's now four losses in the last five matches in all competitions for Celtic, who welcome Hearts to Parkhead in a tasty Premiership encounter on Sunday.
Five Talking Points
Tale of two halves - Celtic could not have complained if they had gone into the half-time break having conceded more than three goals. And while it was O'Neill's attacking chances that sparked an improved display in the second half, the Hoops back line were able to tighten things up a bit at the other end. It could have made for a very interesting finale at the Estadio Da Luz had the visitors been able to force home a second goal before Pavlidis got himself in on the act. Wouter Vrancken's Hearts put five past St Mirren last weekend so Celtic will need to be at it defensively from the get-go when the Jambos roll into town on Sunday.
Hogh's woes continue - Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton rallied to Celts' record signing's side during the week and backed the Dane to end his goal drought against Benfica. However, Hogh was simply found wanting once again in another frustrating 45 minute performance in Lisbon. The former Bodo/Glimt frontman was able to get himself into several promising areas but was unable to apply the final touch, notably hitting the post from inside the six yard box. That's now eight appearances in green-and-white since he opened his account for the club with a hat trick against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Hassan a bright spark - Big money arrival Hassan is yet to deliver on his lofty price tag at Parkhead but with his half-time cameo showed signs that it is only a matter of time. The World Cup breakout star flew past Benfica left back Samuel Dahl on several occasions to get a shot off at goal. And those efforts were rewarded when he teed up Duran to score Hoops' consolation goal, giving Hassain just a second assist in the colours of green-and-white. He was the catalyst for a decent revival attempt from O'Neill's team in the second half and will be pushing to be included from the start for the big clash against Hearts at Parkhead on Sunday.
Bah Humbug - Christmas is still over two months away but Hoops fans in the Estadio Da Luz and indeed all over the world would have been grimacing watching Benfica's wide players ripping their team apart like wrapping paper. Prestianni and Lukebakio gave Kieran Tierney and Colby Donovan all sorts of issues, with marauding right back Bah getting into the box on the overlap to devastating effect. Norway international Bah was perhaps fortunate not to be shown a red card for a late tackle on Tierney midway through the second half and was substituted by Marco Silva in the 80th minute.
Guttman curse - Way back in 1962, Bela Guttman placed a 100-year curse on Benfica after leaving The Eagles under a cloud. Despite leading them back to back European Cup victories, the club denied the Hungarian icon's request for a pay rise and he subsequently declared that they would not win a European honour again for another century. Benfica finished as runners' up in the Europa League in consecutive seasons in 2013 and 2014 but their dazzling display against the Hoops will give boss Silva confidence that they can end the hoodoo with 35 years to spare by going all the way in Frankfurt next May. The victory over Celtic has also extended their unbeaten run of matches at home in the Europa League to 30.
