It finished all square at Celtic Park in tonight’s UCL clash against Club Brugge, with a brilliant finish from Daizen Maeda in the second half proving to be enough to earn the Hoops a point. The freezing cold conditions on the night did not deter the Celtic faithful and, as has been customary for generations, Celtic Park was a cauldron of noise as the game got underway. From the start, Club Brugge looked dangerous in attack, with the away side breaking forward at speed at every opportunity. It came as no surprise, then, that the first real chance of the match fell to a Brugge player, with Ferran Jutglà curling the ball just wide of the post from the edge of the box. That warning shot from the visitors seemed to spur the Celts in to life and just before the 15-minute mark, Daizen Maeda managed to square the ball in to the box from the left wing. Arne Engels was there to get on the end of the ball, but his shot from 12 yards out rose high and wide of the target. The visitors enjoyed the majority of the possession in the first half, and with 25 minutes played Andreas Skov Olsen burst in to the area from the right wing and bent a shot goalward which drifted wide of the far post. It felt like the opening goal was coming for the Belgian side, however nobody could have foreseen the circumstances which broke the deadlock in Brugge’s favour. Nicolas Kühn picked up the ball on the right wing facing his own goal and opted to pass back to Cameron Carter-Vickers. The central defender, however, hadn’t noticed that Kasper Schmeichel was off of his line as he instinctively spun and passed the ball back towards goal. Schmeichel raced back across the line to prevent the pass from trundling in, but there was too much pace on the ball and Brugge had a fortuitous lead. The Hoops reacted to the own goal by trying to take more control of the possession and they did manage to create a few half chances, however they could not find a route through to goal and went in 1-0 down at half time. The second half started in the same vein as the first 45 minutes, with Brugge enjoying the lion’s share of the possession and carving out an early opportunity which Kasper Schmeichel had to tip by the post after De Cuyper struck from distance. On the hour mark Skov Olsen had a massive opportunity to double Brugge’s advantage when he was picked out at the back post by one of his teammates. The Brugge forward was completely unmarked but was unable to hit the target and instead skied his effort high in to the Lisbon Lions stand. Seeing that changes were needed, Brendan Rodgers brought Paulo Bernardo and Alex Valle on, with the latter making an instant impact. The left back looked for Daizen Maeda with a neat pass down the left wing which the Japanese forward was able to get on the end of. Daizen then cut the ball on to his right foot before bending a superb effort across Simon Mignolet and in to the net off the far post to equalise for the Celts. Less than 10 minutes later, Club Brugge had the ball in the net through Ferran Jutglà and the life was sucked out of Celtic Park, but a VAR review was to come to Celtic’s aid and the goal was chopped off for an offside in the build-up. Lifted by the Brugge disallowed goal, Brendan Rodgers’ men went hunting for a winner, and despite creating a few openings and half-chances, they had to settle for a hard-earned point under the lights at Paradise. The Celts remain unbeaten at home in this season’s UCL and in a healthy position as Brendan Rodgers and his side aim for progression in to the play-off round. Next up for the Bhoys is a return to domestic action and the visit of Ross County to Celtic Park on Saturday.
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