A CELTIC side reduced to 10 men in the first half with the ordering off of centre half Virgil van Dijk exited the Europa League last night despite producing a spirited performance against Inter Milan in the San Siro.
The Scottish champions' hopes of progressing to the last 16 of the competition suffered a serious setback when Van Dijk departed the field in the 36th minute after receiving his second yellow card in the space of 11 minutes.
It was a huge challenge for Ronny Deila's side, who had drawn the first leg with Roberto Mancini's team 3-3 at Parkhead last week, to prevail on foreign soil and progress to the next round with a full complement of players.
The loss of their Dutch defender made their task even more daunting. However, Celtic contained their rivals admirably and were only defeated when Fredy Guarin unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top left of their goal from 25 yards in the 88th minute.
The ovation the Celtic players and their manager received from the away fans after the final whistle spoke volumes for how gallantly they had battled both during the match and in the 2014/15 European campaign.
Deila made just one change to the side that started against Inter in the first leg. John Guidetti, who had come off the bench to score an injury-time equaliser seven days before, was preferred in attack after Leigh Griffiths was injured in training the previous day.
Mancini, meanwhile, made two alterations to the Inter side that took to the field in Glasgow. Danilo D'Ambrosio, the pacy 26-year-old left-back, and Hernanes, the €20m Brazilian international midfielder, came in. Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Hugo Campagnaro, who had scored an own goal in the first leg, dropped out. The first scoring opportunity of the game fell to Gary Mackay-Steven in the seventh minute. The winger controlled a diagonal ball from Emilio Izaguirre and advanced into the opposition box unchallenged but his left-footed shot was blocked by the legs of Inter goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo.
The visitors were given a stark reminder of the calibre of opposition they were up against just a minute later when Hernanes neatly skipped past Scott Brown out on the left wing.
Stuart Armstrong had what looked to be a strong penalty claim waved away by the Slovakian referee Ivan Kruzliak in the 14th minute after he appeared to be barged over by Davide Santon as he bore down on goal. Guidetti also had an appeal waved away after being pulled back by Andrea Ranocchia.
Much of the focus going into this game was on the central defensive partnership of Jason Denayer and Virgil van Dijk, given the youthful pair's previous misdemeanours in Europe. They certainly had their work cut out nullifying the twin threat posed by Mauro Icardi and Rodrigo Palacio.
But in the early exchanges both Denayer and Van Dijk acquitted themselves admirably. That encouraging start made the latter's departure all the more frustrating for the large travelling support perched high up in the third tier of the Curva Sud. The Dutch defender's first booking for a foul on Palacio in the 26th minute was needless and stupid. His second caution for bringing down Icardi was debatable. It certainly looked clumsy more than malicious. The referee, though, had no hesitation in sending him off.
A reshuffle was required and Deila threw on Efe Ambrose at centre-half and removed Mackay-Steven in the 39th minute. Stefan Johansen switched to the right flank leaving Guidetti isolated up front. Celtic, as has so often been the case in Europe this season, had their goalkeeper Craig Gordon to thank for maintaining parity after they were reduced to 10 men. He produced two outstanding saves in the space of five minutes before half-time to ensure his side returned to their dressing room on level terms.
Hernanes whipped the free-kick, that Inter were awarded as a result of the Van Dijk ordering off, into the Celtic six-yard box and Icardi got his head to it. Gordon showed outstanding reflexes to push it over the bar to deny the forward.
The Scotland internationalist diverted a D'Ambrosio shot to safety with his right heel in the 43rd minute, palmed a Hernanes shot wide in the 53rd minute and stopped a Guarin attempt in the 56th. The 32-year-old's latest fine display in Europe will do no harm to his chances of forcing his way back into the national team.
Guidetti made way for James Forrest in the 59th minute and Kris Commons took over from Armstrong in the 78th. Both substitutions were designed to inject some freshness into Celtic's endeavours going forward. But they were unable to threaten the Inter goal.
Losing to Mancini's side is no disgrace. This Nerazzurri side cost £60m more to assemble. Xherdan Shaqiri was bought for £13m from Bayern Munich, Gary Medel was brought in from Cardiff City for £10m and Guarin arrived from Porto for £9m.
Undoubtedly Deila will have learned greatly from his experiences in the Champions League and Europa League - as his predecessor Neil Lennon did before him.
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