Craig Gordon was disappointed at the manner in which his side conceded both goals as they put on a brave performance, but ultimately fell short, against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last night.
A creditable showing by the Scottish champions proved fruitless, as Callum McGregor’s second-half equaliser to cancel out Kingsley Coman’s opener was swiftly followed by a Javi Martinez sickener.
While Gordon was heartened by the overall performance, he admitted that he and his team-mates were kicking themselves over the manner of the goals they lost.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Celtic looked like a 'proper' Champions League team against Bayern Munich
The opener in particular, where centre-back Dedryck Boyata allowed a long punt from the goalkeeper to bounce through to Coman, was extremely disappointing for the Scotland No.1, and he says it is a goal that they shouldn’t be losing at this level.
“I thought Dedryck was going to head it,” Gordon said. “I think he thought it was going to come straight through. I just had to react, so it was kind of an all-round mistake. Coman is pretty quick and he got in behind Dedryck, and I just tried to force him wide and take his momentum off him to allow the guys to get back in behind the ball, but he still managed to score.
“It’s something you don’t see very often, especially in games at this level, is one ball up the pitch causing such difficulty, and we were just a little bit late to react. I had to do something off the bouncing ball, he was coming straight through, he’s quick, and he was right in the middle of the goal.
“From my point of view, I’ve forced him to come around me and let three of the guys get back goals side of the ball to try and make a block, and we got unlucky actually because he’s threaded the ball through a forest of legs and found the net.
Read more: Jupp Heynckes: Celtic tie was as difficult as we expected as Bayern reach the last 16 again
“I also felt it might have hit his hand as the ball rolled across his body. Having looked at it again, it looks as though it did touch his hand. The official has looked at it and thought it hit his hip, so there’s a difference of opinion there.
“It counted. The guy behind the goal should be looking at that. We’ve got goalline technology, so he should be looking at the play at least. It looked as though it hit his hand and they have got the advantage from that. But the punt though came from the goalkeeper. Moussa [Dembele] has pressed him and he’s played the ball fairly aimlessly up the park, which is what we’re looking for. It’s just one of those things. You don’t see that often here and I don’t quite know how it got all the way through, but it was a strange goal to lose.”
To lose the second goal too just three minutes after Celtic Park was rocking to acclaim Celtic’s equaliser, felt like a real gut-punch for the keeper.
“We were disappointed with that too,” he said. “We know that Javi Martinez is one of their best headers in the team. He wins a lot of them in the box, he’s their go-to guy in the air really. We knew that was an area where they felt they would get success. It was a good ball in and he gets to the byeline, he’s pulled it back and it’s a good connection on the header to put it into the corner.
“For it to come three minutes after we scored was too soon, and I don’t think we even got too many touches of the ball from when we scored until we were taking centre again. So that was disappointing when we felt we would have the momentum ourselves to go forward and try to get another one.
“I don’t think we deserved that.”
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