Atalanta 0-0 Celtic: Rodgers' gutsy side go from demolition in Dortmund to the ultimate Italian job
You could forgive Brendan Rodgers an air of vindication after this two-fingered salute to every critic who savaged his tactical approach to that 7-1 mauling in Dortmund.
For the first time in eight Champions League visits to Italy, Celtic left undefeated after a gutsy, energetic, organised and, yes, pragmatic point against last season’s Europa League winners.
After the awful night in Germany, how Scotland’s champions needed this. For their prestige and their prospects of reaching the last 24 of the new format, they had to dig deep and produce an outstanding display of resilience.
As a club, Celtic have grown used to sky-high demands. Winning games of football in a certain style is a non-negotiable part of the deal.
Yet, against one of the most feared teams in Europe, all supporters asked for was a bit of self respect.
Liam Scales was excellent for Celtic whose defence produced an outstanding display of resilience
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel kept a clean sheet with a series of important saves in Bergamo
Celtic's players take the acclaim of the travelling support after a courageous team performance
When key defender Cameron Carter-Vickers failed to travel, many prepared to watch this game from a vantage point behind the sofa.
They’d have settled for a 3-0 forfeit there and then.
After all those six- and seven-goal thrashings on the killing grounds of Europe — the most recent in Dortmund — the demands, like the expectations, were modest. The outcome a pleasant surprise.
A battling scoreless draw in teeming rain at the Gewiss Stadium now leaves Rodgers and his team on four points from three games, with the two most difficult out of the way. Suddenly, the outlook feels a good deal better.
Pragmatism, it turns out, comes in all shapes and sizes. On a satisfying night for Celtic’s manager, he showed there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Facing a barrage of crosses from both flanks, his side put up a fight and kept battling until the home team ran out of ideas during four minutes of added time.
They threw themselves at headers, the distances were tighter, they wore Atalanta down.
Adam Idah came in for his first European start to add a bit of physicality and hold the ball up, in theory at least.
Less effective in that department than he might have been, the ball came back on Celtic time and again, the defending desperate in the first half because, frankly, it had to be.
To get results at this level, a team must ride its luck at times and, make no mistake, the visitors did that for long spells.
After shipping five first-half goals in Dortmund, the opening 45 minutes here were harum-scarum at times. Nevertheless, this was better. Much better.
Before a ball was kicked, Rodgers called on his players to play with confidence and belief. When Reo Hatate — playing his 100th game for the club — gave the ball away with his very first touch in the first minute, the omens looked bleak.
Atalanta’s strategy was consistent from the first whistle. Get the ball down the flanks and cross it deep and hard towards a tidal wave of blue-and-black shirts flooding the six-yard box.
Celtic tried to break quickly, Nicolas Kuhn and Hatate threatening before Arne Engels tested Marco Carnesecchi with a curling strike.
There’s only so much a team can do with 39-per-cent possession and, for long spells, the visitors spent the first half hanging on by their fingertips. Croatian international Mario Pasalic was a menace, timing one run after another to meet yet another cross.
The No8 muscled the otherwise excellent Liam Scales out of the way and clattered a header off the face of the bar after 18 minutes.
Presented with a second chance, he nodded on to the roof of the net. Celtic breathed again.
There was a further Pasalic reprieve when the playmaker timed his run perfectly to meet a dangerous cutback and smashed the ball low at goal. A yard either side of Kasper Schmeichel and it was in.
Reacting smartly, the veteran keeper trapped the ball between his legs. It was a big, important save.
Schmeichel made another huge stop before half-time when Mateo Retegui — the man of the moment — swooped in to bullet a netbound header at goal.
It was an instinctive save on the goalline to prevent the eight-goal striker breaking his Champions League duck before half-time.
This was fraught stuff. Too fraught at times, to be blunt.
Yet, as the Bosnian referee whistled for the interval, the away support showed their appreciation for the resilience and spirit of their side. They’d been 5-1 down at the same stage in Dortmund.
Despite ball possession of 61 per cent and 13 first-half attempts on goal, La Dea — the Goddess — had yet to work her charms. Before this game, Celtic’s Champions League record in Italy read like a chapter in a Stephen King novel.
They’d played seven and lost seven. In all European competitions, they’d mustered one win in 15, with 11 defeats. A 2-1 win over Lazio in Rome in 2019 came under Neil Lennon, a manager who had no qualms about shutting up shop when the occasion demanded it.
During a hair-raising second half, Celtic built themselves a platform. Supporters began to creep out from behind the sofa as the minutes ticked past. Too slowly.
It was summed up by the relentless Scales denying Retegui a tap-in at the back post in the first minute after the restart. In the absence of Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty was another who had a really fine game, whacking and blocking everything that moved.
Celtic were still in the game, hanging in there, and, when Alex Valle burst forward five minutes into the second period and walloped a deflected 20-yard strike inches over the crossbar, the visitors briefly harboured notions of something more.
The sight of main man Retegui leaving the fray after 57 minutes didn’t offer much prospect of relief. At this level, it never does.
His replacement was Charles de Ketelaere, a Belgian international. Lazar Samardzic, the midfielder signed by Atalanta when Celtic refused to sell them Matt O’Riley, was the other.
Yet the introduction of Kyogo Furuhashi and Paulo Bernardo offered fresh legs and impetus and made Rodgers’ side better. For Idah and Hatate, the race was run.
Furuhashi’s impact was almost instant, spinning with his back to goal and forcing Carnesecchi into a rare moment of anxiety.
Offside flag or not, it was hopeful. The rump of Celtic supporters behind the goal were daring to raise their voice, the sight of Ademola Lookman and Pasalic leaving the fray only adding to the creeping optimism.
Their side survived the four minutes of added time — and the fear of late heartbreak — with the jubilation of the away support unrestrained as they belted out ‘We’re having a party in the Champions League’ at time up.
Next up for Celtic is a winnable home game against RB Leipzig on November 5. Fireworks — metaphorically, hopefully not literally — seem likely.
