Celtic brush aside Slovan Bratislava in Champions League

Celtic started the new Champions League format with a 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava which eclipsed their biggest victory in the group stage era.
Brendan Rodgers declared before the game that his side were more ready than ever to make their mark on Europe’s elite competition and they vindicated his confidence as Liam Scales opened their campaign with a 17th-minute header.
Celtic kick off their Champions League campaign in style ✅Liam Scales has Rod Stewart and all of Celtic Park buzzing! 💥📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK” pic.twitter.com/W039oHQ20O
The Scottish champions should have been out of sight by half-time but they finally found their range in the second half.
Goals from Kyogo Furuhashi, Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda and substitute Adam Idah put Celtic in second place in this new 36-team  league.
On paper this was Celtic’s best chance of three points, playing against a side who were making their debut at this level of the Champions League, and the visitors had other chances apart from Kevin Wimmer’s goal.
But Slovan had gone through eight games of qualifying without defeat and the resounding nature of Celtic’s performance sparked a carnival atmosphere among a support who had to wait 10 years for a home group-stage win before seeing their team beat Feyenoord in a dead rubber last year.
Maeda could easily have had Celtic two ahead before Scales scored. The winger fired over inside four minutes after being played in by Alistair Johnston after the home side broke Slovan’s high press. He soon headed straight at the goalkeeper from six yards after a short corner.
The opener came from another corner as Engels whipped in an inswinger and Scales made good contact at the near post. Goalkeeper Dominik Takac could only palm the ball into the net.
Rodgers’ side could have doubled their lead within 60 seconds when Nicolas Kuhn superbly set up Furuhashi but Takac saved.
The chances kept coming. Engels had a powerful shot parried, Kuhn miskicked from 10 yards, and Furuhashi skied over the crossbar after Reo Hatate put the ball on a plate.
However, Celtic could have gone in at half-time level had Vladimir Weiss not hesitated when played inside Alistair Johnston. The former Rangers winger, who was earlier booked for taking out Engels, delayed and saw his shot blocked.
Celtic’s last two Champions League campaigns had been undermined by missed chances when on top and they came out after half-time seemingly determined to avoid a repeat.
Within two minutes, Kuhn waltzed to the byline and drove the ball across the face of goal for Furuhashi to force home.
Kyogo doubles the lead for Celtic ✌️Great play to secure that valuable second goal ⚽️📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/N2GTQCZqXU
Engels made it three in the 56th minute after Johnston had been felled with a high challenge from Danylo Ihnatenko.
Both second-half goalscorers also forced saves as Celtic pinned Slovan back while their supporters revelled in their dominance.
However, sliced clearances from both Cameron Carter-Vickers and Greg Taylor offered Wimmer the chance to guide a shot into the top corner from 15 yards.
Kyogo doubles the lead for Celtic ✌️Great play to secure that valuable second goal ⚽️📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/N2GTQCZqXU
But Celtic were soon back on top. Takac scrambled to stop Callum McGregor’s long-range effort and Maeda slotted home in the 70th minute as Celtic’s Japanese trio combined to cut the Slovakian champions open.
Idah then bagged his first goal of the season after being played in by fellow sub James Forrest with three minutes left.
So happy. It was an outstanding performance and result, We got in the lead and made some other good chances but second half, Wow! The greed of the players, the hunger, the pressing and counter-pressing. At half-time we said we don’t have to do anything special, just be us. 
Celtic hammer Slovan Bratislava with their most emphatic start to a European campaign for years. (Yes, I know they beat KPV 9-0 in 1970-71 and Suduva 8-1 in 2002.) It’s their record victory in the Champions League if not the European Cup. Johnston, Kuhn, Hatate, Kyogo and Maeda were irrepressible. 
OK, the opposition has not been up to snuff but Celtic have been magnificent in their attacking play. A joy to watch. 
Celtic 5-1 Slovan (Idah)  Forrest comes in off the right to take Taylor’s pass and he turns to run forward. Idah makes a clever run on Wimmer’s inside shoulder and Forrest picks him out to perfection. Idah strides on to it and finishes calmly with a right-foot angled shot with the keeper scrambling out to try to stop him. 
A FABULOUS 5 🤩Adam Idah rounds off a FIVE-STAR evening for Celtic in STYLE ⭐️📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/gssnRKhMvi
Kucka pounces on Carter-Vickers’ mistake, a straight ball up the middle and picks it off. He takes a stride then slides a pass down the inside-left for Strelec who hammers a left-foot shot over the bar.
Trusty ⇢ Carter-Vickers. The former Arsenal and Sheffield United defender comes on for his debut. 
Celtic corner on the right after good work by Bernardo. It’s their 10th of the night. Forrest glances it on at the near post but Idah commits a foul as he battles for the scraps. 
Yellow card for Carter-Vikers for grabbing Strelec’s shirt having been rolled by the striker. Mak takes the free-kick. Forrest sees it off and almost puts Maeda on for a half-field sprint to goal. But Kashia, the last Slovan outfield player, nips in ahead of him.  
Two triple substitutions:
Idah ⇢ HatateBernardo ⇢ KyogoRalston ⇢ Johnston
 
Mak ⇢ WeissSavvidis ⇢ IhnatenkoMarcelli ⇢ Barseghyan
Forrest sows panic with a venomous cross just out of Maeda’s optimum reach. Then Scales and Carter-Vickers each thwart counter-attacking thrusts with intelligent positioning and sharp tackles/blocks. 
First change on a riotous night: Forrest ⇢ Kuhn. 
Celtic 4-1 Slovan (Maeda) McGregor holds off Strelec to recycle the ball and knocks it to Kyogo who slips it inside to Hatate and he takes a touch and pokes it simply to his left, slick as you like, for Maeda to slot into the bottom right corner with a sweeping right-foot shot. Wimmer played him onside by about a hand’s width. 
What a move! What a finish! 🎯Daizen Maeda makes it four 💥📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/x0rrFXuPj8
Bit too end-to-end now for Rodgers’ liking. Will there be changes soon. Or, as Neil Lennon says, he knows that his side would be favourite in a basketball match. 
Kuhn in full flight slips a pass down the outside for Johnston and his whipped cross cannons off a defender and Takac makes another smart save at the near post. 
Celtic 3-1 Slovan (Wimmer)  But then again… What do I know? An absolutely superb finish with the outside of his left foot from the left of the penalty spot, bending it into the top left corner. 
That’s one way to get back in it! 😱Kevin Wimmer with an unbelievable Trivela strike 👏📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/I02knAnhd5
Celtic have been rampant since scoring the second goal and could have had more had Kyogo passed to Kuhn instead of shooting from a tighter angle or Maeda managed to hook in a menacing cross. Johnston and Kuhn hav been given the freehold of the right. Were I the middle of the numerous Vladimir Weiss’s I would take Wimmer off and put another left-back on who could slow them down. 
Celtic 3-0 Slovan (Engels) Calm as you like into the bottom right. 
For Ihnatenko’s kick on Johnston as they battled for a bouncing ball. Johnston got his foot up quicker and higher. 
McGregor picks Kucka’s pocket and sends Hatate sprinting down the inside-left, his legs almost a blur. He picks up his head and clips a horizontal pass looking for Kyogo keeping pace with him but he overhits it. 
Another rapid-fire chance after a goal like the first. This time Johnston’s direct running down the right tears a hole between Wimmer and Bajric. He crosses but Maeda again cannot apply the right touch. Parkhead is shaking and turned into Poznan by bouncing fans.  
Celtic 2-0 Slovan (Kyogo)  Kuhn has had Wimmer on toast all match and bombs past him again to the byline to lift a cross through the six-yard box and Furuhashi turns it in deftly with his right thigh. 
Kyogo doubles the lead for Celtic ✌️Great play to secure that valuable second goal ⚽️📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/N2GTQCZqXU
Cue Depeche Mode. 
 
Engels lets fly from 22 yards and stings Takac’s palms after being set up by Kuhn’s cute pass. 
Celtic kick off. No changes. Wimmer, who was booked for a rash, sliding tackle form behind was given a final warning just before half-time for dawdling over a throw for a good 30 seconds. 
Strikers have already gone on strike:
Celtic have been very good going forward, using the ball well and looking dangerous down both flanks. They have restricted Slovan Bratislava to a couple of raids on the break undone by their own hesitancy. The home side should be three or four up and will not feel safe or satisfied until they translate their mastery into a convincing lead. 
Engels whips it to the near post. Actually it might have been a shot, bent with hsi left foot, but he doesn’t clear the first sentry. 
Bajric loses the ball in the left-back position and fouls Johnston while trying to retrieve it. Free-kick wide on the right, parallel with the 18-yard line. 
Maeda has to backpedal to reach Kuhn’s left-foot cross from the right and, stretching, can only steer his header over. Engels had a chance to shoot from 25 yards and shaped to do so before slipping Kuhn in down the right. Neil Lennon thinks Engels should have pulled the trigger himself. 
Boos greet the award of a free-kick for Blackman after a slick passing move from Celtic starting with Schmeichel ends with Maeda falling on top of the right-back as he tried to ward off a tackle. 
McGregor shoves Barseghyan over high up the pitch after Kyogo loses the ball to concede a free-kick. 
Celtic should be three up. We have seen too many teams bitten on the backside after a dominating performance not reflected in the scoreline not to take this for granted. They need to keep the tempo up. 
Kyogo spoons a left-foot shot from 15 yards over the bar after more fantastic work by Hatate and Taylor down the left. Perhaps Hatate’s pass was behind Kyogo but he is good enough to have kept it down.  
Weiss makes a complete hash of a great opportunity to equalise after Barseghyan dribbles down the right and feeds it inside to Strelec who plays the perfect reverse pass between Carter-Vickers and Johnston, isolating both. Or they should have been isolated but Weiss, for some reason, took a touch to cut back on his right giving Johnston the time to get back and block the hesitant, tame shot when it finally came. 
Here’s the Celtic goal. 
Celtic kick off their Champions League campaign in style ✅Liam Scales has Rod Stewart and all of Celtic Park buzzing! 💥📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK” pic.twitter.com/W039oHQ20O
Taylor keeps inverting from left-back into centre midfield like a Man City full-back. Now he pops up at inside left and tries to slide a pass to the right of the penalty spot for Kuhn to run on to and shoot but he gets the angle wrong. 
Booking for Tolic for a mistimed sliding tackle. 
Fine move from Celtic. Hatate with a crafty pass out to Taylor who cuts it back perfectly for Engels to strike first time from 20 yards. Takac batters it away but only back out to the Celtic left for Taylor to bend an outswinging cross that shapes away from goal but still just beyond Kyogo and Kuhn. 
Weiss is booked for leaving one on Johnston in the tackle. He looks riled.  A minute later Wimmer clears out Kuhn with a wild sliding tackle from behind for another yellow and then Johnston is booked for chopping down Weiss while the referee was blowing his whistle. ‘He’s a tough little hombre,’ says Neil Lennon approvingly of the right-back. 
Within 30 seconds of the goal, Celtic should have doubled their lead when they worked the ball to Kyogo down the inside left channel. The Japan forward met the pass with a left-foot shot that Takac saved smartly with his left foot. 
Celtic 1-0 Slovan (Scales)  Excellent near post head and fine delivery from Engels. Barseghyan called for it but couldn’t reach it at the apex of his leap and Scales stole in behind to bury it. 
Engels’ shot hits the wall but the dogged Maeda ensures Celtic get a corner out of it by hounding Blackman and Barseghyan. 
The first corner is blocked out for a second …
Taylor, Maeda and Hatate link up in a triangle and Hatate darts forward, dummies to diddle a defender then hits a cute reverse pass that would have put Engels into the box but it hit a Slovan arm. Celtic free-kick 22 yards out. 
Engels surprises Slovan with a quick corner and Celtic stand it up to Maeda, six yards out and having ghosted away from his marker. He leaps to meet it perfectly but heads it straight at the keeper. That had to go in. Bad, bad miss. 
Johnston plays a one-two with Kuhn and gets to the byline. His cross is blocked by Ihnatenko and it’ll be a corner. Celtic take it short but Engels’ pass catches Kuhn on the heel and out. But within seconds they have earned another corner. 
Slovan slice Celtic apart like a hot knife through butter. Strelec hares in behind Taylor and to panicky whistles makes good ground down the right, cuts inside towards the D and shoots with his left. The drive hits Carter-Vickers and balloons on to the roof of the net. 
From the corner Tolic shoots wildly over. 
Good work between Johnston and Kuhn on the right isolates Wimmer and then Johnston works it infield to Hatate andthe Japan midfielder bends a cross towards the penalty spot, just ahead of Maeda and out. 
Johnson is given the ball by Scales on the right of midfield, just inside his own half and the right-back lofts a 40-yard diagonal out to the left. Maeda takes it in his stride at full pelt, burns past Blackman and thumps a rising shot over the bar. Tighter angle than he would have wished but should have worked the keeper. 
Slovan free-kick, wide on the left on halfway. Wimmer knocks a long diagonal and Blackman is tackled at the cost of a throw-in. 
Slovan kick off, attacking from right to left. Strelec moves the ball back and Tolic plays it to Weiss, who is predictably booed for his Rangers’ past, passes back to the keeper and then gets it back but is tackled by Engels. He plays it to Hatate who lays it off to Maeda and carries on running to get it back and cross from the left… straight down Takac’s throat.
Celtic in green and white, Slovan in Quink blue-black.
Celtic fans roar through the anthem:
Ce sont les meilleures équipes  Sie sind die allerbesten Mannschaften  The main event Die Meister Die Besten  Les grandes équipes  The champions
And the spotlights take over from the dimmed floodlights to illuminate the crowd. 
It’s very exciting. This is a club whose atmosphere is renowned worldwide so it’s a real privilege to be here. [Engels’] physicality and running power is something we identified last year. We feel we can work on his game to become a goalscoring midfielder. 
Every team that plays in the Champions League comes with confidence of success last season and want to play like a big team. They have great experience in their team and individual quality at the front. We want to impose our game and we want to bring that energy to the stadium and earn out first three points.
“For the first time in a long time, Celtic are favourites for an opening game in the Champions League”Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon shares his pre-match thoughts 💭📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/1rxiPXD8f6
Our bread and butter is our domestic competitions but we want to do well and progress in Europe to make our supporters proud. Our intent is to go and give pressure and put stress on the opposition. But there are moments at this level when you have to be in balance. At this level I’m not naive enough to think we can blow teams away, I know that. Se we have to be cuter. 
Celtic Schmeichel, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, Engels, McGregor, Hatate, Kuhn, Furuhashi, Maeda.Substitutes Sinisalo (g), Trusty, Palma, Idah, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh.
Slovan Bratislava: Takac, Blackman, Kashia, Bajric, Wimmer, Ignatenko, Kucka, Barseghyan, Tolic, Weiss, Strelec.Substitutes Trnovsky (g), Hrdina (g), Voet, Medvedev, Marcelli, Mak, Zuberu, Gajdos, Vojtko, Szoke, Savvidis, Metsoko.
Referee  Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Not just Weiss and Kucka, the veteran former Milan and Parma midfielder with 112 caps who was at Watford a couple of years ago, but also Kevin Wimmer. Daniel Levy managing to persuade Stoke to pay £18 million for the Austria centre-back must be the diddle of the decade. After three seasons out on loan at the Britannia and 30 games in two years at Rapid Wien, he won the title last year with Slovan. 
Takac; Blackman, Kashia, Bajric, Wimmer; Ihnatenko, Kucka; Barseghyan, Tolic, Weiss; Strelec. 
🔢 Our Champions League Matchday One line-up! #CelticSlovan | #UCL | #CelticFC🍀 pic.twitter.com/WYUvXwYqof
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Good evening and welcome to live coverage of Celtic’s opening Champions League group tie against Slovan Bratislava, the champions of Slovakia and a side they have not played since Bobby Murdoch scored at home and John ‘Yogi’ Hughes away to record twin 1-0 victories in the Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final 60 years ago.
Celtic qualified automatically for the new 36-team group stage, more of which below, but Slovan have had to win four two-leg qualifying ties to get here, starting on July 10, four days before the Euro 2024 final. Having dispatched North Macedonia’s Struga 6-3 on aggregate, they hammered Slovenia’s Celje 6-1, overcame Cyprus’ Apoel 2-0 and pipped Denmark’s Midtyjlland 4-3 by virtue of Tigran Barseghyan’s 86th-minute decisive goal. The team, who have won six Slovakia titles on the trot, is studded with the country’s best players, veterans who have come back home for one last hurrah such as Vladimir Weiss, son of the manager, Valdimir Weiss, who was head coach of his country at the 2010 World Cup, and grandson of Vladimir Weiss, a Czechoslovak international at the time of Celtic’s visit to Bratislava in 1964. I’ll give you three guesses for the name of Vladimir Weiss III’s son… I can guarantee you that Celtic fans won’t be calling the winger ‘Valdimir if he has recovered from a knock to play, given he spent 2010-11 on loan at Rangers, scoring five goals in their Premier League title campaign.
The home side desperately need to start improving Brendan Rodgers’ dismal Champions League group record at the club that currently reads P18 W2 D4 L12. Five wins from five to start the league campaign have stuck to the script and the owners have at least raised their bar on transfer fees, picking up the impressive Arne Engels, turning Adam Idah’s loan into a long-term deal and doing likewise with Paulo Bernardo. It’s just a shame that they had to do it at the expense of losing Matt O’Riley another shining example of their terrific scouting record and ability to fund the club with astute trading even if fans of my acquaintance would like to see the ownership investing more of the profits into recruitment of players further along the pathway.
A quick primer on the new Ceferin Greed is Good format: each qualifier  now has eight matches, six before Christmas, two in January, half home and away but against eight different opponents, two from each of four pots of seeds. All sides are in one league of 36 and the top eight at the end of the stage go through to the last 16 while the teams between ninth and 24th then have another two-legged play-off to qualify for the R16. That means to win the tournament, those on the express route will play 15 games, those on the rattler 17, compared with 13 last season.