Celtic not only succumbed to a gut-wrenching defeat to Lazio but condemned Brendan Rodgers to the tag of the Champions League’s worst manager.
At 1-1, Luis Palma thought he had given the Scottish champions an 81st-minute lead but it was ruled offside by a lengthy VAR check when the officials decided Daizen Maeda had helped on Alistair Johnston’s cross. There was a bigger blow to follow five minutes into added time when Pedro robbed Cameron Carter-Vickers before spraying the ball out wide and running into the box to head home the resulting cross.
The result left Celtic point-less from their opening two group games and with a mountain to climb to secure third spot and Europa League football, let alone finish in the top two. To add salt to the wound for Rodgers, he is now officially the Champions League’s least successful boss by one key metric.
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Of the 87 managers who have taken charge of at least 20 games in Europe’s top club competition, Rodgers is bottom of the pile with just two in 20. Speaking after the Lazio defeat, Rodgers said: “I’m bitterly disappointed. I felt we totally deserved to take something from the game.
“We had a great start and scored a great goal. I’m disappointed with the goal we conceded, I felt we could do better with the corner.
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“We were getting through them and it looked like a matter of time before we could score. We got a goal but unfortunately Daizen just got a touch on it and made it offside. I felt at that point we deserved to be in front, we had got into some good areas.
“To concede late on was harsh but there’s a learning there. You have to secure the ball late on. The learning is just managing the game at that late stage.
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“We knocked on the door second half, if you can’t make the breakthrough just make sure in that late stage of the game that you are secure behind the ball.
“It was a devastating way to lose because we deserved something, but like every game there are learnings and when the Atletico game comes hopefully we can learn the lessons.”
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