To rub salt in Celtic’s wounds, they were awarded a penalty in extra time by Halil Umut Meler for a push on substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu, but it was canceled out when Var intervened and sent the referee to the pitch monitor for another look.
Celtic remain bottom of the section and cannot catch Lazio, Atlético Madrid or Feyenoord. Brendan Rodgers’ team will play the Dutch team in their last home game next month, but that will be their European swan song for another season.
Celtic traveled to Rome knowing they needed a win to keep their hopes of progress in Europe alive. Rodgers had stressed the importance of keeping 11 players on the pitch after three players were sent off in their two away games: Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm in the 2-0 defeat to Feyenoord and Daizen Maeda in the first half of their 6-0 defeat. thrashing in Madrid, with the latter and Luis Palma suspended.
Right-back Alistair Johnston, midfielder Paulo Bernardo and veteran winger James Forrest returned against Lazio, whose coach Maurizio Sarri was under some pressure after defeat to bottom side Salernitana last weekend saw them drop to 11th in Serie A.
The visitors made a decent fist of themselves in the first half without threatening too much, although Lazio keeper Ivan Provedel had to deal with a cross from Hoops striker Kyogo Furuhashi after four minutes.
The best chance of the first half, however, belonged to Lazio’s Brazilian international Felipe Anderson, who missed the target with a close-range header from a Matteo Guendouzi cross that should have tested Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Furuhashi almost took advantage of Lazio’s indecisiveness in the penalty area between Provedel and defender Mario Gila before the Italian team cleared the ball to safety.
Both teams had possession of the ball, but neither goalkeeper was properly tested again before halftime.
Lazio started the second half at an increased pace but in the 49th minute Furuhashi flashed a shot over the far post during a Celtic break before Yang Hyun-jun headed a Forrest throw back across goal in an attempt to find Furuhashi as he might have tried to get the ball on goal. goal.
Meanwhile, Taty Castellanos headed twice over the crossbar at the other end and Gustav Isaksen squeezed a shot past the far post after a clever breakthrough in the Celtic penalty area.
Immobile and Pedro Rodriguez came on for Anderson and Castellanos, while Forrest made way for Mikey Johnston and striker Oh soon came on for Bernardo to support Furuhashi.
The game started to get exciting on both sides.
Lazio captain Luis Alberto put a shot over the bar with ten minutes to go, but when Isaken’s drive was deflected into Immobile’s path he cheerfully smashed it past Hart.
Minutes later, Italy international outwitted Liam Scales, turned in Cameron Carter-Vickers and fired home again from close range.
There was more drama in the three added minutes when Celtic were awarded a penalty for a Patric push on Oh, but after being referred to his monitor the Turkish official changed his mind and the chance for a consolation was gone.
Now it’s time again for Celtic to think about another European disappointment.
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