Without a doubt, the most surreal goal of yesterday’s Champions League occurred in Celtic against Club Brugge, an own goal by Cameron Carter-Vickers in the 26th minute, who made a pass to his own goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel… without realizing that he was not in his place.
Scoring own goals is always painful, but this one seems especially hurtful as it did not come at a time of relative calm. The Belgian club was pressing, but Celtic had possession of the ball and tried to retreat.
The goalkeeper moved away from the goal area, waiting for a pass from the Celtics defenseman. Instead, he passed the ball to Carter-Vickers, and Carter-Vickers gently passed it toward the goal, hoping to connect with the goalkeeper and start a new play.
However, Schmeichel was too far away and, despite his run, could not prevent the ball from crossing the line and scoring the first goal for the opposing team.
Still, Celtic would qualify for the next round and would soon have two relatively easy games.
“Mistakes happen and it was just unfortunate“said Brendan Rodgers, coach of the Scottish team. “He’s made that pass a million times and he’s gone backwards and then we’ve been able to play forward,” according to the BBC.
“But he has a very, very tough character. He’s a great guy, he’s recovered. “He was once again very strong and aggressive in the game and he put himself together and had real bravery in the second half, because he was the one who carried the ball forward so that we could start the attack.”
Celtic ended up tying the match, 1-1, enough for the team to remain in 20th place, above Feyenoord, Bruges, Dinamo Zagreb and Real Madrid. Both have secured qualification for now, and Celtic have a relatively smooth road ahead, with matches against Dinamo and Young Boys in the next two days, with the hope of securing qualification before the final game against Aston Villa.
