Celtic went into their game against Ferencvaros knowing that they needed a win to keep their hopes alive of making it to the knockout phase of the Europa League. They had lost their opening two games of their group stage campaign against Real Betis and Bayer Leverkusen respectively. But a 2-0 win breathed new life into their campaign.
A goal from Kyogo and a scrappy own goal were enough for Ange Postecoglou’s side to walk out with all three points. Of course, a lot will depend on what the result is in their upcoming away game against Ferencvaros but Celtic might well and truly be back in the mix of things.
As a result, they would have been looking towards the result of the game between Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis and unfortunately, it did not quite go their way.
Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis played out a 1-1 draw. As a result, both of them have seven points from their first three games. On the other hand, Celtic have three.
Celtic handed Europa League blow by result between Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis
The best possible scenario for Celtic would have been to win both their games against Ferencvaros while Real Betis lost both of theirs against Bayer Leverkusen.
Firstly because it would have been much more easier for Celtic to turn around their 4-3 win defeat against Real Betis at home rather than their 4-0 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen away.
In that scenario, the Hoops would have been guaranteed the second spot if they had gotten the desired result against Real Betis. But this draw means that that is no longer the case and the path to the knockout phases just became much more difficult for Postecoglou’s side.
All they can do moving forward though is get positive results from their games in hand and hope that things go their way in the other ones.
This article was originally posted here