Celtic keep Atalanta at bay in Champions League

Posted Thursday, October 24, 2024 by PA

Celtic produced an impressive response to their thrashing in Dortmund by holding Atalanta to a goalless Champions League draw in Italy.

Brendan Rodgers’ side followed their 7-1 defeat by Borussia Dortmund by keeping their first clean sheet at this level since a 3-0 win at Anderlecht seven years ago.

The Scottish champions had to withstand spells of sustained pressure with the Europa League holders registering 23 efforts at goal but Celtic had some moments of their own.

The result left Celtic on four points from three matches having played their toughest two away fixtures on paper in the eight-game league format.

Celtic were again missing the injured Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers from their back four but Auston Trusty and Alex Valle delivered their best performances since joining towards the end of the transfer window.

Trusty got his head to a number of crosses while on-loan Barcelona left-back Valle dealt well with a busy night and came close at the other end.

Reo Hatate started in midfield and gave Celtic some composure on the ball while Adam Idah was handed a chance up front, but generally struggled to hold the ball up.

Celtic were handed a suspended two-year ban on away fans since that defeat in Germany and there was no repeat of the pyrotechnic displays that would trigger the punishment, although the home supporters did let off smoke bombs and flares.

Idah and Nicolas Kuhn threatened to get in behind early on but it was soon clear that the Celtic defence would be regularly tested with balls from out wide.

Mario Pasalic came closest to breaking the first-half deadlock with a header off the bar before nodding the rebound over. The Croatian also had a good chance on the ground as he ran on to meet a square ball but Kasper Schmeichel trapped the shot between his legs.

Hatate came close from long range and Arne Engels had Celtic’s best first-half effort when he curled a shot from 22 yards that Marco Carnesecchi got down to push away.

The home pressure increased as the half progressed. Atalanta failed to test Schmeichel with a couple of half chances before Alistair Johnston put in an excellent sliding challenge to deny Ademola Lookman at the back post.

Schmeichel pulled off an excellent stop to save Mateo Retegui’s header moments later.

Having seen their team concede five first-half goals in Germany, the Celtic support hailed their side as the whistle spelled the end of a goalless 45 minutes.

Pasalic again displayed the excellent timing of his runs just after the break before glancing a header wide, before Valle had a deflected long-range strike tipped over at the other end after some better hold-up play from Idah.

Celtic began to make some tired mistakes but Schmeichel made solid saves from Marten de Roon and Charles de Ketelaere.

The pressure subsided and Celtic substitute Kyogo Furuhashi had an effort saved, although the flag went up, and then lobbed Valle’s excellent diagonal ball over the bar.

The hosts were back on the attack during four minutes of stoppage time but their final chance disappeared when defender Isak Hien headed over and the visiting supporters celebrated the full-time whistle seconds later.