A €3.5m bargain and a Brighton reject the heroes on a night of Champions League underdogs

A MONTH ago, Celtic were on the end of a 7-1 hammering by Borussia Dortmund.

Critics lined up to slate the Bhoys and Brendan Rodgers, in particular.

The critical consensus was that they were too naive.

They were setting up against top Champions League sides as if they were some of their less well-resourced opponents in the Scottish Premiership.

Rodgers needed to change, the pundits suggested.

The last two seasons, the Scottish side had finished bottom of their group, and they had failed to even qualify for the group-stages in the previous four campaigns.

Until recently, Celtic had gone 12 home games without a Champions League group-stage win.

But tonight, they registered their third home victory in the competition on the trot — their first time achieving that feat since the Gordon Strachan era.

The ex-Liverpool manager opted to stick to his footballing principles and has been duly rewarded.

Not many people had been tipping the reigning Scottish champions to prevail ahead of this evening’s game — in the Bundesliga table, Leipzig are four points ahead of the Dortmund side that thrashed Celtic.

Advertisement

One of the key inspirations behind the unlikely victory at Celtic Park was Nicolas Kühn.

The 24-year-old was on the books at Leipzig as a youngster but never made a first-team appearance.

He also had stints at Ajax and Bayern Munich but failed to make an impact.

The attacker needed a move to Austria in 2022 to resurrect his stalling career and he has barely looked back since the transfer to Rapid Wien.

Celtic’s record at recruiting hidden gems in recent years has been exceptional and they paid just €3.5 million for his services last January.

His performance tonight alone justified that investment.

With the hosts trailing, Kühn curled home a glorious effort to equalise before finishing clinically for the second.

The victory leaves Celtic in a healthy-looking position. They are 13th in the Champions League table on seven points, well above the cut-off for qualification and with some winnable games to come.

It was a similar story in Lisbon where another upset occurred.

Outgoing manager Ruben Amorim gave Man United fans a preview of his talents, as Sporting handed Man City their third consecutive defeat.

Without key players, Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne (although the latter was fit enough to make a late substitute appearance), City suddenly are looking vulnerable — the Portuguese outfit capitalised.

Like at Celtic Park, the hero on the night was a player with a relatively modest career compared to some of those around him on the pitch.

Swedish international Viktor Gyökeres hit a remarkable hat-trick, upstaging fellow Scandinavian Erling Haaland, who missed a penalty.

Gyökeres did not make a single Premier League appearance in four seasons with Brighton.

He had underwhelming loan spells in the Championship, scoring just three goals in 30 appearances for Coventry and Swansea.

However, the 26-year-old still showed enough with the Sky Blues to convince them to secure the striker on a permanent deal and he gradually found his feet, scoring 21 goals in 46 appearances during his final Championship season, with Coventry ultimately a penalty shootout away from Premier League promotion.

Gyökeres joined Sporting ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, and it has proved an astute signing. He scored 29 goals in 32 Primeira Liga appearances last season and already has 16 in 10 this year.

Having failed to make the grade at Brighton, Gyökeres is now unsurprisingly getting linked with Man United.

Red Devils fans will at least hope Amorim can inspire the club’s underperforming stars to similarly heady heights.

For too long, Old Trafford has been a graveyard for once-promising players.

Both had been effectively written off as top-level players — but the performances of Kühn and Gyökeres at a high level this evening served as a reminder that the right environment is just as important as talent in ensuring accomplished young footballers can thrive.