The reference to the goalkeeper is of course ironic. Gordon had 2 shots to save and 1 fumbled cross that caused mild alarm. Celtic certainly had a frustrating and uncomfortable night at the Lerkendal Stadium. But it wasn’t “torrid” as some in the Scottish press would have you believe.
Rosenborg swamped Celtic with 2 shots on target to 1. The massive gulf between the teams is emphasised by an Expected Goals (xG) comparison of 1.049 to 0.667 to the home team. Celtic should have been hammered 1-1!
This is the fifth time under Rodgers Celtic have had only 1 shot on target. Remarkably Celtic have scored in three of them, and three occasions have been European ties.
Lack of Control
The first half saw Rosenborg press high with three tall strikers pushed right up against the Celtic defence. With Bendtner attaching himself to the much smaller Gamboa, and Helland up against Tierney, a barrage of long diagonals was expected.
But they only attempted 8 open play crosses in the first half in addition to 6 corners. It was those crosses and corners though that caused most alarm to Celtic with a flurry late in the half including Gordon’s only really difficult save. They outshot Celtic 6-1 in the half as well as having 6 possessions in the box to 2.
In fact, Rosenborg were able to maintain much better ground possession against a Celtic side lacking defensive shape and worryingly open at times.
The Norwegians completed 260 first half passes to 158 from Celtic and were 60%-40% up on possession. Celtic meanwhile could not keep possession effectively. Brown completed only 12 first half passes. Edouard lost 3 challenges outright and miss controlled it twice. Forrest and Sinclair managed 22 attempted passes between them all half. It didn’t stick up front.
Second Chance
In the second half Rosenborg seemed disrupted when Helland was injured and it took a long time to treat him and replace with Levy. In the interim Celtic enjoyed a long bout of possession and the home side never really regained momentum.
The barrage of long balls then materialised as Rosenborg appeared to run out of attacking ideas. In the second half they attempted 16 crosses, none of them successful.
The aerial bombardment allowed the centre halves to shine. Although a comparison between them is instructive.
A reminder that DASR% is Defensive Action Success Rate – an aggregated metric for all challenges and interceptions and other defensive actions. 80% is high but average for Ajer. 58% is low – it is a little misleading in that although Hendry lost 3 aerial challenges, he did challenge sufficiently to disrupt Rosenborg possession. Although one late loss allowed Meling to combine with Soderlund for a very clear chance that was not taken in the second half.
PEI% is an overall assessment of possession effectiveness – the ability to maintain possession from on the ball actions. Again, Ajer is quite high although Brown led the team with 88% as he tightened his grip on the game in the second half.
Despite his mistake giving the ball away to Jensen in the first half allowing a dangerous cross, I had Ajer as my Bhoy of the Match.
Celtic finished up with 47% overall possession as they out passed the Norwegians 204 to 123 in the second half. On chances created overall it was Expected Assists of 0.948 to 0.792 to the home side – not a lot in it.
The visitors saw the game out with increasing comfort and are sitting pretty in the next round where AEK Athens await.