Celtic saw their hearts broken by Bayern Munich in the Champions League play-offs, as Vincent Kompany’s side netted a last-gasp winner to reach the last 16.
The German giants carried a 2-1 lead into the second leg of their play-off tie, which was held at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. Harry Kane started the game but was hauled off at half-time, having been a major doubt to play due to injury.
Bayern struggled to break down their Scottish visitors, who equalised on aggregate thanks to Nicolas-Gerrit Kühn’s shock goal just after the hour mark. The former Bayern star capitalised on really poor defending from Min-Jae Kim to slide a lovely low finish past Manuel Neuer and into the bottom corner.
But in the final 30 seconds of stoppage time, Alphonso Davies squeezed in a winner at the back post to send Bayern through. Kasper Schmeichel pulled off a super save following Leon Goretzka’s header, but Davies was on hand to bundle home the rebound despite Cameron Carter-Vickers’ attempted clearance.
Celtic spurned a number of chances to score in the first-half as they exposed Bayern’s brittle defence. But they were made to pay for their failure to net more than once, with Bayern now set to face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen.
The visitors were left devastated by Davies’ late, late winner. Captain Callum McGregor cut a dejected figure at the final whistle but insisted his side could be proud of their performance.
“Probably one of tthe cruelest to be honest. The players gave absolutely everything and pushed a really good Bayern side all the way right to the death. Sometimes football’s cruel and you don’t always get what you deserve,” he told Amazon Prime.
“But I have to say I’m so so proud of the players, the way they played, the way they handled themselves. They gave everything, so we come off the pitch with no regrets.
“It’s a real, real sore one but we can be proud of ourselves. The game was set up for us. Even if it went to extra-time, we fancied ourselves. Anyone watching that game tonight would see a really good football team.”
Davies meanwhile admitted that Bayern were left relieved to have avoided a shock exit. But he insisted that the Bundesliga leaders were fully deserving of the win.
“We’re happy, we’re into the next round. Obviously the game wasn’t easy. They came to our stadium and played without fear. Overall I think we did well, defensively, offensively. We conceded but that didn’t stop our momenteum,” he told Prime Video.
“We kept pushing and pushing. Nobody wanted to go a goal behind but it put a little bit of fire under our feet. You could see the energy went up. It was nice to get that moment. Happy to get the goal. We know that it [the last 16] is going to be tough.”
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