In a city famed throughout the world for its ancient ruins, there was something entirely fitting that it should come to this.
By the end of a fraught and sticky Tuesday night in Athens, Celtic’s Champions League ambitions were reduced to rubble.
A failure to truly get to grips with a no more than competent AEK side and advance to an eminently winnable match against Malmo or Vidi made for a night of shear agony for Brendan Rodgers’ side. Rest assured, the anger and acrimony will not be long in coming.
AEK Athens won 3-2 on aggregate to ensure Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions League
Brendan Rodgers’ consoles his team after they crashed out of the Champions League
All matches at this stage of this competition are enormously important. But, given events of the past week at the club, this felt like much more than that.
Had Rodgers’ men prevailed and moved within one step of securing a £40m bounty, so much of the negative background noise of recent days would have been reduced to a whimper. Despite the consolation prize of a crack at the Europa League, in all likelihood, the opprobrium will now threaten to make the eardrums bleed.
Although he insisted that he has no intention of quitting his post here on Monday, there is simply no dressing up the fact that the Northern Irishman feels short-changed at the board’s level of investment this summer. He is on record as saying as much.
For truly the first time since he took charge of the club, there is now a sense of his project regressing. For a man who abhors the notion of even standing still in life, it’s legitimate to question if his departure may now be a matter of when rather than if.
Rodrigo Galo wheels away after netting the sixth-minute opening goal on Tuesday night
Galo celebrates scoring the Greek’s side opening goal against the Scottish champions
Marko Livaja scored AEK Athens’ second goal of as they beat Celtic 2-0 on Tuesday evening
Livaja is mobbed by his team-mates in front of the ecstatic AEK Athens supporters in Greece
Naturally, he has no shortage of vocal, angry supporters who now have the hierarchy in their crosshairs. The reasons behind a lack of appreciable investment in the team this summer remain a mystery and will be used as the stick with which to beat the board in the comings days.
Even with the addition of two blue chip players, though, overcoming a recovering giant like AEK was never going to be straight-forward.
The eternal optimists will point to the fact that, on the night, Celtic fashioned at least as many chances as their opponents. Had Jozo Simunovic’s back-heel at the death gone the right side of the post, the narrative would have been entirely different.
Too few opportunities were of the gilt-edged variety, though. And when the manner of both concessions early in each half was so straight-forward, it would be plainly wrong to suggest this was some kind of Greek tragedy.
Olvier Ntcham (left) holds his hands on his hips after Livaja’s goal put AEK Athens two goals up
Bluntly, however they arrived at this point, and despite the late flurry that came with Scott Sinclair’s goal, Rodgers’ side are simply not worthy of treading the same boards as the past two seasons.
An already arduous task for the Scots after the score draw in Glasgow was made all the more difficult due to the surprise exclusion of Odsonne Odouard through injury. The Frenchman wasn’t even in the squad.
As expected, Moussa Dembele started on the bench leaving Leigh Griffiths to plough a lonely furrow up front.
With only around 30,000 fans inside the cavernous Olympic Stadium, the atmosphere was hot rather than hostile with the running track around the pitch a welcome buffer zone for the visitors.
Anyone in the home camp believing AEK boss Marinos Ouzounidis was bluffing when he claimed his side would not simply hold what they had was soon proved wrong.
Scott Sinclair gave Celtic a lifeline in the 78th minute but it wasn’t enough for the Hoops
Celtic players desperately try to retrieve the ball but are obstructed by Vassilis Barkas
Michaelis Bakakis served notice of the Greeks’ attacking intent with an early header which drifted just wide.
Celtic’s lax defending was punished the very next time AEK advanced, though. In a move that was painfully reminiscent of the goal they scored at Celtic Park, Niklas Hult turned Mikael Lustig inside out on the Celtic right before crossing all too easily.
Catching Olivier Ntcham and Kieran Tierney on their heels, Rodrigo Galo sprang and seized the moment, guiding his low strike beyond the static figure of Craig Gordon with the scoreboard showing only six minutes.
For all the goal didn’t change much in terms of the balance of the tie, the Scots looked rattled. Victor Klonaridis came within a whisker of doubling AEK’s advantage with a shot on the stretch but this time Celtic survived.
Initial signs of encouragement for Rodgers came sporadically. Ntcham had an early drive blocked by Andre Simoes, Griffiths was a yard away from finding the top corner from 20 yards while the ball was taken off Tierney’s toe just as he threatened to volley Forrest’s deep cross home.
Rodgers will have to deal without the Champions League for first time since taking over
An AEK supporters holds up a bright yellow flare in the home end during the European clash
Penetrating an ever-deeper AEK defensive unit was the tallest of orders, though. Tom Rogic threatened to sprinkle his magic dust into the affair with a balletic spin through three tackles. Callum McGregor just couldn’t hook the Australian’s cross home from beyond the far post.
The chance Griffiths must have dreamed of arrived 12 minutes from the break.
Tierney eliminated AEK’s right side with a cute pass to McGregor. The midfielder scampered into the box and rolled the ball invitingly into the striker’s path. Having won the foot race, Griffiths’ flick squirmed just beyond the upright.
By the time the interval arrived, Rodgers could justifiably say to his players that they’d fashioned the better chances. Jack Hendry’s header from Griffiths’ corner just before the whistle sounded added to the growing list.
Less impressive, though, was a central defence which seemed set on giving the Greeks unwarranted chances. Simunovic was the main perpetrator, passing one ball straight out of play and another straight to AEK skipper Simoes who was lurking in an advanced area.
AEK’s Marios Oikonomou presses a tissue to the cut on his head with blood across his face
Any semblance of momentum Rodgers’ side built up in the closing minutes of the first period evaporated after just five minutes.
Lustig conceded a cheap free-kick to put his side under pressure and what happened next was all too predictable. Galo’s deep free-kick saw Vassilis Lampropoulos out-jump Hendry at the far post. His header back across goal found Marko Livaja unmarked and he calmly nodded beyond Gordon. Celtic were now on the ropes.
Defensively, AEK were everything Celtic were not. Forrest’s hopes of halving the deficit were snuffed out by a wondrous block by Marios Oikonomou which was bettered within a minute by Lampropoulos thwarting Griffiths.
Leigh Griffiths stoops after seeing his side crash out of the Champions League qualifier
Jozo Simunovic holds his head in his hands in dejection following the final whistle in Athens
Even when the defence was breached, keeper Vassilis Barkas normally rode to the rescue. What a save he produced to deny Simunovic’s header.
Dembele entered the fray on 59 minutes with Lustig sacrificed as Rodgers reshaped but this was some ask for the Frenchman’s first outing in a month. Scott Brown’s booking for going in late on the keeper summed up his side’s growing frustration.
Hope belatedly arrived 12 minutes from time. Tierney had endured a frustrating evening up until that point but finally beat his man to the line. His cross sat up nicely for Sinclair to head home from six yards just two minutes after replacing Rogic.
It set up a grandstand finish bit amid a deafening chorus of boos Simunovic’s back-flick went wide and Celtic were on their knees and out. Let the inquest begin.