Javi Rodríguez double turns it as Celta win at Celtic Park
Mika Baur gave Celtic the lead just after half-time, but two Javi Rodríguez goals in three minutes earned Celta a 2-1 Europa League win at Celtic Park.
By Harvey Watkins,
Celta came from behind to beat Celtic 2-1 at Celtic Park on Thursday night in Matchday 3 of the Europa League. Mika Baur put the home side in front shortly after the restart, but Javi Rodríguez scored twice in the space of three minutes midway through the second half to settle it.
Level and scoreless at the interval
The first half passed without a goal, and the sides went in at the break with nothing between them. That made the second half all the more compressed. All three goals arrived in a 24-minute window, and the match turned decisively in barely three of those minutes.
Baur puts Celtic ahead
Celtic struck almost immediately after the restart. Baur scored in the 47th minute, two minutes into the second half, to give the home side the lead. They held it for 21 minutes, which is long enough for a lead to start to feel established. On this occasion it did not survive.
Rodríguez turns it in three minutes
Rodríguez equalised for Celta in the 68th minute and then put them in front in the 71st. A lead that had stood for more than 20 minutes was wiped out and reversed inside three. He scored all of Celta's goals on the night, and both came in the same short burst.
Quick turnarounds of this kind are often the difference in tight European ties. A side that concedes an equaliser has little time to reset before the next phase of play, and Celta made the most of that window.
No reply in the closing stages
From the 71st minute onwards there were no further goals. Celtic had the final 19 minutes of normal time, plus stoppage time, to find an equaliser and did not manage it. Celta saw the game out.
Reading the result
A scoreline and three goal times are a limited basis for firm conclusions, and this was a single match settled by one goal. What the sequence does show is how evenly the lead was shared. Celtic were ahead for 21 minutes of normal time, and Celta for the last 19 plus whatever was added. The difference lay in which side held the advantage when the whistle went.
For Celtic, it was a defeat at home after leading early in the second half. For Celta, it was an away win built on one player's two goals in three minutes. It would be easy to read too much into either side's performance from one result. It is fair to say the match turned on a brief spell, and that Rodríguez was the one who made it count.