Celtic 1-2 Lazio: Pedro’s late strike stuns Hoops in Champions League

Celtic were hurt in the Champions League when Pedro’s stoppage-time header gave Lazio a 2-1 win at Parkhead.

Kyogo Furuhashi’s first goal of the tournament sent the Hoops fans wild early on when he fired home from a brilliant pass from Matt O’Riley.

However, the home defense switched off, allowing Matias Vicino to force the ball over the line before half-time and score the equalizer.

Luis Palma thought he had secured a late victory for Celtic but his strike was ruled out by VAR.

Pedro then pounced in the dying seconds to take the three points for Lazio and leave Celtic at the bottom of Group E with two defeats from their opening two games.

Celtic are still waiting for an elusive home win

Brendan Rodgers’ side looked the most likely team to find a winner, but their decade-long wait for a home win in the Champions League group stage continues and the ninth defeat in that eleven-match run would be the toughest to overcome to take after a largely encouraging performance.

The match was a resumption of hostilities from four seasons ago, when Celtic triumphed home and away against Lazio in the Europa League. Their victory in Rome was sealed by Olivier Ntcham, who appeared on a large banner among the home fans in the standing section before the match. .

Celtic settled down quickly and Furuhashi scored his first goal in eight Champions League appearances in 12 minutes.

The Japanese striker’s finish came via goalkeeper Ivan Provedel’s dive after being played through by an initial pass from O’Riley following positive play from Daizen Maeda.

The atmosphere went up a notch, but Celtic were unable to build on their lead. Despite having plenty of possession in the aftermath of the goal, most of the possession was in their own half and the occasional late pass put them in danger.

They had a chance on the break when Hyun-Jun Yang Maeda played in behind, but the Japanese forward misfired his ambitious effort.

Lazio’s territorial advantage paid off when they won three headers in a row from Luis Alberto’s corner. Joe Hart appeared to have saved Vecino’s third but the Lithuanian referee ruled the ball had spun behind the line before being cleared.

Celtic took the lead again and O’Riley forced a good save after an initial goal before returning to make an important interception to foil a counter-attack.

The start of the second half was balanced. Felipe Anderson failed to make the most of the ball within yards of space inside the Celtic penalty area before the home side went close from a free-kick. Provedel made a good stop after a low drive from Reo Hatate and Alistair Johnston shot over from the rebound.

Cameron Carter-Vickers made his return from a hamstring injury following a seven-week break as he replaced Nat Phillips, while Palma came on for Yang, who had had some good moments but generally failed to get the most out of his gain possession of the ball.

Hart crossed well to save Daichi Kamada’s 20-yard drive before Paulo Bernardo grabbed a half-chance at the other end just after coming on.

Celtic kept scoring. Palma had briefly gone on target before Alessio Romagnoli slid in to win the ball, Liam Scales attempted an overhead kick that flew over and Furuhashi was denied from close range.

Palma thought he had scored one of the best-worked goals in the Champions League this week after a lengthy passing move that went from back to front and from left to right.

The Honduran winger was shown a yellow card for taking off his shirt in celebration before the VAR team delivered worse news. A crushing blow from Pedro would soon follow, leaving Celtic at the bottom of the group without a point.

Rodgers: We have to learn from defeat

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers:

“I’m bitterly disappointed because I thought we deserved to get something out of the game.

“We had a great start and scored a great goal. I’m disappointed with the goal we conceded because we can do better from the angle. But I thought we would go into the second half, apart from the half that we had later, we enjoyed the better part of the game and got through it.

“It seemed only a matter of time before we could score, we scored the goal, but unfortunately Daizen only got a touch on it and made it offside.

“It’s very hard for us, but we’re learning that we have to secure the ball in play and if you’re not going to win it at that point when it presents itself, you certainly can’t lose it.

“That’s a big learning experience, but the players are giving everything now, the player selection we have, the mentality, everything and it’s just disappointing for the players and the supporters that we couldn’t get the result.”

What’s next?

Celtic next game is at home Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, October 7. Kick-off 3:00 PM.

Next for Lazio is a Series A meeting with Atalantaalso takes place on Saturday, kick-off 2pm BST.

Celtic next Champions League match is at home Atletico Madrid on October 25 Lazio his way to Feyenoord on the same evening.