DAILY MAIL 🔵 Feyenoord 2-0 Celtic: Rodgers’ side end DISASTROUS night with nine men

 It was a night when a healthy, buoyant balance sheet did Celtic no good. Chasing their first win in the group stages of the Champions League since 2017, the bottom line was measured in more tangible ways.

Reserves of £72.3million in the bank served no purpose when they were two goals down to a Feyenoord side with an inferior turnover. A profit of £40.7m meant nothing when they were shipping comic-book goals at bad times.

A revenue of £119.9m proved futile when Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm – two of their summer project signings – were shown red cards in a desperate and ragged second half.

By the end, Scotland’s champions were glad to see the back of a chastening and desperate game they finished with nine men.

They were grateful, in the end, for small mercies. In a torrid end to the night, the Parkhead side could have sustained a real hiding.

Partly to blame for the loss of a goal to a Calvin Stengs free-kick on the brink of half-time, Joe Hart made some amends by saving the penalty which resulted in Lagerbielke’s dismissal.

The young Swede’s second yellow of the game triggered an implosion. On the pitch for all of 12 minutes, Norwegian substitute Holm became the second player to see red for an ugly challenge on Mats Wieffer. By now Celtic were breathing fumes.

Iranian Alireza Jahanbakhsh lashed in a second goal after a deft effort from Lutsharel Geertruida was chalked off for offside. In the final minutes the Dutch champions were denied a third for Ondrej Kingr by the narrowest of decisions.

Celtic will reflect on a 45 minutes when they looked comfortable. Their destruction was triggered by the loss of a school playground goal in added time of the first half.

At first glance, a Stengs free kick from 30 yards seemed to pose minimal danger.

Matt O’Riley fouled Quinten Timber some distance from goal and, had a shambolic defensive wall done their job, they might have survived.

As soon as the ball spun through a huge gap, Joe Hart still looked odds-on to stop a bouncing effort.

While the former England No 1 was entitled to remonstrate with a porous defensive wall, he also scrambled across his line too late to stop the ball creeping in to the corner. A comedy of errors, the timing – in the final seconds of the half – was awful. After a first half of huffing and puffing Feyenoord – playing their first Champions League game since 2017-18 – took heart.

This game had always come with a sense of foreboding over defensive fragility. To cover for injuries to Cameron Carter-Vickers and £4m summer signing Maik Nawrocki, Stephen Welsh and Yuki Kobayashi, Brendan Rodgers brought in Liverpool defender Nat Phillips on loan.

Rolling his ankle in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Dundee, he went the same way as the rest.

So it was, then, that Rodgers reverted to Liam Scales and the hapless Lagerbielke – the duo who defied the predictions of doom against Rangers. Not this time.

The regret for Celtic is that, for long spells of the first 45, a home attack overflowing with wingers posed minimal threat. If any team looked like scoring it was the visitors.

Back in for David Turnbull, Reo Hatate gathered a loose Feyenoord pass 35 yards from goal and strolled forward, a tame effort failing to seriously trouble keeper Wellenreuther.

Maeda fared better nine minutes before the interval. Hatate sent his countryman scurrying into space on the right flank and, with the head down, he had one thought in mind. A low shot towards the bottom right hand corner forced Wellenreuther to push the ball round the post. It was a decent effort, Celtic’s best of the half.

The confusion and frustration of the raucous home support was palpable. It took 28 minutes to have a crack on goal, Yankuba Minteh curling a harmless effort over the bar from 20 yards.

Inexplicably, Celtic grew sloppy with their possession as the half drew to a close.

Minteh cracked a dipping shot from 25 yards, Hart tipping it over the bar. A bizarre misunderstanding then saw Maeda gift Feyenoord’s Quilindschy Hartman a free crack at goal.

Mistakes were creeping in and the biggest of all came at a critical juncture. The best player on the park, Stengs could have driven a bus through the defensive wall never mind a bouncing free-kick.

For all the flourishes of first half promise, Kyogo Furuhashi had barely had a sniff and is still chasing a first Champions League goal.

Making his first start for the club, the game largely passed by £3m Honduran winger Luis Palma. Despite a curling crack at goal early in the second period, he was replaced by Odin Thiago Holm for what proved a short-lived and ill-fated Champions League debut.

The changes had an impact on the game, but not of the kind Brendan Rodgers intended. After 63 minutes Feyenoord were awarded a penalty when Lagerbielke, booked in the first half, was penalised for bringing down Paixao.

The penalty took an age to take while VAR did its stuff. When it finally came, Paixao’s tame low effort was brilliantly saved by Hart. The keeper’s first spot-kick save for Celtic made some amends for his positioning for the opener before half-time.

Any sense of a reprieve was short-lived. The final 20 minutes of this game were a horror show for Celtic. They simply imploded.

Norwegian midfielder Holm had only been on the pitch 11 minutes when he lunged into a wild challenge on Mats Wiefer. As the crowd bayed for a red card, the Bosnian official obliged. Down to nine men Celtic were staring down the barrel of a gun.

Hard to believe, but it could have been worse. The celebrations for a delightful finish from Lutsharel Geertruida were cut short by a VAR check for offside.

Despite the arrival of Tomoki Iwata for Kyogo Furuhashi to plug a hole at the back, the dam was now burst.

A former Celtic target, substitute Alirea Jahanbaksh had yards of space to rifle an inevitable second goal into the roof of the net to the jubilation of a thunderous De Kuip. The only mercy was the offside flags which robbed Feyenoord of another two goals.