Bhoys blow early Europa League lead to suffer Fenerbahce faultings

On a night when European football returned to the rapturous Parkhead, Ronny Deila’s Celtic saw familiar errors creep into their performance against Fenerbahce, letting an early two-goal lead slip to eventually draw 2-2 in their Europa League Group A clash, having previously endured a stalemate with Ajax.

The Hoops got off to the best possible start in Glasgow, taking a lead after just 28 minutes through top scorer Leigh Griffiths, before former Scotland international Kris Commons doubled their advantage moments later to edge close to a maiden European victory this season.

Although, the Bhoys were unable to continue their early form, as substitute saviour Fernando struck past Craig Gordon before the break and then inflicted further misery on the hosts by heading home Nani’s cross in the second period. Following the result, Celtic are now 10/3 with Coral to top their group.

Despite the Turkish giants seemingly stealing the momentum after Fernando’s brace from the bench, it was the hosts who finished stronger but they were unable to give their superb Celtic Park crowd a win to celebrate, ending with a second successive point.

The home side started and finished dominantly in their Group A encounter, but frustrated boss Deila bemoaned a lack of concentration for the goals his side conceded, with defender Efe Ambrose at fault for Fernando’s first.

“If you see the overall performance, when you are defending you need to keep concentration for 90 minutes,” slammed Deila. “That’s the biggest challenge Efe has. He plays in 88 minutes very good but he has, sometimes, some easy mistakes and today was one of them.

“We played well in the first half. We get 2-0 up and it was important to keep that lead into the break and I thought we would have a very good chance in the second half. Then we conceded an easy goal. Of course, that gave them energy and put us a little bit on the back foot.”