Celtic’s European campaign began in familiar discomfort as the Scottish champions were beaten 3-1 at home by Ferencvaros in the Europa League. It was another chastening night for Martin O’Neill’s side, coming only weeks after they crashed out of the Champions League qualifiers to Austrian side Lask despite at one point holding a four-goal lead, and the defensive flaws that had undermined them then were exposed once more.
Ferencvaros took the lead through Bamidele Yusuf before Mika Baur equalised late in the first half. Any relief inside Celtic Park was short-lived: Kristoffer Zachariassen quickly put the visitors back in front, and Daniel Arzani capped a fine night for Ferencvaros with a sensational strike on his return to Celtic Park.
For Celtic, the result extended a difficult sequence. O’Neill’s team had also suffered a chastening 3-0 defeat to rivals Rangers the previous weekend and failed to deliver on their manager’s promise to respond. “We’re naturally disappointed getting beaten,” O’Neill said. “We started off very brightly. We had a number of balls that were flashed across the goal and no one there to put the ball in the net for us. Their first proper attempt, really, on goal yielded a goal for them. We came back into the game, got the equaliser just before half-time and then conceded a really poor goal. We’re hit on the break for the third goal. While we had a number of balls flashed across the box, even in the last 20 minutes, we didn’t get there to the front post a number of times that could’ve kept it alive and we’re beaten in the game.”
O’Neill described the evening as a lesson and admitted the psychological cost. “It’s a huge frustration, obviously, but it’s also psychologically quite damning as well. It’s not the start we wanted. We have seven games in which to try and get some points on the board. Really need to concentrate now on Sunday [against Rangers]. Tonight was, I think, a European lesson for us in many aspects. We’ll get ourselves together. We need to re-energise ourselves as much as anything else.”
Elsewhere, Juventus hammered Dutch side NEC Nijmegen 5-0 at home, helped by two errors from the goalkeeper Nikolas Polster. The first howler allowed Nicolás González to nip in ahead of him and steal the ball to give Juventus the lead in the ninth minute. A goal from Kerim Alajbegovic and a penalty from Nick Woltemade sent the hosts in 3-0 up at the break. Zeki Celik made it 4-0 in the 75th minute before Polster again came out of his goal and failed to clear the ball, this time allowing Randal Kolo Muani to roll it into the empty net and complete the rout.
Marseille’s disastrous start to the season continued as they followed up three straight defeats in Ligue 1 with a comprehensive beating at the hands of Besiktas, the Turkish side scoring three goals without reply in the second half to seal a 4-1 win. Earlier in the evening, Greek side OFI Crete beat Germany’s Hoffenheim 2-0 at home, while RB Salzburg picked up a 1-0 win away to Levski Sofia in Bulgaria, as the first round of Europa League matches wrapped up.