Celtic lost to Lazio 2-0 on Tuesday evening, which sealed their sorry faith in the 2023-24 Champions League campaign — bottom of the group.
"It’s the overall quality. We need to have our very best players available," head coach Brendon Rodgers explained the defeat. "What makes the difference is that bit of experience and genuine quality. That’s something we can hopefully resolve over the next couple of [transfer] windows.
"We lose two goals but the effort and commitment was there. In the last 20 minutes we looked like the team that could go on and get the result, but we gave away two poor goals."
The situation is not unfamiliar for the Bhoys. In the past five appearances in the Champions League, Celtic have finished bottom of the group on four occasions: 2013-14, 2016-17, 2022-23, 2023-24.
The only time Celtic managed a better result was in the 2017-18 campaign as they finished third, with one victory from six games and a marginally better goal difference than rock-bottom Anderlecht.
As dominant as Celtic are in Scotland, they struggle in Europe. Even their arch-rivals Rangers fare much better, albeit in the Europa League.
In the last three seasons, Rangers progressed farther than Celtic in the Europa League and even reached the final in 2021-22, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt.
