Celtic defeated Swiss side Young Boys 1-0 on Wednesday night to book their place in the Champions League knockout stages for the first time since the 2012/13 season.
The two sides played out a thrilling game of mad moments in Celtic Park, which while slim on allowed goals delivered nothing but excitement for ninety minutes.
While both sides had first-half chances, and Kasper Schmeichel was required to make fanatical saves, there was little doubt that Celtic were the superior team heading in at the break. In the opening half alone, Brendan Rogers' men had three goals disallowed and missed a 40th-minute penalty that would've given them the lead.
There was little change in either side's fortunes in the second half, with Celtic only breaking the deadlock in the 85th minute, when they received a bit of deserved luck and a saved Adam Idah shot came back off Loris Benito and rolled into the net.
It took 85 minutes but Celtic have scored against Young Boys.
It wasn't the cleanest, but Adam Idah forces the save before the ball rolls into the net☘️pic.twitter.com/dXC9jHotPQ— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) January 22, 2025
Moments later Daizen Maeda was sent off for a reckless kick and Kasper Schmeichel was once again called upon to bail Celtic out, with the 38-year-old coming up trumps topping off an excellent performance by sealing the win.
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Adam Idah overjoyed after forcing late Celtic winner
Ultimately Idah didn't care how the goal came, and like the rest of his teammates and fans was just glad to have gotten a win that seemed determined to escape them.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the win, Idah didn't care that he'd 'got lucky' forcing the winner or whose name was on the scoreboard, telling his teammates he was claiming it for himself.
I got a bit lucky, but we'll take it I haven't scored in a while, I'll take that.
I said to the boys 'I don't care that's my goal', hopefully it gets me on a run.
Speaking about reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League, Idah was clearly delighted hailing the determination of his teammates to overcome their first-half misfortunes.
It's amazing, this feeling is indescribable. This is where we wanted to get to and we've been great all season and throughout this campaign so look we've got here now and there's still time to push on.
(The First Half) was quite frustrating, but to be fair to the boys in the first half they played brilliant, I think the boys were quite confident going into the (second) half.
Having those goals disallowed, it's not nice missing a penalty, but to keep thriving and keep pushing forward, so I think look they've come out in the second half we've all put in a shift and we've got the points in the end.
⚽ Celtic 1-0 Young Boys
"It's amazing... We'll go as far as we can" - Ireland forward Adam Idah revelled in Celtic securing a knock-out place, thanks to his game-changing impact off the bench
📺 Reaction on @RTE2 and @RTEPlayer#ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/2pQ7uRvSjc— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 22, 2025
The Republic of Ireland international was also awestruck by the game-saving performance of Kasper Schmeichel who he hailed as 'one of the best' goalkeepers he'd played with.
The result now means Celtic are through to at least the playoff stages of the Champions League, and results depending could automatically qualify for the last sixteen. Brendan Rogers' men still have one Champions League pool game left at the end of this month, where they'll head to Villa Park for an away clash against Aston Villa.
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