Forrest feels ‘shock and awe’ at losing to Salzburg

Celtic winger James Forrest has discussed the ‘shock and awe’ at having lost to RB Salzburg on Thursday night, the Hoops first loss in the Europa League group stage.

Odsonne Edouard scored the opening goal for the away side, but three second half goals from the Austrian champions was enough to pick up the three points, the third of which, a penalty, saw Forrest given his marching orders.

Speaking after the game, Forrest broke down how disappointing the result was, given how well the Hoops had started the game. Talking about the red card incident, as reported by The Herald, Forrest said:

I thought at the start he was going to give me a free kick, so you could say it was harsh but I suppose I fell into him. It was close but he gave it so quickly he obviously felt he knew the decision.

But overall, there is a sense of shock and awe as I felt we were competitive and then it’s three quick goals and we’ve lost 3-1. I think that’s harsh. They made the most of their half chances and when they do that they then show what happens at this level.

It’s a lesson for us against teams of Salzburg’s level. We know that they are a good side and they showed that by getting to the semi-final of the Europa League last season.

At half-time all the boys were confident, it just got away from us during the second-half. Maybe we went on the defensive too much as going on the front foot can sometimes be better. We let things slip a bit and we were punished.

We are going to get difficult games at home as well but we need to start to nicking points away from home. Rosenborg away with be hard as will the trip to Germany but we know we can go there and be positive and get a result. Maybe if we’d scored with one or two of the half chances we created it would make the difference.

But we now have two more away games in the group and we need to give our all in them. If we were to get that away win it would be great for everyone and allow us to kick on.