Rodgers is Rogered by Rogers, as a weakened Celtic are taught a footballing lesson by Villa

It’s pretty clear that any fighting chance Celtic had in this fixture was significantly reduced by the loss of our top striker.

Then throw the loss of Daizen Maeda and Cameron Carter-Vickers into the mix, and you see the task that was ahead of us last night.

Regardless of that, Celtic were stunned in the first five minutes of this tie as Villa and Morgan Rogers came out of the traps on fire.

At times in the first half, Villa toyed with Celtic, setting traps for them, and swarming them with the high press.

Then, when Villa had possesion, they seemed to be able to scythe through the Celtic defence with ease.

They were carving out chances with ease, but they didn’t seem to be taking they them.

The introduction of John McGinn for Matty Cash in the 30th minute was the chance the lifelong Celtic fan wanted.

But ironically, it was McGinn’s intervention and attempt to cut out Greg Taylor’s low cross, thus feeding it into the path of Adam Idah, which resulted in Celtic’s first goal on the 35th minute.

And just like Villa at the start of the half, Celtic had their second in two quickfire minutes.

A beautiful back-heel from Engels from outside the box fed the ball into Reo Hatate, who then fed a precision low ball across the face of goal to Adam Idah.

Idah made no mistake, and rifled the ball high into Emiliano Martinez’ net.

The travelling fans were in raptures.

In the blink of an eye, Celtic were level.

The expected capitulation after conceding two early goals wasn’t materialising.

Even my own PTSD from all of our previous European experiences, and the concession of early goals, had me convinced we were in for another one of those nights.

This wasn’t following the usual Celtic script.

Could we dare to dream that we might get a result in Birmingham?

Alas, it was not meant to be.

In the second half, while we came out at the start well up for it, Villa began to swarm all over us again.

Their third goal was a lesson in the results of sheer stupidity.

And they schooled us pretty comprehensively on that one.

As Liam Scales, sporting his new aerodynamic slicked back hairstyle, is wont to do, he wandered far beyond the bounds of his centre back position.

Not something you do against an EPL side that is brimful of skillful players like Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins.

Scales tried to stop Rogers rounding him, to no avail.

Rogers then passed the ball to John McGinn, who then easily shrugged off the attentions of Arne Engels.

McGinn then played a precision ball to Ramsey, and you knew, despite all of the heroics of Kaspar Schmeichel previous to that, what was coming.

He laid the ball on a plate to Watkins, and the Villa forward wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

3-2 Villa.

What Liam Scales was doing that far up the field is anybody’s guess.

But the end result was a huge gap in central defence, and inevitably, a goal.

4 minutes later, Auston Trusty performed what appeared to be an excellent tackle and dispossession of Ollie Watkins in the box.

The referee thought otherwise.

He decided it was a spot kick for Villa, and inexplicably, so too did the VAR.

Up stepped Watkins, and then strangely, Karma also seemed to step up.

The resultant spot kick ended up being ballooned over the bar as Watkins ended up on his backside.

For a few seconds, we thought the referee was ordering a retake, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

We began to believe again.

Celtic tried gamely to get an equaliser, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Idah, on a hat-trick, was substituted in the 69th, with youth player Daniel Cummings coming on to replace him.

While another youngster, Dane Murray, came on for the over-exuberant Scales.

Reo Hatate and Arne Engels were replaced in midfield by McCowan and Bernardo.

At that point, you kind of knew an equaliser was unlikely.

One wonders if Brendan Rodgers brought on the youngsters to drop a hint to the board?

As in to say, look at how weak our bench is heading into the Champions League knockout stages?

One can only hope that hint, if it was a hint, got through.

Facing the likes of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid with a squad similar to last night’s?

Well, I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.

The point, whether it was intended or not, was made when Villa got their fourth goal.

Young Dane Murray received a thrown ball from Alistair Johnston, which resulted in him being easily dispossessed by the lethal Ollie Watkins.

End result?

A Morgan Rogers hat-trick.

In the end, Rodgers and his weakened side were rogered by Rogers.

And in the process, they were taught a footballing lesson by Villa and Unai Emery.

But who knows?

If we’d had Daizen Maeda, Cameron Carter-Vickers, a fit Jota and dare I say it, Kyogo Furuhashi, then it could have been a totally different result.

The weakened position we put ourselves in, was to a degree, self inflicted.

However, there were many positives to take from that performance.

Those who have been giving Adam Idah a hard time since the turn of the year?

You can back the hell off now.

There’s a very good striker in there, there always was.

Reo Hatate?

Just do it all the time man!

Then you’ll go down in history as one of our best midfielders.

Kasper Schmeichel?

Proving again and again what an inspired signing he was.

But the main negative?

Right now, we are in no shape to take on Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

Unless we are markedly stronger, both on the field, and on the bench in this upcoming tie, it will be a foregone conclusion.

Striker?

Anyone?

Over to you Messrs.’ Lawwell and Nicholson.

The clock is ticking.

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