Greg Taylor sick of Celtic narrative in Champions League as talk turns cheap amid ultimate goal backdrop

Greg Taylor’s face said it all. That look of utter dejection.

Yet another Champions League defeat – this time at the hands of Lazio – left the Hoops left-back devastated. He didn’t have to speak to get his feelings across. And the truth is, Taylor is fed up talking about it. Fed up going on about how Celtic must learn from taking blows at this level.

Fed up saying they’ve improved against Europe’s best. And fed up reliving hard-luck stories at Parkhead. But until Brendan Rodgers’ side actually DO something about it, they’ll continue on this cycle of Champions League failure. Taylor knows they went toe-to-toe with a good Serie A side on Wednesday night and weren’t outclassed by the Italians. The victory was there for the taking – and Celtic thought they had it before VAR ruled out what could have been a late Luis Palma winner.

Instead, ex-Barcelona and Chelsea wide man Pedro popped up with an injury-time clincher of his own. The 2-1 Group E defeat means that by their next match against Atletico Madrid in Glasgow, it’ll be 10 years since they last won a Champions League home game.

Last year’s campaign under Ange Postecoglou was tough to take. All Taylor & Co. got were plaudits instead of points. This time was supposed to be different. And that’s why the 25-year-old couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Taylor said: “With 10 minutes to go the other night, it felt like we had a good chance to win. I hate speaking about what ifs. But that’s how it feels again.

“The size of this club deserves more to be coming close. We want to be actually producing at this level. The first two group games have shown we can do that. But talk is cheap now.

“The Champions League is totally ruthless. Lazio didn’t have many chances, we gave them very