Intoxicating Leipzig remove Celtic wiggle room and leave Ange with a major decision - Keith Jackson's big match verdict

Before lamenting another bruising Champions League defeat and speculating on where this one might leave Celtic’s chances of finding a pathway through to the knockout stages – which are now considerably slimmer than they were – let’s acknowledge what last night in Leipzig was all about.

This was not just any standard European tie. This was top-level football in its finest, most exhilarating form. A blistering, 100 miles an hour encounter which thundered along at such an infeasible pace it was exhausting just to watch let alone compete in.

All thrashed out between two teams who don’t have a reverse gear between them, far less any intention of parking buses. And constructed by two like-minded bosses who share futuristic – if high tariff – templates of what the modern game ought to look like. As a result, this coming together of two teams was a breathless affair – an intoxicating cocktail of slick attacking interplay and some utterly suicidal defending.

Ultimately, it was also shattering for a Celtic side which needed desperately to bring something home with them on their late-night charter flight but which left with nothing more than another bloody nose, a crestfallen keeper and a stricken, injured captain.

Joe Hart will rightly shoulder much the blame for a moment of madness which, ironically, mirrored Jon McLaughlin’s brain freeze at Celtic Park in the first Old Firm derby of the season. But while the Englishman remains an occasional liability, the loss of Callum McGregor could be a long-term concern for Ange Postecoglou.

McGregor was injured in the blurring build-up to RB Leipzig’s opening goal. And, from the moment he limped out of view, Celtic were operating without a fulcrum in the middle of the pitch. They did