Celtic crash out of Europe with defeat to Bodo/Glimt

Celtic have been knocked out of the Europa Conference League after losing 5-1 on aggregate to Bodo/Glimt.

The Premiership leaders had travelled to Norway with hopes of overturning a 3-1 loss from last week’s first leg at Celtic Park but were beaten 2-0 at the Aspmyra Stadion.

Manager Ange Postecoglou surprised many by making five changes to his team for the match, with captain Callum McGregor, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic, Reo Hatate and Jota dropping to the bench.

Celtic were looking for a quick start to help them recover the deficit. Instead, it was the hosts who were on the front foot and they found several openings in the early moments before taking the lead in the ninth minute.

Ole Solbakken took the ball on the right side before drilling a low shot past Joe Hart and leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb.

Bodo/Glimt had further opportunities as Celtic struggled to find a way into the game and were unlucky not to be further ahead at half-time.

Celtic made changes at the break, bringing on McGregor and Liel Abada for Tom Rogic and Matt O’Riley. The switch brought improvements but no goals and the Norwegian side settled the contest after 69 minutes.

Hugo Vetlesen carried the ball through the middle of the park before passing down Celtic’s right hand side and after some neat build-up play he was well placed to side-foot home a finish inside the box and extinguish any faint hopes of a Celtic recovery.