YB sniffs the point for a long time – then Loris Benito hits his own goal

The Young Boys also lost their last away game in the Champions League. Against Celtic Glasgow, the Bernese team, who had been brave for a long time, conceded a late goal to make it 0-1.

Not much was missing. Just a few minutes and the Young Boys would have won their first point in the new Champions League at the seventh attempt. But in the end it was like always against Celtic Glasgow in this messed up European Cup campaign, and the Bernese had to leave the field as losers again after conceding a late goal. Loris Benito was only able to deflect a cross from the Scots into his own goal when attempting to save the game.

It was a dampener that didn’t really fit with this committed presentation by the Swiss master. Giorgio Contini had said the day before that the focus of this trip to Scotland was primarily to gain further experience that would then help the team in its further development. The new YB coach knows that it would have been presumptuous to envisage any result or even a point gain with the team. The Bernese had been too overwhelmed in their six appearances on the highest European football stage so far. And the Scots, who lead the domestic league with a 13-point lead over their rivals Rangers, were too strong at home when they last played at Celtic Park. The last defeat Celtic suffered in their own stadium was in December 2023.

In this respect, anything other than a clear home win for the Scots seemed unlikely. And that’s exactly what could have happened on this cool but dry evening. Because Marvin Keller had to get the ball out of the net three times in the first half. But the referee revoked all the goals, twice because of an offside and once because of a previous foul.

It was probably the little bit of luck that the Young Boys had been missing in the premier class so far, which now seemed to be at their side in their second-to-last appearance in this competition. At least until Benito’s distractor. The longer the game lasted, the more the Young Boys dared to go on the offensive. In addition to Joel Monteiro and Silvere Ganvoula, Darian Males missed two excellent opportunities to score.

In addition to Fortuna, YB could also count on a strong basement. The Zurich player, who was promoted to number 1, provided further proof that Contini’s decision was the right one. The 22-year-old didn’t just react strongly to Arne Engels’ missed penalty before halftime.

In a week’s home game against Red Star Belgrade, YB now has to say an honorable farewell to the big stage. With a point win they could perhaps give up the ignominious last place in the table to Slovan Bratislava.

Celtic Glasgow – Young Boys 1:0 (0:0)
60,411 spectators. SR Saggi.
Tor: 86. Benito (Eigentor) 1:0.
Celtic Glasgow: Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Taylor (69. Valle); Engels (69. Paulo Bernardo), McGregor, Hatate; Kühn (90. Scales), Furuhashi (75. Idah), Maeda.
Young Boys: Keller; Athekame (84. Blum), Camara, Benito, Hadjam; Niasse (84. Lauper), Lakomy; Males (64. Chaiwa), Ugrinic, Monteiro (72. Colley); Ganvoula (64. Itten).
Remarks: 89. Red card against Maeda (assault). 41. Keller saves a penalty from Engels. Warnings: 20. Kühn, 45. Ganvoula, 47. Camara, 64. Ugrinic, 83. Benito. (nih/sda)

The table