After six defeats in six matches, Young Boys did not raise their heads in the Champions League. They lost 1-0 in Glasgow against Celtic on an autogoal from Loris Benito in the 86th.
The captain had a bad reflex on a save from his goalkeeper at the end of the match which saw Young Boys level with their opponents after having had a very ‘painful’ start. Such an outcome is therefore very cruel.
Before being ‘betrayed’ by his captain, Marvin Keller had caused despair among the Celtic attackers. Inducted No. 1 last week, he fully justified the choice of Giorgio Contini. The new starting goalkeeper of Young Boys pulled out all the stops in a first period which saw Celtic score… three goals rightly cancelled.
After a superb save in the 26th minute from a strike from the Japanese Reno Hatate, he stopped a penalty from the Belgian Arne Engels just before the break which had been caused by Darian Males. Marvin Keller thus followed in the footsteps of Pascal Zuberbühler who also deflected a penalty at Celtic Park in August 2002 in a Champions League play-off won by FC Basel.
Marvin Keller’s stellar performance was perhaps the only bright spot for Young Boys in a one-sided first half. The Bernese did not really exist against an opponent who was trying to qualify for the round of 16 before finally getting their heads above water shortly after the hour mark.
-Males thus forced Kasper Schmeichel to rise to the level of his opposite number. The Dane made a double save in front of Giorgio Contini’s no. 39 to close the door to the Bernese. It was Joël Monteiro who was at the origin of this action, the only one really that we can count as Young Boys’ assets before a final strike from Sandro Lauper at the end of added time.
Next Wednesday when they host Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys will have the opportunity to end this disastrous campaign with a victory. The 2.1 million euros promised in the event of success and, also, the fear of a zero out of eight will certainly encourage Giorgio Contini not to ignore this match despite the absence of any sporting stakes.
/ATS
