When you are running at full pelt it is hard to put the brakes on, especially when thousands of fans are going wild after witnessing the most enjoyable three minutes of the season.
Another version of the discussion was that Maeda was due to fly back to Japan to complete his rehab but after a second scan revealed a very rapid recovery that plan was shelved with the player remaining at Lennoxtown with the expectation that he will soon be playing again.
Switching end, as fans used to do in the good old days, the camera picks up the build up play from Luis Palma, the thud of Matt O’Riley’s shot on the crossbar followed by Daizen Maeda popping the rebound into the net.
The game we want to play relies on us keeping the intensity levels as high as we can and Daizen’s energy triggers a lot of that for us, in terms of shutting down the time teams get to set up attacks.
Liel and Daizen are both on the pitch now which is great news for us. Daizen is a little bit ahead of Liel but I am expecting them both to be available at some point this month.
That move and the execution set the tone for what was to come. Celtic played some exquisite football that their hosts had no answer to.
Reo Hatate had the biggest assist possible in the 1-1 draw away to Shakhtar Donetsk but that incident where he was almost credited with a goal summed up Celtic’s luck in the Champions League. Bad luck.
Maeda played under Postecoglou at Yokohama before moving to Celtic in January 2022, initially on loan before the deal was made permanent last summer.