Hapoel Tel Aviv were supposed to be the whipping boys in Group C of the Europa League whilst Celtic, Hamburg and Rapid Vienna slugged it out for the right to progress to the next round and at the end of the first 45 minutes of the game in the Bloomfield Stadium on Thursday, with Celtic comfortably 1-0 up through a superb strike from Georgios Samaras, it seemed as if that prediction would prove to be accurate. In the second half, though, Celtic wilted spectacularly and their inability to compete, to perform even the basic, simple tasks, meant that they made a very average Israeli team look like Barcelona. 
Aiden McGeady still thinks that Celtic are a better side than the Israelis but he can't explain why the team didn't show up for the second half of the game. "We never really got going, not at all." he said. "I didn't know what to expect from them but they keep the ball well. However, we should have been able to hold the game or close it out with us being 1-0 up. But we didn't. When we came out for the second half we found it tough to get the ball for the first 20-25 minutes. That's the way I felt anyway."
"I thought they had all the ball, were creating the chances while we never got going." continued the winger. "Then they scored and got the momentum, that's the way it went. We've got better quality than Hapoel although we didn't show it on the night. We didn't pass the ball well enough, didn't control the ball and didn't create loads of chances either. I don't know what more to say except we didn't even get into first gear against Hapoel."
Next up in the competition for Celtic is the much anticipated clash with Rapid Vienna at Celtic Park in two weeks time. The Austrians routed Hamburg 3-0 in midweek and McGeady knows they are a quality side but he's hoping that the Hoops will use that game to get back on track after the upset in Tel Aviv. "The good thing is it was only the first game of the group, so we've got five games to go and five chances to do better." said the Republic of Ireland international. "I'd definitely fancy ourselves against Hapoel at home. Rapid are a decent team as they've already put Aston Villa out. The draw is not the easiest draw for us because they're all tough opponents."
"We thought Hapoel would be the easiest team to play against but on the basis of that game it doesn't look like it." said Celtic's number 46. "That was maybe more down to the fact we played at 50 or 60 per cent of our potential, if that We did okay in defence but just didn't do enough getting forward. They were ridiculous temperatures to play in and all the players felt sapped of energy. So it was tough but we can't really make excuses for that. We just should have been better on the night."
McGeady was returning from domestic suspension after picking up two yellow cards in the SPL match against Hibernian and the winger was booked again at the end of the first half on Thursday after squaring up to Avihay Yadin who had cynically scythed the Celt to the ground as he was marauding towards goal. The Hapoel player was cautioned too and many observers thought he was very fortunate not to see a red card. "That's why I got so annoyed." said Aiden. "Because the first guy had a bite at me and then the second guy just totally wiped me out when I was clean through after beating two players. It was just cynical. I don't think one of our players would have done that to them in the same circumstances."
"I don't really want to get into whether it's a red-card offence or not, but he's obviously made no attempt to play the ball. It's just disappointing because it was a goalscoring opportunity for us. We were breaking with players up. But that was just one chance, so you can't look at that as the cause for losing the game. "