Celtic's less than champion week

Celtic host Villareal in the Champions League tonight... but this is not destined to be one of those "legendary European nights" that the club are so fond of - as they are already out of the competition, it's more likely to be a damp squib. While the visitors hope to finish top of the group above Manchester Utd, Gordon Strachan was left talking about keeping Celtic's good home record going. In other words, they are playing for nothing more than pride.

After Sunday's 2-0 loss to Hibs, this has not been a great week for the champions. Most of the fall-out from that game has focused on the terrible blunder by Artur Boric which allowed Hibs to take the lead. While Strachan has backed his keeper in public, he'd have to be an exceptionally stubborn man in private not to accept that Boruc's stock has fallen like HBOS over the past year.

It would be churlish, though, not to give Hibs some credit for an excellent result. In the same way that Argentinians express bemusement that English people still go on about Maradona's "Hand of God", because his 2nd goal was the one that really decided the game, Hibs' 2nd was the result of a quality counter-attack that deserved to win the match. Celtic did have more possession, as Strachan somewhat desperately pointed out after the match, but they lacked the killer touch.

There's no need for them to panic, though. Still 4 points above a Rangers team who look desperately out of sorts themselves, Celtic are still in a strong position to claim their 4th title in a row. As they proved last season, Celtic have more than enough resourcefulness to come back from a trailing position, if required.

Still, their exit from Europe does add to the feeling that, after a couple of seasons where Scottish football's stock has risen, its reputation may well be on the slide again. We may now be reliant on the national team to do something special to rescue us - after all, they will be providing the only European action we'll see for the rest of this season.