Champions League: Villa Park bedlam sums up gripping Celtic campaign

Celtic’s enthralling defeat at Aston Villa was a near-perfect illustration of the club’s gripping, and ultimately successful, Champions League campaign.

A campaign which now rolls on to a tantalising two-legged play-off against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in less than two weeks.

In Birmingham, there were shades of the Borussia Dortmund horror show as Villa scored twice in the opening five minutes, while missing a host of other chances.

Celtic players looked stunned and cowed in a raucous stadium against an elite side.

But as those memories of the Westfalenstadion on matchday two – banished by recent improvements at Europe’s top table – came rushing back, Celtic dug deep.

There was some of the fight and character shown in digging out a point at Atalanta and coming from behind to draw with Club Brugge as they steadied.

Then some of the swashbuckling stuff seen against RB Leipzig and Slovan Bratislava as Adam Idah ended his goal drought with a double to level.

That got Celtic right back in the contest, which gripped until Morgan Rogers completed his hat-trick to make it 4-2 in stoppage time, as the pressure from Villa proved too much in the second half.

Even in disappointment the Celtic players and fans, both drained from another epic night, left Villa Park knowing the story is not over.

They get to do it all again in the play-off round against a European giant, with the draw made on Friday.

That was the aim, but now they’re there, Brendan Rodgers and his players will want to make the most of it.