Celtic secured a place in the play-off round of the Champions League on Wednesday night with a dramatic 1-0 win over BSC Young Boys at Parkhead.
It was a tense game between two fairly evenly matched teams for most of the evening, but the telling moment came just four minutes before the end of the 90 minutes.
Adam Idah remained composed and strong to get a shot off and saw his effort come off the goalkeeper and onto the defender, Loris Benito, who bundled the ball into his own net.
It was a match-winning cameo from the Ireland international, who started the game on the bench behind Kyogo Furuhashi, and one that could tempt Brendan Rodgers into bringing him back into the XI.
Adam Idah's performance against Young Boys
The 6 foot 3 marksman came on with 15 minutes left to go of the 90 minutes after Kyogo failed to register a shot on target and completed just 20% (1/5) of his attempted passes.
Idah struggled to get into the game at first and did not have much luck against the Young Boys defenders, as he lost both of his duels on the ground.
The summer signing from Norwich, however, made a perfect run to go through on goal in the 86th minute, staying onside and then using his strength to get a shot off.
Unfortunately, for Idah, the shot was saved by the goalkeeper but the ball still ended up in the back of the net, thanks to Benito, and he got to celebrate with the Parkhead faithful.
The true hero of the night for Rodgers and Celtic, however, was the player who played the pass to send the striker through on goal – Reo Hatate.
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Why Reo Hatate was Celtic's hero
The Japan international was the main man for the Scottish giants on Wednesday night with an all-action display to help his side to claim all three points.
Celtic’s winning goal on the night was created by his moment of pure quality on the ball. Hatate picked up possession inside his own half and had the vision and quality to spot Idah’s run and play an inch-perfect, 30-40-yard, through ball with his weak foot to put the striker through on goal.
Aside from that magic piece of play from the Japanese maestro, the midfield star played a pivotal role in the clean sheet for the Bhoys with his fantastic play out of possession.
Minutes
90
Touches
82
Dribbled past
0x
Key passes
2
Duels won
8/11
Dribbles completed
2/3
Tackles won
4
As you can see in the table above, Hatate won 73% of his duels in the match, as he dominated the opposition players in physical contests, and won four tackles without being dribbled past a single time.
These statistics show that the Young Boys players found it incredibly difficult to get the better of the midfield whiz, which helped to prevent Kasper Schmeichel from being worked even more.
Therefore, Hatate was the real hero for Rodgers because it was his performance in and out of possession that played a huge role in Celtic claiming all three points.
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