Celtic’s 16th European game this season was also their last. A journey that began with the Champions League qualifiers in Armenia on 10 July ended in the Europa League round of 32 in Spain seven months later.
It is their longest continental campaign since 2004 but they fell to a Kevin Gameiro goal, defeated 1-0 at Mestalla and 3-0 on aggregate, still three months and nine games away from the final. There is no reproach there, just reality, and there was satisfaction at emerging from their group, a sense of achievement at their performance at the home of one of the competition’s favourites. “I’m very proud of the team,” Brendan Rodgers said.
A 2-0 first-leg defeat always meant that Celtic were likely to be eliminated here but they will reflect that, poor though Glasgow was, this was appreciably better: a game, and maybe even a tie, that might have been different but for a second yellow card shown to Jeremy Toljan for a challenge on Gonçalo Guedes shortly before half-time. “The referee took the game away from us,” added Rodgers. “I didn’t think it was a second yellow card. That changes the dynamic of the game. I thought we were much the superior team up until that point.”
Celtic had impressed the 3,000 or so of their fans among the 36,000 inside the Mestalla, as well as the many more watching from the bars outside. Rodgers had suggested that if Celtic scored the opening goal anything could happen, and Celtic’s first shot had arrived inside two minutes, determined as they were to run at Valencia, particularly on the left where Jonny Hayes advanced from wing-back, supported by Ryan Christie.
Callum McGregor twice burst from deep, too. Ahead of them, Oliver Burke’s first run took him off the pitch, but his pace concerned the Spanish side. In the middle, meanwhile, Celtic settled and started to dominate possession.
Hayes won the corner from which Kristoffer Ajer hit a volley off Daniel Wass and then struck the rebound over. Soon after, Burke outran the Valencia defence but outran his team-mates too, left alone to fire off a shot that was blocked. And then Burke dashed deep into the area only to lose control and leave the ball behind. When Christie shot over soon after the half-hour and Hayes’s effort was sliced past a post just after that, the crowd in Mestalla whistled – conscious not only that they were being outrun but that they might even be at risk. “I didn’t like the first 35 minutes at all,” the manager, Marcelino, said. “Our opponent was better than us.”
But then it happened: Toljan got a second yellow and as he walked off, he appeared to take Celtic’s fleeting chances with him. When he went, the shot count read 0-8, although it was true that few had truly troubled Neto. Valencia’s first shot came on 41 minutes; within three minutes they had three more, Scott Bain pushing Dani Parejo’s deflected effort over the bar, Ferran Torres flashing just wide and Bain again stretching out a hand to deny Mina.
This was immediately different. In fact, it felt over. It appeared that all Celtic could do was hang on. What they hung on to, of course, was European elimination, albeit with pride. Valencia kept coming but, for some time, perhaps the best chance came at the other end, Christie’s in-swinging free kick headed over by Ajer. Ultimately, though, down to 10 men, the difference showed, reality was reimposed. Parejo clipped a marvellous ball to Wass, who cushioned his header into Gameiro. He had only been on the pitch two minutes but it was enough to end Celtic’s long journey.