Alan Shearer thinks Celtic were a deadly striker away from reaching the last 16 of the Champions League this season.
The Hoops put in an incredible away performance at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night as they faced Bayern Munich in their knockout phase play-off second leg.
Former Bayern kid Nicolas Kuhn converted to put Celtic ahead on the night and the tie looked almost certain to reach extra-time.
But Alphonso Davies’ 94th minute sickener handed Bayern a 3-2 aggregate victory on a night where Celtic deserved so much more.
Brendan Rodgers said his Celtic stars were ‘heroic’ while the German media admitted the Bhoys struck ‘fear’ into Bayern Munich across the evening.
Shearer makes Celtic Champions League last 16 claim
Former Newcastle United striker and Premier League legend Shearer gave his immediate post-match thoughts to Amazon Prime on Tuesday night.
But he has looked back on the clash again with Gary Lineker on The Rest is Football podcast and delivered immense credit to Celtic.
The Bhoys had so many clear-cut chances in the second leg and Shearer feels they needed a clinical forward on the field to convert them into goals.
Analysing the game, Shearer said: “It was so cruel. I must admit, before the game, I saw them making it difficult at times, but I did not see them playing as well as they did.
I tell you what, if they had a finisher up top, they would be in the round of 16 now, there’s no doubt about that.
“They had three or four unbelievable chances in the first 20 or 30 minutes. They were knocking it around, every player was comfortable, Brendan Rodgers got his tactics spot on.
“It was a really, really impressive performance from Celtic. Their movement, everything about them looked really good.”
Brendan Rodgers on failure to sign January striker
Celtic’s main January priority was to sign a striker, particularly when they knew Kyogo Furuhashi signalled his intention to leave Parkhead months prior.
But they could only recruit Jota and Jeffrey Schlupp from Stade Rennais and Crystal Palace respectively and it leaves Celtic weaker in attack than before the window opened.
Rodgers said after the window closed: “I said it myself, we wanted another striker, so we’re not hiding behind anything. And absolutely, the supporters will look and see that a top striker has gone out, a legendary striker.
“So I understand that. But all I can do is affect what we have now and look to teach and work very hard and finish off what has been, until now, a great season for us.
“I don’t want to pin blame on anyone here. I think as a collective, it wasn’t ideal how it ended for us.
“We have to, as a club now, go away and look at that, like we do in every window. I’m not going to become frustrated and kill my joy of working here by thinking about what could have been.”
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