Celtic's Europa League Win: Duran Shines While Hogh Struggles
Celtic walked off the pitch on Thursday night with their first Europa League win of the season, a Colombian forward on 13 goals, and a record signing still searching for one. The story, though, is not as simple as the numbers.
Hogh’s drought stretches to 15 matches now. Not a single goal since that blistering August afternoon at Kilmarnock, when the Dane announced himself with a hat-trick in a 5-1 rout and looked every inch an £11 million game-changer from Bodo/Glimt.
Since then, the goals have dried up. The scrutiny hasn’t.
His chance to end the run against Besiktas disappeared when his number went up with 13 minutes left, the forward trudging off while the game still hung in the balance. By full-time, the narrative had shifted again.
Duran steps in, and steps up
Callum Osmand and Duran came off the bench and tilted the night Celtic’s way, Duran helping himself to a decisive double that not only sealed the win but pushed his own tally to 13 for the season. He is, as O’Neill put it, “on fire”.
The Colombian looks like a striker playing with the lights on full beam. He can go wide right, he can operate off the left as he did at his previous club, but through the middle he explodes. His movement is sharp, his finishing ruthless, his confidence obvious.
Those goals crank up the pressure on Hogh. The comparison is unavoidable. One is flying; the other is fighting.
Yet in the dressing room and the technical area, the view is more nuanced.
O’Neill’s different measure of a No 9
O’Neill made a point of going to Hogh after the final whistle. The message was not about the chance missed or the run extended. It was about the job done.
“I want centre-forwards to be able to hold it and that is what he did,” the Celtic boss said. “He is not Duran, he is not a dribbler. But if he can do this for us against strong opposition it will stand him in good stead.”
That is the crux of it. Hogh is being asked to play as a reference point, to occupy defenders, to bring others into the game. On Thursday, O’Neill felt he did exactly that. The goals, he insists, can wait.
“I said to him that I'm not worried about whether he scores a goal,” O’Neill added, adamant that the Dane should be proud of his contribution on the night.
This is not a manager blind to reality. Hogh has been left out of the latest Denmark squad, his confidence clearly under strain. The weight of being Celtic’s record signing, combined with a barren run, can crush a forward. O’Neill is trying to strip that away, to judge him on more than just the scoreline.
Selection tension up front
Still, the question will not go away. How long can a club of Celtic’s ambitions start a misfiring record buy ahead of a striker in Duran’s form?
Asked directly whether it is getting harder to pick Hogh over the Colombian, O’Neill refused to be pinned down. “We will see,” he said. Five changes were made on Thursday because, in his words, it was necessary. He insists he does not yet know what side will start on Sunday.
He did offer one reminder: “This lad has scored goals in the Champions League remember.” That line matters. O’Neill is banking on the idea that a player who has delivered on the biggest stage will, eventually, remember how to do it again in green and white.
Kilmarnock return offers a twist
Next up is Kilmarnock at the weekend, the very team against whom Hogh looked unplayable back in August. The hat-trick there felt like a starting gun. It now feels like a reference point he cannot quite reach again.
If he starts, the storyline writes itself: a chance to reset, in the same fixture where everything once seemed possible. If he doesn’t, it underlines just how far Duran has surged past him in the pecking order.
Beyond the domestic subplot, the European picture has sharpened. Celtic now sit with three points at the midway stage of their Europa League group. Two more wins from their remaining games against Torreense, Omonia, Marseille and Union Saint-Gilloise could be enough to punch a ticket to the knockout round.
“From the European side, we have given ourselves a chance,” O’Neill said. The caveat followed quickly. They will have to win away from home, and he knows it will not be easy.
The margins in Europe are thin. So are the margins in a forward’s career. Duran is seizing his moment. Hogh, for now, is living off hold-up play, hard yards, and his manager’s faith.
Kilmarnock on Sunday might show whether that faith is about to be rewarded, or tested all over again.
