Taking a 1-1 draw back to Parkhead, Celtic were the favourites to qualify from their Europa League clash against FC København on Thursday.
However, nothing appeared to go right for Neil Lennon’s men, as they conceded quickly after the break to give the Danes some hope, ultimately conceding two late goals after Odsonne Edouard’s equaliser from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute.
The defeat means Celtic are now out of all European competitions, and will now need to focus all their attention on ensuring they end the season with another Scottish Premiership.
One man, however, who will remember the game fondly, is Zeca, FCK’s 31-year-old captain.
The midfielder, speaking to Ekstrabladet after the game, admitted he could only see out of one eye for the vast majority of the fixture after taking a ball to the face early on.
He said: “I couldn’t see anything. Sometimes I was scared to get the ball in the middle in case I lost it. It was very hard. I was so frustrated and also nervous about making a mistake and costing a goal because of it”.
The player even asked his manager, Ståle Solbakken, if he could come off because he felt ‘he couldn’t help the team’, but the Greek ended up playing for the full 90 minutes, in great part thanks to those around him.
He explained: “My teammates were amazing. They talked to me all the time and spurred me on. It was nice and I stayed on the field because of them. It was a difficult situation, but at least I didn’t make any big mistakes”.
Ekstrabladet state the player still continued to have vision issues after the game, and he explained they would have a better look at it on Friday with the doctors if it carried on.
