Celtic picked up their first win of the league phase of the Europa League on Thursday night by beating Sturm Graz 2-1 at Parkhead in front of their home support.
A stunning goal from distance from Tomi Horvat gave the Austrian outfit the lead in the first-half, but the Hoops hit back through Liam Scales in the 61st minute with a well-worked corner routine.
Three minutes later, Benjamin Nygren scored a goal from a corner to put Celtic 2-1 up, which was enough for them to secure all three points.
Why Benjamin Nygren should have done more for Celtic
The Sweden international scored the winning goal in the game with an excellent header in the 64th minute, but the game could have been out of sight for the hosts if he had taken his other opportunities.
Nygren had a personal xG tally of 2.43 and had five ‘big chances’ to find the back of the net, per Sofascore, but only scored from one of those shots.
The left-footed star deserves praise for getting into positions to score, as he had five of the club’s seven ‘big chances’, but he needed to do more to finish those opportunities when they came his way.
This is why Nygren was not the star of the show, because he was too wasteful in front of goal. Instead, it was Arne Engels who deserves the headlines for Thursday night’s win.
Why Arne Engels was even better than Benjamin Nygren
Shunsuke Nakamura was a certified free-kick specialist during his time with Celtic, as shown in the clips below, and Engels did his best impression of the former Hoops star against Sturm Graz.
The Belgium international may not have scored a free-kick, but his delivery from deadball situations and from open play was outstanding throughout the game. Neil Lennon, commentating for TNT Sports, went as far as to say that his delivery was “world-class”.
Engels, as shown in the earlier clip, delivered a phenomenal corner in for Nygren to score the winning goal, and that was just one of a number of inch-perfect crosses from the former Augsburg man.
Minutes
90
90
Shots
7
2
Goals
1
0
Big chances missed
4
0
Key passes
0
5
Big chances created
0
3
Successful crosses
0/0
4/8
Ground duel success rate
30%
50%
As you can see in the table above, the Belgian starlet was incredibly unfortunate to end the match with only one assist to his name, as he created three ‘big chances’, whilst he also outperformed Nygren in his physical duels on the night.
There was one sensational open play cross from the right channel that was a thing of beauty from the central midfielder that Nygren failed to convert in the second half, whilst he also created other chances from his Nakamura-esque set-piece deliveries.
The £11m signing has only started three of his seven appearances in the Scottish Premiership this season, per Sofascore, and he should be kept in the starting line-up for the big game against league-leaders Hearts on Sunday.
If Engels can continue to create chances and deliver set-pieces with the quality that he displayed on Thursday, the Belgian will soon rack up assists and close in on the tally of 13 that he managed in his debut season in Scotland.
He was the star of the show against Sturm Graz and Brendan Rodgers should provide him with another opportunity to impress against Hearts this weekend.