{"id":2967,"date":"2025-12-31T02:19:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/?p=2967"},"modified":"2026-01-13T07:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:29:07","slug":"celtic-falter-at-fir-park-nancys-men-miss-chance-to-close-gap-ahead-of-old-firm-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/celtic-falter-at-fir-park-nancys-men-miss-chance-to-close-gap-ahead-of-old-firm-derby\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Falter at Fir Park: Nancy\u2019s Men Miss Chance to Close Gap Ahead of Old Firm Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Celtic missed a golden chance to close the gap on Hearts at the top of the Premiership table, falling to a 2-0 defeat against Motherwell at Fir Park on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Bhoys remain three points behind Hearts, albeit with a game in hand, and arrived in Lanarkshire brimming with confidence after back-to-back wins over Aberdeen and Livingston. But that momentum evaporated quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Motherwell struck first after just 14 minutes. From a throw-in, Stephen O\u2019Donnell whipped in a superb cross that found Ibrahim Said, who peeled away from Auston Trusty and nodded past Kasper Schmeichel to give the hosts the lead.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qPVwLn8Uo_k?si=mdzvRKhnx8_JNa1-\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Celtic struggled in the opening half, failing to register a single shot on target. Wilfried Nancy\u2019s side looked flat and short of ideas, and their first real chance didn\u2019t arrive until five minutes after the restart.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin Nygren slid a clever pass into Shin Yamada, but the Japanese striker\u2019s low effort was comfortably saved by Calum Ward.<\/p>\n<p>The home side doubled their advantage just before the hour mark, capitalizing on a costly Celtic error. Schmeichel\u2019s pass toward Arne Engels was intercepted by Elijah Just. His initial strike was blocked, but Elliot Watt was on hand to sweep home and seal the points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was not a good performance,\u201d admitted Nancy post-match. \u201cWe had difficulties today regarding the opposition we faced. In the second half, we were more front-footed at good moments, but we made too many technical mistakes. I\u2019ll watch the game back to see what we need to improve. This is the reality\u2014we need to rest a few players and respond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s little time for reflection. Celtic now turn their attention to Saturday\u2019s Old Firm Derby against Rangers\u2014a clash that could define their season. Fans in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Macau can catch the game live on SPOTV NOW.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celtic missed a golden chance to close the gap on Hearts at the top of the Premiership table, falling to a 2-0 defeat against Motherwell at Fir Park on Tuesday evening. The Bhoys remain three points behind Hearts, albeit with a game in hand, and arrived in Lanarkshire brimming with confidence after back-to-back wins over &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/celtic-falter-at-fir-park-nancys-men-miss-chance-to-close-gap-ahead-of-old-firm-derby\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Celtic Falter at Fir Park: Nancy\u2019s Men Miss Chance to Close Gap Ahead of Old Firm Derby<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-2967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2970,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions\/2970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}