Celtic bemoan VAR malfunction as fans break ceasefire and one player reminds he is not long-term answer

News that the Parkhead hierarchy had agreed to sit down with fans early next week to discuss "ongoing concerns about the running of the club" had led to the suspension of a planned silent protest.

There were also none of the usual “sack the board” chants until the final knockings of another desperate European display, the sight of Braga slamming in their second goal five minutes from time to seal the win prompting supporters to break their ceasefire and give the board both barrels.

Celtic will have deserved cause to bemoan the decision to rule out a Kelechi Iheanacho equaliser early in the second half – the ball didn’t seem to strike his arm as VAR stated – but this was a third match in a row without a win and the fifth time this season that Brendan Rodgers’ side had failed to score.

The consolation for failing to qualify for the Champions League was meant to be a guaranteed harvest of Europa League points but two games in and Celtic have just one to show for their efforts. Braga are not from European football’s top drawer - they sit seventh in their domestic league – and their supporters could scarcely believe their luck as the Portuguese joined Bayern Munich in becoming just the second team to win at Parkhead in the last nine European games here.

Celtic’s cause was not helped by the concession of a sloppy opening goal that didn’t show Kasper Schmeichel in the best of lights and left them having to chase the game.

Rodgers chopped and changed things throughout to try to land on the magic formula but no amount of tactical or personnel switches could deliver the goal that would have at least salvaged something from a difficult night. The chants against the board returned at maximum volume come the final whistle.

Very few of the protests about Celtic’s summer transfer activity – or lack of – centred on the decision not to sign a new goalkeeper, although that thought may have crossed some supporters’ minds at the opening goal midway through the first half.

Schmeichel had already survived a few shaky moments but there was no sparing the Dane just a few minutes later. There seemed little danger when Horta took possession around 35 yards out but, with nobody rushing to close him down, the Braga captain elected to unleash an audacious effort. His shot did swerve somewhat in the air but Schmeichel should have done far better than wave his right arm at it as it flew beyond him.

He remains for the most part a reliable custodian but here was another reminder that, a month short of his 39th birthday, Schmeichel is not the long-term solution for Celtic between the posts.

At the other end of the pitch, it wasn’t faring much better for the hosts. Sebastian Tounetki speared in an effort that Lukas Hornicek did well to parry but it arrived in isolation rather than as part of a cluster of chances.

Iheanacho was diligent again through the middle, with Daizen Maeda and Tounekti bright on either flank, but a Braga defence that included one-time Celtic cast-off, Gustaf Lagerbielke, rarely looked under any real sustained pressure.

Looking to breathe life into his side, Rodgers replaced Colby Donovan with Marcelo Saracchi at half-time and switched to a back three. Maeda’s energy was put to good use as a right wingback.

That bold approach looked to have paid instant dividends when Iheanacho capitalised on a Braga mistake before finishing only for VAR to decide – eventually – that the striker had controlled the ball with a hand in the process.

Celtic frustration at that call was augmented when replays appeared to show the ball glancing off Iheanacho’s head or shoulder rather than his arm. If VAR was brought in to remove these sorts of errors then chalk this one up as another system malfunction.

The incident did at least finally properly ignite a contest that had been merely simmering until that point. Both teams traded chances, with Pau Victor shooting just wide for Braga after a rare Cameron Carter-Vickers mistake before Kieran Tierney and Tounetki were both denied by spectacular Hornicek saves.

Instead a second Braga goal late on summed up Celtic’s night, Gabri Martinez’s shot cannoning off Liam Scales and sitting up nicely for the substitute to convert from close range.