FOMO for Kyogo as Celtic and Aston Villa serve up Champions League classic amid Prince William chants

It was advisable to give up trying to fathom the consequences. At one stage Celtic were on course to meet…..Aston Villa in the knockout play-off round. Bring it on was the only response.

In the end, Villa qualified for the last 16 without this extra assignment. Celtic, meanwhile, play Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Kyogo Furuhashi will surely be suffering FOMO - fear of missing out.

This was almost so very sweet for Brendan Rodgers, who returned to the English game and the place where he won his last away match as Leicester manager. He watched his current team come back from two goals down, a double from Adam Idah - Kyogo's replacement - cancelling out Morgan Rogers’ equally rapid-fire brace.

The second half was a slightly different story but Celtic were not out of contention until the very end. Watkins – the subject of a reported £60 million bid on the day of the game from Arsenal – let the visitors off the hook by missing a penalty in extraordinary fashion. He slipped in the run up and kicked the ball against his standing foot before watching it clear the bar by some distance. It was never a penalty -Auston Trusty clearly took the ball. Watkins will certainly have wished the award was overturned, particularly since it was at the Holte End.

Fortunately for him, he’d already put his side ahead again in front of this bank of home fans after John McGinn had again used his ample posterior to good effect, in this case to win a tussle with Arne Engels. The Scotland midfielder released Jacob Ramsey, who squared for Watkins to make it 3-2.

Despite all this, Watkins was eclipsed when it came to identifying the main man by fellow England striker Rogers, who wrapped things up in the final moments to secure his hat-trick. He had been hunting it for almost the entire match having scored twice in the opening five minutes.

Might this start have been a dismaying glimpse of life after Furuhashi or else evidence of Cameron Carter-Vickers’ importance to this Celtic team?

Like the Japanese striker, the injured Carter-Vickers was conspicuous by his absence. In his case, and fortunately for Celtic, his unavailability isn’t permanent although there have been worrying reports linking the centre half with a move elsewhere. At least Rodgers knows the rush to find another striker isn’t as urgent as many might have feared.

Idah has a helpful habit of rising to the occasion. A Scottish Cup winning goal last season, and now this, a double inside three minutes that brought Celtic level and kept the Uefa logistics department working overtime as they sought to calculate who would be required to participate in the knockout play-off round and who would be getting a few weeks off.

It seemed pretty straightforward at first at Villa Park. The hosts seemed intent on knocking Celtic into whatever dark lair Ozzy Osbourne, depicted on an eye-catching tifo display pre-match, looked like he had crept from. But like Ozzy, they rose from the dead and shot some life into their fans, who had been unusually – though understandably – quiet following those alarming opening minutes.

They found their voice and their wit – certainly in the case of the “One Prince Harry” choruses, although some more depressing anthems were given an airing later - as Celtic began to secure a foothold in the game. Still, on top of losing two quick goals they lived very dangerously, with Jacob Ramsey hitting a post and Alistair Johnston clearing off the line from Watkins.

Three minutes later the visitors found a way back into the tie. It might once have been a dream of McGinn’s to play a part in a Celtic goal, but he didn’t want it to happen like this. The stadium erupted when the Scotland midfielder was summoned from the bench just 30 minutes in to replace the injured Matty Cash. “We’ve got McGinn! Super John McGinn…” sang the Villa fans, as if to remind the visiting supporters of the ownership status of the Celtic-supporting midfielder.

It’s unsurprising that McGinn was so obviously busting a gut against a side he knows he would have augmented had things been different. However, his determination to get involved served to undo Villa. A cross from Greg Taylor might not have caused the damage it did had McGinn not got a touch in an attempt to clear. The ball popped up for Idah, who converted, as he did again three minutes later, sweeping high into the net after a neat flick from Engels released Hatate down the right.