Be clear, Bayern Munich are lucky to still be in the Champions League. While they had most of the ball last night, Celtic controlled the game. The visitors determined the pattern of play, the pace of the game, where it would be played and the nature of chances each team would create.
That control came within 15 seconds of securing a win on the night and was enough to raise the reputation of Celtic to a level not seen in a decade. Celtic created enough excellent chances to win the tie outright. Bayern progressed as Celtic tired late on, which resulted in them dropping ever-deeper.
There are so many chasms to bridge for Celtic in Europe, but it was only the energy gap which differentiated them from one of Europe’s elite sides. The difference between playing against pedestrian opponents 40 times a season, then being plunged into an Olympic sprint in Europe, remains a challenge.
Brendan Rodgers’ decision to open with Jota and Nicolas Kuhn on the wings setup the treat that was to follow. Jota was inspired. His close control and sheer artistry was unmatched by anyone on the pitch. After an early chance beat the keeper but was clear off the line, Kuhn’s took a while to recover, but when he did, he sat Mauel Neuer on his bum and rolled the ball into the net for the opening goal.
That followed great work by Adam Idah and Daizen Maeda, both of whom were second favourites in their challenges. A winning attitude throughout the Celtic team was evident throughout. The foul on Daizen Maeda in the lead up to the Bayern goal was a mistake by VAR. Had it not been a possible red card, I think it may have been given.
Alistair Johnston was authoritative all night. The Bayern coaches must have thought, ‘Where did they find this guy?’ [More on that at a later date] Jeffrey Schlupp was a big call at left back. The player did not particularly impress me against Raith Rovers 10 days ago. He has made the most of that time to settle into Celtic as he was as imperious as were the rest of his defensive colleagues last night. I even tought Alan Shearer put in a good shift; it was that kind of night.
What is the biggest gap between two towns in Germany? Dortmund to Munich. The growth Celtic have achieved since the game against Borussia is exceptional. We are a proper Champions League side and can look forward with some confidence.
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If the Huns are being taken over by an American consortium then the budget cuts will be eye watering. The days of director loans will be over.
majestic hartson
Got it – 3
Thanks
Can I hear the Madrid fans singing are you United in disguise?
A hatrick for Mbappe now – if RM keeps going they can emulate the 4 goals I saw the leather belts put past them in Chapel Hill, NC.
I hope the Citeeeh supporter FUD that crashed a huge, full trash can over when leaving is watching this game.
What a knob over a pre-season friendly.
Got hoople in 2
Burnley78 on 19th February 2025 1:13 pm
Brendan Rodgers continually talks up Yang. He really seems to regard him highly.
———-
As a few of us discussed last week, BR was more restrained when discussing Yang’s alleged brilliance….
Yes he has said he done well but is still developing and adjusting to a new country and environment.
He also said there are ones in front of him (incl a 33yr old James Forrest)
Clearly BR and crew see some glimmers of hope in Yang but he also seems to freeze and not know where to be amid phases of play. Wish it was different as he seems funny and popular in squad. So was Palma; and he’s off.
Note to BADA video; I was amused that the stadium soundtrack was The Black Crowes rendition of the old R7B hit ‘Hard To Handle’ ;)) Certainly didnae look like it !
Here’s a link to suggested new/updated transport links for the Glasgow area.
If anyone with a bit of time and (and not on a mobile) can see if it mentions anything about the Celtic Park area 👍🏻
https://www.gobike.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SPT-Clyde-Metro_Non-Technical-Summary_Final-Version-1.pdf
Have thems paid back all that Covid loan money they borrowed
49ers link eh :-)))
https://x.com/cartujakds/status/1892317974758834425?s=46
HH
More chance of”The In Betweeners” buying in.
Horseshit.
Will they change their name to the Glasgow 2012’ers?
B2B- Lamont stuck us into UEFA a couple of years ago, re a banner, but strangely is deaf ar Ibrox?
!!Bada Bing!! on 19th February 2025 11:02 pm
He can’t be deaf . If he was deaf he couldn’t sing in time with the Billy boys .
It’s all a big ruse…
We’re in line for 38 million
They are reporting a 49ers takeover
The hun only see their number is bigger than ours…
Job done .
😂😜
Interesting
https://x.com/CelticBlog2018/status/1892164921770508436
Not sure what James Forrest thinks of Kieran Maguire.
Can’t quite cut through the ambivalence and equivocation.
Celtic were very good yesterday, nothing but pride after that showing. Time to get head down and charge ahead in the league. The team is coming along nicely but as usually i expect we will lose a couple of starters and fringe players in the summer, which should generate a good sum of money to replace them (my money is on hatate and khun). We already have kt signed up to replace taylor but expect we will need a min of 3/4 players of quality to go with kt. A big but not impossible and should be the goal.
Celtic have invested heavily in lennoxtown and barrowfield training centres (infustructure). Good long term investments that are all but complete now and will serve the club for years to come.
I hope celtic now turn attention to the stadium, the area around the stadium and push ahead with the plans for hotel, restaurant and museum, indoor fans barn/ zone, perhaps add sports bar and more corporate seats in the jock stain end as well etc. Would take several years to complete that amount of infustructure work but it would be transformational and would help club to stay the correct side of FSR. Even if they don’t want/ think a hotel is viable the other stuff is simply what you would expect to find if visiting a large european football clubs stadium.
How come I missed that Skids frontman and auteur Richard Jobson was such a Celtic man?
A v enjoyable Theo Delaney podcast to listen to, where Jobson shows his colours – football and political.
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/life-goals-with-theo-delaney-richard-jobson-part-1–47522464
Does not matter who is running sevco, they are dependent on european football for a massive chunk of money each season so need to comply with FSR. This looks like current shareholders are sick of pumping in their own money and want out.
No investers can afford to go against FSR as it puts european football at risk. The investors are accordimg to reports good at business and will add professionalism, structure and are heavily reliant on football analytics when it comes to player recruitment. In english the investors are compenent business men who operate in a professional manner and use player anayltics when it comes to player rectuitment i.e. like every other medium and large football club.
They need to get away from their obsession with billionaire investors pumping millions upon millions into the team to overthrow us. That’s not what billionaire do, if they don’t believe me asked any celtic supporter we have a few billionaires and on our board.
HH
Good Morning Fholks – Grand Day To Be A Tim.
The Dawning, After The Morning, After The The Night Before…
Fantastic game over Munich, Celtic F C did themselves proud, it brought the curtain down on a Fantastic UCL campaign, one we can really build on.
Got to say what a great show Amazon Prime put on – “turned over” from the Juve, Feyenoord game at 18:30, at the start of the coverage and expected to be pottering about for until the game started.
But, was glued to the screen… MO’N, Lenny, top presenters, commentators, even Shearer as Co-commentator was excellent.
Clarence Seedorf as usual showing his knowledge and class…
KoK talking about his great career, admitting he was very good:)))
Yes four hours of great viewing.
“There are so many chasms to bridge for Celtic in Europe, but it was only the energy gap which differentiated them from one of Europe’s elite sides. The difference between playing against pedestrian opponents 40 times a season, then being plunged into an Olympic sprint in Europe, remains a challenge.”
Well, maybe more accurate to say, there were so many chasms to bridge, some real, some imagined.
It has been getting on for 20 months of chasm spanning at Celtic.
Some of those bridges already built, are on solid foundations, some are temporary and tentative, some chasms are yet to be navigated.
Interesting to look at our results…
Played 10, Won 3, Draws 4, Lost 3…
Four of those nine teams played are in the last sixteen, the three losses coming from teams in the last sixteen, putting to bed the lie we got an easy draw.
If you also add to that, we got two more of this season’s last sixteen, in the previous, transitional campaign; Athletico and Feyenoord.
We had a win and a draw at Parkhead against those teams.
In fact, if you put together our record at Celtic Park during the last two UCL campaigns we see.
Played 8, Won 4, Drew 2, Lost 2.
One of the main foundations of the UCL bridge network, is fortress Celtic Park, it is fair to say, we have re-built that.
Another foundation on the UCL bridge network is the squad, this is where some of the mythical chasms came from…
– We have a strict recruitment model that must be adhered to that gives us financal stability, move away from the “strategy” and we will be financially unsound
– Celtic can’t compete in Europe and spending extra money on recruitment is not going to markedly improve the results
– Good players won’t come to Scotland.
All myths, no need to bridge those chasms as they never truly existed outside a defeatest mind-set.
A more sensible and pragmatic approach to our recruitment strategy, at all times keeping to the Celtic PLC model, has allowed us to traverse this mind block.
“The difference between playing against pedestrian opponents 40 times a season, then being plunged into an Olympic sprint in Europe, remains a challenge.”
This is an interesting one, two strategies we have clearly followed this season that have allowed us to bridge this gap, is the squad rotation, by using the recruitment to bolster each position, we constantly and consistently rotated the squad and still competed in all competitions.
The other aspect, which again draws the doff of a hat, at the manager and staff, is their performance indicators for the team and individual players during matches, where we are “expected” to win easily.
We got a good insight into this in the recent Raith Rovers game.
The game plan at Celtic Park was not just to win – the team and players were given aims and objectives way over and above a straight forward win.
It meant that a “second string” team were asked to perform at a very high level and intensity over the 90+ minutes.
It meant, that a number of players got a starting opportunity, or an opportunity to play a different role and had high performance indicators to meet.
The standard of play was excellent throughout and we won the game 5-0 not taking our foot off the gas…
The clear expectation now, is for every Celtic team taking to the field, must compete to the highest level, to the highest intensity throughout the match.
A smart way of bringing that gap…
Of course, with the Glasgow derbies, cup semi-finals and finals, as well as the European matches, we have getting towards twenty very high level matches each season, that is a considerable amount of games.
Of course “the energy gap”.!?
That is a challenge to be bridged – the most key aspect that will make our next seasons campaign even better.
Quite simply, the physicality at the necessary level of intensity waxed and waned this season – whether that it is away at Zargreb where we never seemed to reach the levels we showed against RB Leipzig, or in Munich, where the quality and quantity of talent on the bench was a huge chasm between the teams.
Yet a good early transfer window in the summer and the continued development of the squad will certainly help bridge the energy gap… and it needs to be done.
So well done Celtic Glasgow – very back on the European map.
Yet until the summer we will be concentrating on domestic bliss now…
…starting with The Hibees on Saturday
Hail Hail
Good morning CQN.
Two days gone. Two days to go.
Bring on the Hibs.
Chairbhoy @ 5:20am – enjoyed your post.
Last bit in particular.
Athlete’s energy levels is a topic close to my heart.
Evidence of player burn out at the very top level is there.
I believe smart recruitment and intelligent rotation of talented players (2000 to 4000 minutes per season model) would give us an edge … especially in seasons after a world cup.
PS – has Darwin been on the blog recently?
https://celtsarehere.com/celtics-shrewd-move-pays-off-as-rivals-face-hmrc-scrutiny/
Good article by M.Ross
Bizarre situation.
Good governance is boring as he’ll but absolutely necessary.
We’re fortunate as a club that we have a relative luxury financially.
No smugness intended but, if you’re skint?
Hustles from snake oil salesman will routinely appeal to you.
One dollar for pound land. About the same price for ragers 12ers
I think Brendan still has a goal to reach. Last 16 in the new format. All about the treble now then back at it again. Hail Hail.
i also think brendan will have a goal of reaching the last 16 in the new format.
when you think about it, under the old format we would have measured success as reaching the last 16 as we did on a few occassions, and if we didnt manage that then at least get 3rd in the group and drop into the europa league would have been the minimun non-failure scenario.
this year we didnt reach the last 16 or drop into the europa league, and paid about 100 quid each for 2 extra games for the privilege! so you could argue whether it was a successful campaign or not if you just look at those facts, but when you also consider some of our performances i think most will consider it progress.
as for the new format, i like the idea of not having a fixed group of 4 who play each other home and away, but ive no doubt the main driver for uefa was simply to have more clubs involved in more rounds prior to the last 16 to screw more cash out of tv companies and fans, as happened to us – i.e. 2 more home games and still only last 24
What Chairbhoy said ☝️
Interesting article
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/feb/20/record-crowds-record-transfers-irish-football-reaches-a-watershed-moment
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL @ 8:52 AM,
Cheers, yes, the the Athletes energy level is an crucial and important part of any professional sports approach.
The science now is excellent, though I no little about it, outside my hobbyist approach, so would be interested in your take.
Interestingly, Brendan (no analytics or data) Rodgers, has been talking alot about player’s “numbers”.
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE @ 9:28 AM,
Good points, but I think we need to careful comparing the old format and the new.
POV: Getting in the top 17-24 can be seen as getting an old school UCL third place, however that is far from the case.
Any perusal of the final placings will tell you that quality, established UCL teams were all about us.
Twelve teams dropped out of the UCL at the league stage – Celtic, by rights, should have been one of them.
Coming just outside the top twenty in goal difference and being above play-off qualifiers Sporting, Man City, Club Brugge, was no means feat.
We did it comfortably and some have mistakenly taken that as easily – yet Man City, Juve, AC Milan, Bayern et al will tell you this new format is not a walk in the park.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 9:58 AM,
Cheers…
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy………….I thought Amazon were a goods delivery company, do we really need another sports channell ? costing the sports fan more money.
Sky,TNT, Sports Extra
forgot to add Premier Sports 1 and 2
new article posted.