Celtic will face Israelis Hapoel Beer-Sheva in the Champions League playoff round later this month, with the first leg due to take place at Celtic Park.
Hapoel, carrying a Uefa coefficient of 4, eliminated Olympiakos, coefficient: 70, in the last round – a bigger shock than Dundalk’s win over BATE. They put on two backs-to-the-wall performances, drawing the first leg in Greece 0-0 before winning the return 1-0. In the earlier round they shot the Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova, winning 3-2 in Israel before securing another 0-0 away.
The positives: the Israeli league hasn’t started yet, so Hapoel will be no further into their season’s preparations than Celtic. It also looks like the play on grass.
In recent seasons Celtic have found new and innovative ways to bow out at this stage but we know what’s required and will be strong favourites to progress.
Bring it on.
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Happy to report the weemhans hospital visit could not have gone better,docs were delighted
with the fantastic work the surgeon did in resetting his arm last week that there is no need for a further operation to pin it.
He says to say HI to the blog :)))))))
Lefty
Good stuff bud.
Send my regards to your bhoy:)
A huge Hail Hail.
HH
We have many ` supporters ` who would be well advised to read ( and learn from) this:
““At this level, it is a very young team. They are gaining experience and with talent, you have to have time. You have to encourage and be supportive and if they make mistakes, well, they make mistakes.”
Brendan Rogers
So much better than an earlier post already whinging that if we can`t beat Beer-Sheeva then we don`t deserve to be in the CL.
JJ
CelticChampsElect
Be boring if we all agreed about everything.
Obviously….if we want to do anything in the CL, we must sign some quality.
Cant see anything wrong with supporters wanting better players in the team.
Thats what supporters do…isnt it?
HH
The constant negativity and moaning from the village idiot is tiresome and boring of course we want better players but you wait until they are signed the board have Celtics best interest at heart IMO and clowns like neganon will not change my views
“We have basically the same squad as last year who were not good enough to qualify, or win a single game in EL”
Maradominic,
Spot on.
Apart from Ajer, Roberts, Sviatchenko, Dembele, Toure and a new manager we’re in the same shape as last year.
TAURANGABHOY on 5TH AUGUST 2016 1:26 PM
You write re the GB
“I will be personally disappointed when they go anti Semitic but it will happen anyway,”
I have no linkto GB and do not want them to create problems for Celtic by breaching the Uefa rules re political demos at matches. However to suggest the GB are likely to be anti-semitic is incorrect. Supporting the Palestinian cause shows you oppose the current state of Israel it is nothing at all to do with anti-semitism
Definition from wikipedia
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-Semitism or anti-semitism) is hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite.
Lefty
Many thanks for good wishes yesterday. Hope the wee mhan still milking/minting arm for all its worth.
Dena
Great to see you on and hopefully cach up with you and B on 17th.
Would have taken that draw in a heartbeat. Celtic should fear no one but there were tougher ties in there.
Bheaver
Hope you and the family well skin.
ClearwaterbeachCsc
Dena
Hugs tae you and the princess XXX
Remember Bhoys for some it doesn’t matter what Celtic do:)))
The agenda is more important than the club…
UTLR
Are those supporters who say we don’t need to sign anyone ok that their opinion is diametrically opposite to Brendan Rodgers?
The gauntlet has been laid down. Rodgers has stated he wants 4 players. That’s not even with the mention of qualification for the European league stages.
Those players may cost money in wages if we start to pay them now rather than after the 31st of August. However, they would enhance our chances of qualification rather than decrease them as long as the quality coming in is better than what you have.
I read Barcabhoy in Twitter yesterday state that the policy should remain the same that is the right players at the right prices. I agree with that as long as it is indeed the right players.
Armstrong was a throw of a dice worth it for £1.7m considering the progress made by other players like Robertson from Dundee United. However, it shouldn’t be the case that we then play him out of position for 2 years and expect him to progress. I’m not prepared to say that Armstrong isn’t good enough for Celtic but he like others needs help. The side is crying out for experience. Toure made an incredible difference when he came on. (Albeit for the back 3 being caught out by a long ball straight after he came on). I’m for Another Toure coming in with some experience who wants to win things and help the young lads.
We have relied too long on signing players strictly under 23 with potential. Bought them in high volume and as a result they get less game time than if they were used as squad players who would develop as subs, back up for injured players or the occasions where the manager wants to rotate the squad.
For the umpteenth year in a row we go into the most important games of our season with a manager staying he needs players… Two have been signed with one scoring a 90th minute penalty to earn the club a guaranteed 10 million Euro with a chance to triple that. Who says making signings doesn’t make a difference?
We may have a squad that is good enough to beat Be’er Sheeva. We may not?
However, where the manager of Celtic states he needs 4 players I would trust his judgement. I would certainly be more comfortable playing a side who, ‘ park the bus’, with a quick wide player like Sinclair or a midfielder who can take the ball with his back to goal and a defender and make something of it. I’d also like to have a goalkeeper who didn’t come flapping like a starfish at crosses. (Never a good idea to change your keeper at this crucial stage but long term Gordon will be replaced)
I understand folks loyalty to players but some of the current first team staters are just not ready.
Start of the season,lads and lasses.
Fans of diddy teams the world over are dreaming of glory. Living in Swindon,Working from Oxford,I can assure you it is true.
Few if any will ever achieve what we can this season,none can emulate our past.
We are heading in to two very important games over the next 19 days. They will make or break so many things.
Our season,our irrational hope,our trust in our custodians.
For starters.
Let’s see how it goes. We are where we are,and it seems that the squad we have is likely to be the one we will use against our next opposition.
I’ll put my faith in them. I won’t hold them to account for failure.
Celtic have a history of not building from strength,after all.
Timaloy29
“Sevco have signed a lot of players. Maybe you should support them. Or some moneybags English team.
If that’s all you care about.”
What a fantastically childlike response.
Champs league. Village idiot, clown? Any more? It is seriously funny how hunlike some of the responses are on this site. The only thing missing is the swearing.
For anyone to defend the boards continued parsimony is beyond me. We scraped past Astana and still nothing. No urgency. Nothing.
But still I am the village idiot or a clown. Or I must want to support the Huns cos I point out our lack of activity.
Ah tolerance eh? Wonder where that went.
Died like open mindedness.
Intolerant, closed minded, name calling, defending the indefensible.
Now who does that remind me of?
B2K
This is not a time for politics,mate. The idea of it will be known.
It will only damage Celtic. It will not advance the cause of the Palestinians.
It is not the time,bud.
Anti zionism is not antisemitism.
Thats why you have many many jewish people including Rabbi’s who despair at the behaviour of the Zionist Apartheid state.
Thats why you have many Jewish groups set against Zionism.
Anti zionism is not antisemitism.
CLOGHERCELT
Hope to be in the smallest county again in early autumn and walk the old bealach from Bealach Tra to Termonfeichim. Will give you a shout when I have finalised plans. Will be good to meet up. Slan agus beannacht
Was discussing the GB yesterday and giving them deserved praise. But had to agree that some of those who mentor them bring their particular brand of left wing politics into Celtic Park, too often, and too often resulting in our Club being punished for their selfishness. Hope they behave themselves when we play the Israeli team.
Personally, we shouldn’t rush our transfer business for the play-off. We should be going with the squad we have.
I’ve long said that we should be leaving the new signings on the bench and focusing on the guys who have been here before and have good chemistry.
Starting 11; Gordon, Lustig, Sviatchenko, O’Connell, Tierney, Forrest, Brown, Biton, Roberts, Johansen, Griffiths
Bench: Fasan, Toure, Rogic, Dembele, McGregor, Janko, Armstrong/Sinclair
till later all the weemhan says HI and thank you for the kind wishes, he is awwwww wasted that he is being mentioned in dispatches :))))))))))))))))))))),
ps he loves pressing the post comment button.
Neganon,
CQN articles are proclaiming that we will spend like the MON years.
Good source says Sinclair on the way.
You can’t really criticise CQN for being an organ for the PLC then not take up the good news when it is foretold.
I’m waiting to see what happens.
NEGANON2 on 5TH AUGUST 2016 1:54 PM
says
What a fantastically childlike response.
Followed by …..
Ah tolerance eh? Wonder where that went.
===========================================
Physician. Heal thyself.
“We scraped past Astana and still nothing. No urgency. Nothing.”
Is it permissible to point out that little more than 36 hours have passed since the Astana match? A working day. Quite what do you expect to have seen in the way of activity in such a short period of time?
Perhaps cool the beans a little, relax, enjoy the weekend, there’s a match on Sunday after all, and let’s see what the coming week brings.
MULLET
NEG
PL,or TPL,as he is usually referred to in my company,has once again hung a manager out to dry.
It is almost four months since the semi-final debacle-and if we are to believe that RD had announced his intention to leave-a lot longer that our fabled CEO has had to stop the rot,spend some money,do what his highly-rated new manager has asked him to do.
And which I’m sure he was promised in the first place.
For all those people who come on here and say that it isn’t that easy to sign players,well,why the **** are we paying the guy a million pound a year?
He has a job to do,he doesn’t do it. He then tells people whom he has hamstrung that they have not done theirs?!
Ffs,this seriously cannot continue.
NegAnon2 on 5th August 2016 1:54 pm
You invest millions in a football player to develop the squad for the long-term. You don’t invest millions in a player to win a game in two weeks time.
Is investment required? Sure it always is.
Is it required to get through the play-off round? No. We should prepare to qualify with our existing squad. We shouldn’t bet our future on an unpredictable transfer market.
In fact, shoe-horning new players into the team is often counter-productive in both the short and medium term. It could cost you the tie and it can damage confidence.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 5TH AUGUST 2016 2:04 PM
Feelgood fraying.
Why is the Board gopher to blame for precisely what ?
Manana.
MACJAY
He is the Chief Executive. He is responsible for everything that happens. Not a role that he should be near,having a record of failure in the past.
As such,he is responsible for succession planning,and that the bedrock is laid to ease that. Based perhaps on past experience of failure in the same situation,it shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid the same mistakes being made.
Which they are.
He is,after all,a highly paid and apparently highly rated Chief Executive. Though Sunderland thought Martin Bain was better.
The BB
Perhaps cool the beans a little, relax, enjoy the weekend, there’s a match on Sunday after all, and let’s see what the coming week brings.
I am afraid neganon cannot relax and enjoy life he despises fun he despises Celtic he is not allowed in to any pub during happy hours as he has been asked to leave so many times when the happy hour started IMO he is a clown and will always bea clown on here
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 5th August 2016 2:14 pm
Lawwell didn’t apply for the Sunderland role
He’s happy at Celtic and wants to stay. He grew up a Celtic fan and his family are based up here. Why would he pack it in for Sunderland?
Secondly, Lawwell negotiates the transfer deals but he doesn’t sack managers. He doesn’t hire them either.
He really has become the boogyman at Celtic. Anything that has went wrong is attributed to him.
CELTICCHAMPSELECT
In life,if you’re a pessimist,you are rarely disappointed.
Sadly,NEGANON is rarely wrong.
Think about it.
Celtic champs elect
Neganon speaks from the heart.
He cares about the direction of our club and feels the board sell us down the river , as do I .
No need to call him a clown just because he has a differing view from you.
We all want the same thing, just disagree on how to get there
HH
Celtic v Hapoel Be-er Sheva :
as a current resident of Beirut (Lebanon), I don’t envisage that I’ll be attempting the cross-border sojourn to the country immediately to the South of here – otherwise, I might never make it back!
However, as a regular 5-a-side player in this part of the region, I can confirm that the weather is going to be scorchio in August, and even at around 6-8 pm in the evening it’s difficult to breathe easily while exercising.
Despite this, I still believe we got a decent draw today.
Hail-Hail,
fleagle1888
This Glasgow Celtic and thisnt just any football club
Looking forward to the season apart from Zombies but there best ignored
Big Jock…………….. our support have won games for us
C/L is were i want Celtic to be
http://www.celticfc.tv/tv/video/vod/3702#top
Ignore the failures of history lest we repeat them…
Again and Again and Again and Again.
Neganon, mate I am with you, I am underwhelmed by what I have seen so far, but take hope mate, take hope, CQN has told us we are going to emulate the Martin O’Neill years… bold prediction from CQN…
I don’t want us to jeopardise our long term stability but I do want to see evidence of ambition. I want the club to profess unequivocally profess that ambition and follow it up with respectable signings, not to read hopes – communicated at the expense of a cheap fall guy – via the pages of CQN and those who dare wear their hearts and their trust on their sleeves.
Neganon wants what we all do… a good, hard working, intelligent, accountable, football team and club.
What is so wrong with that?
Bathsheba…..daughter of the oath…..DBBIA….will fill you iin…..;-))
FTSFA
H.H.
For the linguistically challenged, I would like to offer UEFA instead of the oft repeated, erroneous EUFA.
HurtsmyeyessoitdoesCSC
Thawt EUFA…..was the French spelling….;-))
FTSFA
H.H.
Hapoel games on Wednesday 17th and Tuesday 23rd August. No kick-off times announced as yet.
Bobby,
regards the orphanage, we tried to connect to the mains sewerage, it just isn’t possible.
I was bad for a couple of months, really bad, and I didn’t neglect the orphanage, I just wasn’t able to do anything about it.
If all those good Tims are still willing to help the kids who don’t have anything, not even hope less than food and a toilet seat to crap into, please send me an e-mail and I’ll contact all the good guys who are willing to help. I know that charity takes a huge toll on here that is why I am reticent to blatantly make the plight of the orphanage a CQN subscribers issue.
In the interim raw sewerage is flowing into the play area and near on 50 kids queue in the morning to use one toilet. The orphanage is in a village adjacent to the international airport, they can’t go into the fields… there are no fields.