Celtic and Benfica fought out a tight, chess-like, game in their opening Champions League group stage encounter. Celtic had the best of the opening 15 minutes as Benfica seemed to spooked by the occasion. Kris Commons, in particular, made good on his pre-match promise to make the most of his Champions League stage, but once Benfica settled action inside the penalty boxes was limited.
Emilio Izaguirre picked up an early booking, the result of poor positioning and a mistimed tackle, and thereafter was subject to continual pressing from Benfica as they sought-out a weak point. He was replaced after 65 minutes; part of a change of formation which benefited Celtic.
Neither team had a chance worthy of the name but both had good claims for a penalty. Rodrigo raced after an immaculately times forward ball and collided with the impregnable Fraser Forster. The Italian referee waved play on. Five minutes from time James Forrest at last got space to exploit inside the box but Garay caught him mid-flight. Forrest fell, to no avail.
Kelvin Wilson gave his best performance in a Celtic shirt alongside his initial central defensive partner, Mikael Lustig, then alongside Thomas Rogne, when Lustig retired injured shortly after the hour. As Benfica pressed Wilson and Charlie Mulgrew always tried to hold the ball and make a pass. Benfica were strong on the wings and Adam Matthews returned to his best defensive duties to counter.
Victor Wanyama, who also collected an early booking, struggled with concentration throughout the game but Scott Brown put in a tireless shift alongside him.
The change in formation after 65 minutes, when Gary Hooper replaced Izaguirre, improved Celtic enormously. Hooper used his strength effectively to lead the line, whereas Miku looked a forlorn figure until then. The 4-4-2 Celtic now deployed also gave Forrest space to exploit for the first time.
Wilson and Brown both played very well but Kris Commons was easily man of the match. There seemed no part of the field he was not prepared and able to launch an attempt at goal from. Late in the first half, when Benfica were enjoying their best spell, Commons twice in quick succession used his remarkable understanding of the game by successfully tempting an opponent to foul him. Pressure was released and Celtic gained a territorial advance.
Celtic never looked to be in any real danger of losing a goal and the vocal crowd believed a glimpse of daylight inside the Benfica box could deliver all three points but the opportunity never arrived.
Support a Scottish World Champion Boxer: Ricky Burns
On Saturday 22nd September, lifelong Celtic fan Ricky Burns is defending Scotland’s honour against England’s Kevin Mitchell in an unmissable World Championship boxing clash!
Burns puts his WBO World Lightweight Championship on the line, in a fight billed as the Battle of Britain. You can bag yourself the best seat in the house with BoxNationTV (Sky 437, Virgin 546).
Get the CQN discount now!
Celtic Quick News proudly presents to you a special deal for our faithful readers. You can sign up for BoxNation for just £10 a month with no registration fee (which usually costs £10) if you’re a Sky TV subscriber. And there’s no minimum contract, so if you decide you don’t want to keep the channel, you can cancel your subscription with no penalty fees after this huge world title clash.
To get behind a Scottish World Champion as he battles it out in the ring, subscribe to BoxNation now and enter the promo code GOALBOXING (all block capitals) to take advantage of this special offer.
275 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- »
MWD
The police where all back in London Road station whilst we where still in the car park..
Then new road did very little to ease congestion..
lights every 100yards don’t help…
Morning all!
A goal-less draw at CP in a European game? Almost unheard of!
A bit disappointed with the result – but 1 point is better than none from a side with 10 CL debutants.
Forrest and Izzy were quite poor, and Kelvin still gives me the jitters – but the rest, imo, acqitted themselves ok. Felt Tony Watt should have come on instead of Hooper who also looked overweight.
Fantastic atmosphere as usual – 53,000 crowd?! Rubbish! Even watching it on TV I could not see any empty seats.
Decent start to the campaign but we missed Sammi, especially. With the return of Ledley , Kayal, Dylan and the introduction of Efe we should, and will, be stronger. Next match in Moscow is vital – must not lose.
HH!!
the prince of goalkeepers
That’s brilliant
I think the front 2 rows are left empty in order for the CL adverts..
only other empty seats in north stand for corperate/sponsors by the looks of it..
blantyretim
08:07 on
20 September, 2012
I’ve noticed that also recently …….. The Police are not assisting with traffic flow as long after the game as they used to ……….. Not good, since getting onto the motorway can be a nightmare……… With the players missing last night, I was pleased with our performance …….
Decent performance.
With Sammi in the team we would have won. Thought Brown was tremendous, as was Charlie.
Izzy needs help though – his confidence appears to be shot.
Morning CQNer’s
murdochbhoy
08:04 on 20 September, 2012
______________________________________________
Well said m8.
Get Murdo into the dug-out to bring his – German discipline
knowledge to those who are lacking in this know-how
of – how NOT to give the ball away. imo
It makes sense you know – CSC
Tallybhoy
Official attendance according to UEFA was 57,759.
The only obvious empty spaces was a section of the North Stand.
67heaven … i am neil lennon..!!.. ibroxbelon gs to the creditors
The police made the decision a long time ago to just let the traffic lights control traffic coming away from Celtic park – its a lot cheaper for them not having to direct traffic at every main junction around parkhead – takes longer and causes congestion but who cares its only football fans
67 heaven
I didn’t blame PL for it,
I need to take my medication.. o))
kayal33
Can I ask where you got that stat – I need to point someone in the direction of it to prove it
Sorry ghuys 4 question. Who is that bill leckie? i read his report in today sun – absolutely disgrace. We played benfica not QotS. Didnt he realized that they almost eliminated chelskie last year? Also interesting how benfica coach assessed forrest in aftermatch interview.
Lyruc
Unpaid Leave!!! What is that?
BT
Surely you are walking distance from Celtic Park!
MWD
MWD
I would be quicker walking…
Yes – the referee was excellent. He was correct about all the yellow cards, got both penalty claims correct, ignored diving from them and a couple of times from Izzy. Indeed watching with replays on telly he was usually right when my first reaction was wrong.
We wont get another like that.
Forgot to say in my previous post that I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Rizzoli, the Italian ref.
He does have a reputation over here as being card-happy – but I thought he was very fair and refereed the match excellently.
What are the chances of getting someone like that for the next 5 games?
HH!!
Anybody else wonder what was happening on the big screens at half time. We were supposed to get highlights of the first half on the big screen – all that was shown was the Benfica penalty claim against FF – over and over again from 3 different angles. I gave up counting when it was shown for the 8th time. What was that all about – it wisnae a penalty…..end of story !
I was a bit disappointed last night with our tactics.
I fully understand that its a young side and for many a first taste of European football but as a consequence of having no creative attacking midfielders ( do we have any?) we created very little in the way of chances.
Plenty of effort and a lot of possesion football albeit very square followed by a long punt upfield but little else to be honest. We need someone who can provide a defence-splitting pass in the last third of the park.
Clearly Forrest and Hooper can do no wrong in the manager’s eyes…which is a pity.
Thought the ref and the support were excellent.
Why would anyone buy or even read the Sun or for that matter the Daily Record?
All things considered a decent performance last night with Broonie, Mathews and Wanyama the stand outs for me. Ironically I thought Forrest did his best work winning back posession.
Maqnaging expectations, not too bad against a quality European side. Who was the co- commenator on Sky. I know I shouldn’t but I get so angry at these people talking down the hoops.
HH
Murdochbhoy @8.04
Ponderous? I thought that our players flew about everywhere.
Lacking in pace? Matthews? Izzy? Forrest?
Hmmmm…..
JJ
skyisalandfill –
Wiz it no Davie Provan?
Ulcyr
JWE108
08:37 on 20 September, 2012
_____________________________________
If you don’t mind me asking…..what highlights ?
SK-Bhoy
Serves you right for reading the Sun.
JJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlMI1laLOkQ&feature=BFa&list=HL1348127026
Celtic fans give the Liverpool 96 some passionate support last night
BT
I walked down to Bridgeton rail station after the game and caught the 10.03 to Rutherglen. The next stop was Blantyre- would that not suit you better on these Euro nights
Thanks Curly. Loved him as a player but like many ex Celts seems to have an agenda against us now.
HH
SFTB
I think I will do that in future…
I have the rail ticket, I had my dads car keys last nights so couldn’t go and leave the old yin himself..
SFTB
BT walking are you aff yer nut
Love
Browm, Mulgrew excellent, and very pleased to with young Mathews performance as i was worried about him.
Izzy and Forrest poor……wee James toils when up against a full back with pace.
Re Commons, far from motm in my opinion, 1 cruyff turn n delivery in 64th minute, yes he wins free kicks but hes so slow its painful at times. Miku isolated with no support at all, defensively very sound but lack of creativity n chances was very disappointing.
Big Vic has great potential, needs to learn to move the ball quickly, two three touches when 1 will do.
Sami for Commons and Ledley for Izzy with chaz mulgrew at lb would make a huge difference.
HH
Soal
yip…..
I have not read back so here is my take on last night.
We were absolutely superb.
Victor and Skoosh were out of this world last night. Fantastic
Once we get Kayal and Joe back our midfield is looking awesome.
Whole club was fabulous last night . Well done.
Extremely proud walking in to work today. Visiting a few loud mouth offices and ramming it right back down their throats. Winding them up like only I can that maybe we are favourites for the group now after Barca being so lucky last night
:-)))
I have to be honest and say that I was pure sh**ing it with our centre back pairing. The bhoys there done magnificent last night. Are they solution ? Honestly I am still not convinced.
We Izzy needs to get his game together. I am convinced it is psychological.
Well done bhoys …. pwoud today vewy pwoud
OK away to read back
Hail Hail
Thanks Summa didn’t realise we could watch on line. It was a very frustrating morning not being able to watch the BHOYS. I noticed the Sparta game is on earlier than all the others in a couple of weeks time so hopefully we might see it live before we have to watch all the big boys and English teams!
Hail Hail
Greetings from Vilnius, Bhoys & Ghirls. Not sure how I feel about last night’s result. Being optimistic, our away form ironically may be better now that it has been for yonks, so really still all to play for. To other matters…. I hear the Yorkshire Pudding has hired Kate Middletons lawyers … he wants the media to stop photographing his diddies. Boom, boom.
DBB
FTB
Sammi for Commons? Shurely shum mishtake……Commons is our most creative player and our most likely to score non-striker.
I do agree, though, that Sammi is a must for all CL games ,all Home SPL games and quite a few away games as well……and also, of course, for some LC games, SC games , Glasgow Cup, friendlies, Ramsd…sorry, getting carried away a bit there.
JJ
blantyretim
08:15 on 20 September, 2012
LOL …….!!
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
Morning all
My take on last night is pretty much in line with the consensus here.
Big hooray for Broony and Vic. Much less of a hooray for Izzy and Jamesy. Varying degrees of hooray for everyone else. Happy with the result.
Pleased with result last night, ole Sieve looked solid, especially in the middle.
Scott Brown was very good; Benfica looked competent and never in trouble. We really missed the #9 Enigma to ruffle the Eagles feathers.
I’d have taken James Forrest off and brought on Tony Watt for the last 30 minutes.