Walking out of the ground last night, my oldest son recalled Liam Scales nervy performance against St Johnstone in August. Two months later he was imperious against a World Cup winning striker. This season’s Champions League campaign is like to end in December, but a few Celtic players will surely look back on it with pride.
Luis Palma made his fourth start for the club and gave us a further insight into his talent. Denied a goal by a marginal offside against Lazio, he got his reward when the Atletico net bulged for the second time. Unlike our other wingers, his game is not about pace, he will continue to find space in dangerous areas for him and others to exploit. Reminiscent of John Robertson in his pomp.
There were two world class footballers on the field. Antoine Griezmann’s movement, touch and game-management was sublime; a joy to watch. While sharing the pitch with a player of this standard, we can judge Kyogo. To say he was outstanding is insufficient.
His goal was so simple, passing the ball into the net from 7 yards, who cannot do that? Well, no one who has played for Celtic in the last 50 years, apart from Henrik Larsson and Kenny Dalglish. Daizen Maeda, unplayable for the first half, created the chance. Matt O’Riley twice brought the attention of Atletico off Kyogo, but the goal was all about our Japanese striker.
Late in the second half I complained about yet another no-look pass from him that went astray. The truth is, he was playing on a level no one else in hoops has yet understood. How often did the arms go up in frustration as his run was not matched with an early forward ball?
Shortly before he was subbed, he controlled and moved the ball while under pressure with such skill I am doubting my memory. Just as Henrik and Kenny before him, he is improving the longer he stays at Celtic; current form is his best yet. With such a talent, his teammates should always be looking for him. The rest of us can marvel as his story unfolds.
Having been schooled in the first period, Atletico changed things at halftime and when their second equaliser came it was deserved. Celtic were pinned back and ragged. In response, Brendan Rodgers made the huge decision to change to an unused, three-at-the-back formation.
It looked a gamble at the time, but Brendan knew what he was doing. The extra bodies in midfield rebalanced the match. What a decision! This is why he is Celtic manager, instead of you or me.
We knew energy levels would be an issue, Celtic do not play enough games at this level to be fully prepared. The early injury to Reo Hatate meant that we were out of substitution instances as the game neared its conclusion. As we worried for Celtic, Atletico’s true colours flipped the flow of the game towards the home team.
Rodrigo de Paul is another World Cup winner but got himself booked for persistently harassing the referee while looking for a second penalty kick. Have some self-respect, you may think, but that is not something Argentinians in the red of Atletico are known for around these parts.
I left the game full of praise for Griezmann, but disgusted at de Paul, who picked up a second yellow for an out of control challenge on a tiring Paulo Bernardo. On the way home, my youngest asked, ‘What would you be like if you had that Simeone in your face every day of the week?”
With Griezmann on the ground after a head knock, Simeone stopped the club doctor from giving attention. Medical oversight only arrived because the referee insisted Griezmann leave the field. “That Simeone” is a malign influence and a true son of his father.
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The Europa League looks like a big drop in quality
the Huns game earlier was really poor, Brighton and Ajax is two teams who are well short of CL standard. Brighton are really struggling this season with what we’ve had to contend with forever
Ajax are a shadow of what they were. 4 years ago in a CL semi now a team full of guys who can’t pass to each other
Brighton 1-0.
The Guardian newspaper does a CL podcast. The ‘team’ bumped their gums about all the games. When it came to Celtic the best they could offer was something along the lines of, ‘Celtic always look as if they’re going to win this time’. There endeth the lesson. The rest of the discussion centred on the question: ‘Is Greizemann one of France’s all-time top three footballers?’
It’s trivial I know. But it’s still annoying.
i had the tv on early today,
what struck me was all of a sudden there are poppies everywhere, all the presenters, most of the guests.
is it co-ordinated, mandated, does a memo go out ?
it is 2 weeks till rememberance sunday, why do i feel the poppy wearers are getting earlier and earlier ?
i have to say it is a pet hate of mines, when the shops overlap festival events, have more than one celebration day tat on sale,
halloween should be done before they start selling fireworks for the burning catholics festivals.
you sell the fireworks early and some wee bassas will be letting them off,
happened last night in my street, bang bang bang,
frightened my dog terribly, he ran under the christmas tree and wouldnt come back out.
RC on 26TH OCTOBER 2023 6:41 PM
don’t know who scouted thems goalie but he is their best player.
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I got slated on here by someone when I said he was their best signing and on a free was great business. Can’t mind who it was, but they were claiming he was injury prone and couldn’t get a fame for his last couple of teams.
He was an England keeper not too long ago, and that means he has proven ability.
Wish he was sh7te, but unfortunately he’s not. Glad the rest of them are pish though. 😂👍
aberdeen 2 up and playing well
come on the co-efficient.
SAINT STIVS on 26TH OCTOBER 2023 9:15 PM
aberdeen 2 up and playing well
come on the co-efficient
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Mon the Dons.
Want every Scottish team to do well in Europe other than Hearts and Sevco. Hate them both equally.
same. petty i know but ……..
SAINT STIVS on 26TH OCTOBER 2023 9:24 PM
same. petty i know but ……
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Nothing petty about it! 😂😂👍
Pleased for Barry Robson as well.
Hope they hang on for the win. Massive result, considering PAOK have already beaten both Helsinki and Leverkusen in their first 2 games.
Aberdeen 2-1 now. Gulp!
Hope they don’t fold.
2-2
Reading sky sports news ‘Celtics wait for CL win goes on’ while ‘Rangers earn hard fought draw’
Penalty PAOK in last minute!
2-3!
Sky Sports News are no friend of ours, I’m pleased to say,
Dons folded; sadly.
*SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2023-24*
*RESULTS FROM GAME #13 – CELTIC 2 ATLETICO MADRID 2 (KYOGO, PALMA)*
Good evening, friends.
I was a bit later getting into the stadium last night and climbing the concourse stairs with YNWA already being sung was a bit strange. Ascending the final few stairs revealed an incredible sight though – the scarves over the heads, the disco searchlights zooming round, and Palestinian flags everywhere I looked. I felt so proud of our supporters at that point.
I was very nervous at kick off but absolutely ecstatic 3 minutes later as the ole European O’Riley/Kyogo combo worked again. And with Celtic Park bouncing throughout that first half, we just got better and better with Atletico failing to find any real rhythm. Then, as is often our downfall in Europe, we help the opponents to score, this time conceding a fairly soft penalty allowing Griezman to score following Joe Hart’s save from his spot kick. But we simply restarted and played our own game and were rewarded when Palma hit a pinpoint piledriver in off the far post. A half time lead and therefore a half time pie – European Nights are special!
I wasn’t surprised that we couldn’t quite maintain our energy levels in the second half and by the 70 minute mark with Atletico having already equalised we really seemed dead on our feet. However, we continued to have plenty of possession in their half but just couldn’t create that many chances.
A 2-2 draw was a result that many of us would have taken pre-match. But just like the 2 previous games in our Group we were left with the feeling that it could have been even better. However, with a point on the board ‘The Granny’ is off!
We have now played 13 games, winning 8, drawing 2 and losing 3 with 26 goals scored and 13 conceded.
And so to the voting. I’ve personally loved this game’s emails as it is the first time that I can remember that my own 3 picks have ended up as the Top 3. With more than 20 others picking the same 3.
A huge thank you to the 74 who voted this week. The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Hart: 3
Johnston: 0
Carter-Vickers: 9
Scales*: 63
Taylor: 0
McGregor: 14
Hatate: 0
O’Riley*: 63
Maeda*: 47
Kyogo: 11
Palma: 12
Bernardo: 0
Phillips: 0
Forrest: 0
And so, the players receiving POINTS for the game against Atletico are –
O’Riley and Scales – 5 points
Maeda – 3 points
McGregor – 2 points
Palma – 1 point
The overall positions after 13 games played are –
43 points – O’Riley
31 points – Scales
19 points – Kyogo
16 points – McGregor and Maeda
11 points – Johnston
9 points – Nawrocki
7 points – Hart and Yang
6 points – Carter-Vickers, Lagerbielke, Palma and Taylor
5 points – Hatate
4 points – Bain and Turnbull
2 points – Ralston
0 points – Abada, Bernabei, Bernardo, Forrest, Haksabanovic, Holm, Iwata, Oh, Phillips, Starfelt and Welsh
Back to league business on Saturday when we visit Hibs. It’s a 3pm kick off but is not being shown live on TV. For anyone who is lucky enough to catch the game, please, please vote and encourage anyone else to do the same. ’Mon the Firesticks 😉
Hail Hail!
SAINT STIVS
Agree 100%.
Sick of these cretins letting off fireworks in the street. It’s only October fur fox ache. Too early. Scaring the shit out of our dog. He’s spent the last hour hiding under the Christmas tree.
MNCELT on 26TH OCTOBER 2023 9:50 PM
Reading sky sports news ‘Celtics wait for CL win goes on’ while ‘Rangers earn hard fought draw’
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To be fair, they’ve probably copied and pasted it from BBC Scotland. 😳🤷🏼♂️😡💩
hibs lawyers ob the case suing aberdeen for breach of copyright,
ok, night,
be good.
” He’s spent the last hour hiding under the Christmas tree.” StStivs.
Loved it !
PS How the Moderator could demean your posts is beyond me. pressure of work ( for the Mod, I mean !)
`night all..
The upper tier of Liverpool’s Anfield Road Stand will remain closed for the rest of the calendar year, the Premier League club announced on Thursday.
The club are conducting an £80m upgrade to lift capacity by 7,000 to 61,000.
Liverpool changed contractors to Rayner Rowen Group last month after Buckingham Group went into administration.
Club chief executive Billy Hogan said it was “not possible at this point to put a new timeline in place” for completion of the expansion project.
It had initially been hoped the work would be finished by the start of this season.
Liverpool have taken the decision to keep that area of the stand closed until 2024 to allow fans clarity and the new contractors time to gather all the information they need to complete a revised project schedule.
“On a project of this size, information on all the aspects of the work is critical to move forward,” said Hogan.
“And what’s become clear in the last few days is there’s just more work to be done in order to get a full project completion plan for the stand, which means unfortunately as I said that the upper tier is not ready to partially or fully open until the end of the calendar year.”
Only the lower tier of the Anfield Road Stand has been occupied by supporters this season, with the ground’s capacity reduced to 50,000.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/5B68/production/_131400432_gettyimages-1610635367.jpg
Aberdeen blew it.
Aberdeen were also cheated.
Ridiculous VAR not giving them a blatant penalty when 2-1 up with 10 to go.
Then the softest of all penalties given by an Austrian ref for an Austrian striker to score.
God knows who was var but my god they influenced that game wrongly tonight.
I would be raging if I were a dons fan.
Thumbs up Jobo!
HH
Gerry
PHILBHOY on 26TH OCTOBER 2023 9:54 PM
2-3!
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Kin el!
Just saw that on the BBC page.
Fans must be gutted.
The same var guy Alan Kijas from Austria has a history of getting decisions wrong.
How do these guys get the jobs ?
Interesting to see a couple of Palestine flags in amongst the Greek fans.
I wonder if that will attract any comment ?
Watched the whole game again.
If you didn’t see TNT coverage watch it
The blessedmartin and neilfrances.
Brilliant insights.
Neil calls Martin the gaffer.
For the body language studiers neil is on best behavior but also Martin is encouraging him all the time.
Then Brendan’s interview. Superb.
Here we go again.
Celtic greats. Each and everyone of them.
Burnley78 – agree that was tough on Aberdeen.
Felt sorry for them.
Parallels with us albeit two competitions down.
Can’t catch a break.
They’ve turned up every game … and have one point to show for it.
Ps.
Taylors pass to maeda.
Shortie……………Hmmm.
Thur take on THAT Boy-In-Bloo…………………….!
Horrible.
Scoddland’s Shame.
Next.
If you are looking for a podcast can I recommend
Brian mcclair
Life with Brian.
I listened to several this week while off work and decorating.
A dozen references at least to Fergie being in steins company asa young player and in awe but always learning.
Next overtime a loathing of the ibrox culture.
Next.
Henry winter and fergies admiration for Michael Collins and James Connolly.
And finally.
Wayne Rooney encyclopedia knowledge of general McCarthy because Fergie told him to read the book and often asked him questions during a match dressing room interaction to make points to the other players.
Vote for Kyogo’s goal
I said with 20 minutes to go .
I just want a draw .
1 point is more than the Huns achieved as the worst ever performers in the CL .
I know that it is a low bar , but it is the level that we find ourselves in CL football.
Having achieved that .
In retrospect we gained that point against a team that is in the top 10 teams of the CL.
Every player gave their all .
Last night opened the door to self belief.
A door that Liam Scales strode through a month ago.
A door that Kyogo glided through last night ,having realised it’s potential against Lazio .
IF Brendan is the man manager that I think he is .
He will build on the small confidences that our team have realised over the last two CL matches .
We can grow into winners in this CL campaign .
An increase in self belief is what is required.
We earned that opportunity last night .
Let’s fight until we have given our very last .
We shall overcome.
TT
Very unfortunate for Aberdeen.
However not every referee decision is based on cheating.
HH.
Still on a high from Wednesday.
Seems like a through back to the Fortress Parkhead days.
To all and sundry we have shown that we belong. I can give no greater praise than that.
HH, the journey continues.
Good morning all from a delightfull Garngad, dark, cold and damp right enough and 9degrees.
Bring on the Edinburgh huns.
D :)
Oops that was last week, ffs I am pished already its Hibs. DOH.
D :)