Qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League is an astonishing achievement for a team seeded in pot 4. You need only look around Europe to see how unforgiving this tournament is. The champions of England and Europe are both out, while England’s reigning champions last year went out at the group stage (to Benfica).
Amid numerous predictions of a comfortable victory I suggested yesterday that last night’s Spartak game would be difficult. What we now know is that Celtic eliminated two very good teams from this season’s Champions League. Benfica took four points off us, by all accounts, were the better team in the Camp Nou and dominated Barcelona in the early part of their game in Lisbon. They beat Spartak at home and pinned the Russian’s back into their own box for long periods of their game in Moscow.
This is the fourth time Benfica have faced Celtic and they have been eliminated on each occasion, always by the slenderest of margins.
Spartak finally got their act together last night under new boss Valery Karpin. Reaction in Russia suggested this was their best game of the season, and that Emenike, who has seldom shown the appetite for the game, was playing for the attention of scouts. They are a good team who enjoyed 60% possession away from home in Europe, although Celtic denied them genuine chances for most of the game.
Thanks for the great support for the CQN Annual. You can order online here!
Spartak and Benfica will both believe they could have done better in the group but we got further evidence of a few football facts from this campaign:
It is more important to prevent defensive mistakes than to create chances.
The margin of difference between a well-organised team at this level and the very best in the world is slim, especially if the above point is observed.
Possession is overrated as an indicator of progress. Learn not to be stressed by it and to remain organised.
Discipline is an underrated indicator of progress.
I started Monday’s blog by saying, “Here is a prediction for you, Wednesday’s Champions League game at Celtic Park will not end with 22 players on the field”. Spartak are a good team but they had a man sent off against Celtic in Moscow when in a winning position, then kicked everything that moved last night, culminating in a red card for an assault on Kris Commons.
Indiscipline is an expensive commodity.
Neil Lennon will now have time to review the several elements of this campaign which worked well and the few which didn’t. Each tactical decision made was a risk but will have taught him things about his team. We will be well prepared for the next round.
As for Georgios, what a performance.
Epilepsy Scotland have a Celtic ball with certificate of authenticity, signed by 12 Celtic players on the day of the Barcelona game which is available for auction by email. The competition closes tomorrow (Thursday) at 20:00. To win this fantastic piece of Celtic memorabilia email your bid to trusts@epilepsyscotland.org.uk. The prize if for collection only, any postage required would need to be paid separately. All funds raised will go towards Epilepsy Scotland.
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Tom McLaughlin
We bit late catching up.Leaving all else aside, it is worth reflecting that in the 1960s, a row generated by manufactured Loyalist indignation over the flying of a tri colour on the Falls Road wasone of the catalysts for the following thirty odd years of murder and and mayhem that engulfed whaat is known as Northern Ireland
A CEILER GONOF RUST
You’re making that up,urntye?
You’re still asleep,dreaming,and sleep-posting.
Urntye?
Oh,blinkin’ flip. You’re awake,and it’s real!
Wow,that is a belter. I wish I had a boat on Loch Lomond so I could just cruise past and laugh…..
Anyone else get the free Ross C or St Mirren tickets? I’m sure the mrs will be delighted with her present.
kitalba
Four things in our armoury…
The Celtic support, heart, faith, team spirit and a fair dose skill.
Five things in our armoury…
The Celtic support, heart, faith, team spirit, a fair dose skill and a talented young manager.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
;o)
Good morning boys and girls…
breaking news!!! just lifted this headline..
“Pantone release colour forecast for 2013 and it’s emerald green all the way”
Yee ha!..
Nice one, Ollie Holt, another addition to the pantheon of Olivers so beloved by the Celtic support. :-)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/time-celtic-and-the-rest-of-the-spl-merged-1476949
Come on down! Why it’s time for Celtic, and the rest of the SPL, to play in the English league
Wednesday night in Glasgow left Mirror chief football writer Oliver Holt convinced there’s a better way for clubs on both sides of Hadrian’s Wall
Coming soon? Celtic should start playing Premier League clubs for real as soon as possible Pete Norton
They were thinking big at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.
Spartak Moscow had been vanquished, Celtic had defied the odds to reach the last 16 of the Champions League and ambitions were soaring.
As the fans streamed happily out of the magnificent stadium into the night, the punchy, staccato beat of London Calling blared over the loud speaker system.
London calling indeed.
On one level, that means the dream of making the Champions League final at Wembley on May 25.
Impossible? Well, maybe, but everyone said beating Barcelona a few weeks ago would be impossible, too, and Celtic managed that.
But on another level, London calling means something altogether more radical. Something revolutionary, in fact.
London calling means that the conversation about Celtic taking a place in the leagues south of the border is getting louder and louder.
London calling means we are reaching a point where it is becoming more and more obvious that incorporating Celtic and Rangers into the English leagues would reinvigorate the game on both sides of the border.
And it means that perhaps we need to widen our horizons, to include not just the Old Firm but ALL of the Scottish Premier League in a new five-division system in English football.
Because, at the moment, the reality is this: Celtic are a giant stranded in a moribund league.
They play in one of the best, most atmospheric football arenas in Europe, in front of gates habitually close to 50,000.
But they have no one to play. Not really.
No genuine challenger.
Not since Rangers’ implosion saw them exiled to the wastelands of Scotland’s Division Three.
So when Celtic boss Neil Lennon said in the aftermath of victory over Spartak that his club had wrought a miracle, he was right.
The problem is that miracles don’t happen often.
And if things don’t change soon, Scottish football will stop believing in them altogether.
Celtic are part of a 12-team league that earns a paltry £13million a year from its television deal.
Their fan-base still enables them to attract some leading players, but they cannot hope to compete financially with Europe’s top clubs.
Celtic’s domestic rivals, demoralised and demotivated by the dominance of the Old Firm, provide only nominal competition.
And Rangers’ disgrace has plunged a league that was already on the slide into a sharper decline.
It got to the point some time ago where it became obvious that Celtic and Rangers craved a move to the Premier League.
It was equally obvious that they faced a roadblock in the form of the self-interest of existing Premier League clubs.
Why would they admit Rangers and Celtic to the promised land when it increased the chances they would be banished from it themselves?
And when Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore expresses reservations about the idea, it is hard to blame him.
Why take the risk? The austerity-proof Premier League earns more and more television money every time Scudamore negotiates a new deal.
But there is a better way of doing it than just trying to parachute Celtic and Rangers into the Premier League.
A better way for everyone.
A more acceptable way.
A way that might negate concerns in both England and Scotland:
Keep the Premier League as it is.
In fact, keep the Championship as it is, too.
Draft the top four clubs from the SPL into League One, the next four into League Two and the next four into the newly-created League Three.
It might be seen as rather humbling for Celtic and Rangers to begin with, but my bet is that they would accept it.
And admitting all 12 SPL teams into the English divisions would ease Rangers’ and Celtic’s exit from Scottish football and their entrance into the game south of the border.
If they worked their way up to the Premier League, they would have their places there on merit.
There would be drama in their ascension and there would be cash, too. For Scottish and English football.
Let’s not pretend England’s lower leagues don’t need help.
They do, desperately.
The same day Celtic beat Spartak, League One Coventry were threatened with a winding-up order if they fail to pay overdue rent on their Ricoh Arena home.
And there are plenty more stories where they came from.
Most Football League clubs have felt the icy grasp of penury in one form or another in recent years.
The admission of Scottish clubs to the pyramid would not be a panacea but it would help.
Celtic and Rangers, in particular, would bring huge visiting support everywhere they travelled.
Their presence would increase the interest of television companies considerably and inflate the amounts they would be willing to pay.
There would, of course, be many, many obstacles to overcome and radical change like this would be unlikely to happen until 2015-16, even if formal discussions began tomorrow.
But by then, Rangers should be back in the SPL and, who knows, the Premier League may not be austerity-proof any longer.
For now, Celtic and Rangers need English football more than English football needs them.
But to be at Celtic Park on Wednesday was to know that a club that has embellished its rich European heritage this season would be a valuable asset to the English leagues.
The world is shrinking. Football economics are changing.
There have been open discussions about merging the Dutch and Belgian leagues.
Same with the Czech and Slovak divisions.
It is time to start think about embracing Celtic, Rangers and the rest of the SPL, not excluding them.
It is time to see it as the way forward.
And it is time to accept that, even though we in England have a great league, it could be even better.
Now I wonder how long it’ll take Paul67 to pass comment on this?
The huns celebrating their 140 years of existence is a bit like kids getting excited waiting for Santa.
up over goal
It is true that the Slovaks and the Czechs want to merge leagues because neither country has enjoyed good fortune in European football since the split.
I believe moves have gone ahead to try and join up the old Yugoslavian leagues for similar reasons.
The great clubs of these countries:
Sparta Praha
Slavia Praha
Dukla Praha (now back in the top league)
Slovan Bratislava
Spartak Trnava
Red Star Belgrade
Partizan Belgrade
Dynamo Zagreb
They make less and less impact in the European arena and their players are stolen for small prices by the bigger leagues.
It is the same with the Romanian league which is now in serious financial bother in the cases of a few clubs.
Regional leagues are the way forward.
ernie lynch:
Only but for the kids have innocence as a companion.
BobbyM, even I couldnt have made up that gibberish!!
It is indeed for real and our bloo nose pals across the city have surpassed our moonhowlers for sure with that eloquent entry. It’s probably a new world record in the gibberish category.
HH
Acgr
Nessie hunt on Loch Lomond… Hmmm doubt they’ll find much…
Up Over The Goal
That is a fantastic article by Oliver Holt.
I wonder if he came up with the idea himself .
If he didn’t .
Who fed him the idea?
My view is that the only thing that would stop this would be those that fear the demise of the Scotland international team ,and those that would lose their jobs within the SFA.
I believe that UEFA would sanction this if the SFA sanctioned it.
A67
Ernie Lynch
Not a good analogy.
Santa is the most successful myth on earth.
The big lie just grows n grows,the truth is an irrelevance.
(:-)
A67
Andrew 67
Don’t come up with comments like “who fed him the idea.
It will be Leggoland’s next blog about evil Peter Lawwell controlling the media in England as well as Scotland.
Are there any Philadelphia (CQN) lawyers present today?
Can you advise how many pots there will be for the last 16 draw?
I.e – Is there only 2 pots… Winners of groups (1) and runners up (2)?
If so, if you drew 2 clubs from the same association or 2 clubs that has met in the previous section , would they put 1 of them back into the pot?
Again if so, would this lead to the “warm ball” scenario the SFA like to use?
Any comments would be appreciated
Hail Hail
Oliver Holt’s article is patronising piffle, in my opinion.
Why should Celtic go and play in the third tier of another country’s league? Which of the clubs in the top four, middle four or bottom four of the SPL does he think should stand aside to allow the deid G51ers to get a shot at English mediocrity?
Kilmarnock, Arbroath, Ross COunty, St Mirren. Not the most glamorous run of fixtures – but for wins should be our aim. That will put us in a very nice position come the festive season.
And we will know who we play in the last 16 by then too.
Snake Plissken
Agree, although the crowds at Sparta and Slavia are pathetic. Sweeping generalisation, but I don’t think football is as much infused into the middle class in Czech Rep and Slovakia as it is here (although you may be able to correct me as I haven’t been there in over 10 years!).
I’m a Slavia man, myself. :-)
Andrew67
You’ll have the usual idiots on both sides of the border – Scottish fans saying ‘We’re Scottish! We hate the English, we ant no part blah de blah’ and English doing their usual routine of looking at Scotland through the wrong end of a telescope – ‘We don’t want their bigotry’ etc. etc. but hopefully more will realise it could be a brilliant way of boosting crowd numbers up here as clubs find their level while creating more passion and colour into the drab lower divisions.
*THE KING VIC 67*,
We can play any of the winners of the other seven groups, ie not Barcelona.
So one from: PSG, Schalke, Malaga, Borrusia Dortmund, Juventus, Bayern Munich or Manchester United.
ernie lynch
09:30 on
7 December, 2012
The huns celebrating their 140 years of existence is a bit like kids getting excited waiting for Santa.
And the rest of you, please stop talking about Santa or he won’t come to visit us.
There are no monsters to be seen at Loch Lomond but there are a few wallabies living there. Strange but true…apparently.
SkippyCSC
Up over goal
Football in these countries certainly isn’t infused in the middle classes.
The supports are there though if they have more interest.
There is an indoor tournament played during the winter break between the Czech and Slovak teams and it is mobbed because it is interesting to fans.
Oliver Holt wants a last 16 team in the CL to play in the English 3rd division, the words surrounded by idiots come to mind. No chance.
Euro league for me.
KTF
*THE KING VIC 67*
I posted this a bit earlier, but chances are we will get a German team…
Knowing that two clubs from the same country or from the same group can’t get drawn together, here are our chances:
PSG 12.36%
SCH 12.52%
MGA 20.14%
DOR 13.20%
JUV 14.48%
BAY 13.20%
MAN 14.11%
So it looks like I could be taking ma lager to Malaga.
PSG will have to wait till the quarters
With regards to the Oliver Holt piece. Cannot see clubs down south wanting Sevco or any of its incarnations in their leagues. Why would you subject yourself to death threats and intimidation?
Thanks Gordon for your reply,
My question is more aimed at how do they actually draw the clubs out?
I.e Could they potentially have 2 no. pots, and draw for instance Malaga (group winners) and Real Madrid ( runners up) from the same association Then drop one of them back into the pot?
sixtaeseven: armageddon ain’t a bad place to be!
Thanks good informative post as usual!
Is this Celtic Quick News?
I’m frightened to scroll back, again.
Any injury news of our HEROES who performed so magnificently on Wednesday night to propel us into the last 16 of the world’s most prestiguous competition?
And, any rumours of transfers in or out in the approaching window, now that we are EURO MILLIONAIRES?
And, as always, a pleasure to be a TIM and a Celtic supporter..
ernie lynch
The huns celebrating their 140 years of existence is a bit like kids getting excited waiting for Santa.
I think they’ll go with:
1) A stadium wide tifo, with em, let me see, two club crests, as they can’t hide their envy of the GB.
2) A 1000 howitzer gun salute to celebrate their love of jingoism over reality.
3) Charles Green’s lap of honour, sporting an orange top declaiming ‘I am t’ person!’ #straightalker
4) A dead Broxi Bear in a boat rained with a volley of flaming arrows.
5) A fan winning the crossbar challenge, then being led down to the ‘Wilton’ room to collect his ‘reward’.
So walturd insists that the widespread hatred of the the rangers is not good for Scottish Football…….think he got his grammar wrong…….should be ” BY” ……..
dontpatmadug- A BNP rally at a small town near you every 2nd weekend- don’t think the good people of Englandshire would be too keen on this.
Morning all. Beautiful day here.
Has CQN settled down? Any word on Commons or Lustig’s fitness?
By the way, I would seriously consider playing Lustig at right back and Mathews at left back in Europe, especially in games where we have to defend, which is likely to be most.
Judging by the weather forecast for next week across the country, i would be amazed if our game up at Arbroath goes ahead
If getting out from under the auspices of the SFA meant starting in the conference I’d take it and at least Holt has the good grace to include other teams too which is why I would prefer to see all leagues amalgamated including the SFL but the main problem would be having huns involved as they would only start trouble everywhere and they are the main reason why it wouldnt happen.
I remember, in my early 20’s, I was in Glasgow with my best mate, a HUN, who I’d grown up with and would trust with my life.
Celtic had lost to the HUNS that day, however, neither of us had been at the game and we were now enjoying our normal Saturday night out in Glasgow.
As we left a pub in Sauchiehall Street there was a crowd of Huns ( they were wearing hun scarves) almost in a circle kicking the life out of one individual who was on the deck .
As a decent upstanding human being, at that time I might add, I threw myself at the mob in an attempt to help the lad who was getting a serious doing.
Before I was rendered unconscious by the mob, I saw my best friend standing watching, doing nothing.
He never even visited me in hospital.
Friendship over and I’ve never trusted a hun since.
God bless Celtic and all who support her.
How to alienate yourself and piss people off – part 2 starring Charles Green and the old hun bigots.
You have got to wonder why the hordes are deserting Sevco in their biggest and probably last big match of the season, It’s the fourth tier equivalent of Celtic fans boycotting the CL. Do these fourth raters really reckon that not having a few sevconians at a cup tie will disadvantage DUFC. Hmmm..
Possibly its because Sevco have been beaten in every other big match that they have played in so far and they don’t expect anything other than what they deserve…. yet another defeat.
Hately and Gough, two well-known deep thinkers today call for sevco to be fast tracked back into the SPL because it’s all going wrong in the SPL without them. I wonder if DUFC agree that having sevco in the SPL brings benefits? Aye its murder with nae huns, so it is. Whens that CL draw again?
Ten Men
We should forfeit the tie against Arbroath any way as we would have to forfeit the final anyway as we’ll be playing in London on the day of the SC Final and won’t be able to field a team!
I see reference to Oliver Holt.l Is he not the former Times sports journalist who now plies his trade within Murdoch’s empire at the rag end? Presumably he is following his master’s orders in order to promote thon deid’s team’s follow followers watching his TV stations.