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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experiment
success
myboysnowatim if I use a service I’ll post a review.
Otherwise what use is the the internet?
On that particluar site there was some woman who had posted glowing reviews of everything form chippies to Morrisons to herbal remedy shops in Inverness.
Max Clifford arrested as part of Operation Yewtree
myboysnowatim
12:49 on
6 December, 2012
********************
Great post, are you Edward :¬)
Jude
You need glasses?
Paul,
Indiscipline cannot be over emphasised particularly for us as a team that plays weekly in a league that seems to be refereed like no other in Europe.
Perhaps things are improving already, but until our administrators and referees consistently referee the modern game in the modern fashion we will always be susceptible to unintentional breaches of discipline. The Barca game proved we are capable of real determined, concentration. The lack of lunging tackles or tackles from behind were crucial to the result. But we need to be encouraged.
Similarly, it would help other teams in Scotland challenging in Europe and it would significantly help the national side if refereeing was as it ought to be for the modern game.
For the next few seasons referees should feel no real pressure, so there should be no need to turn a blind eye to the tackle from behind, elbows, shoves in the box, etc. There’s a real chance here for the game in this country to move on.
For what its worth 2 of my best mates down here are Rangers/Chelsea fans, one scottish, who I have great banter with including all the non pc nicknames for each other and who is one of the first people I would turn to in a crisis, the English one is an old fashioned racist fascist with more chips on his shoulder than a tattie howker, but God love him, somebody has to try and put him on the straight and narrow
I have no problem with Hun fans, its the ones who believe the hype that are the real problem, and thankfully they are a dying breed down south
Celebration of Georgios’s nimble footwork
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeNsr_nQEfE
Just a wee anecdote about Spartak: I watched the Spartak V Celts game in St Petersburg in a bar. The TV coverage showed a banner from the home supporters: ‘No Surrender’. Cue my partner asking me what this phrase meant! Subsequently the Russian commentators shared a very long conversation about deadco’s situation and politics! Ah well! At least the locals did not object to my ecstatic cheers when the Celts scored!
May I also thank Zenit for taking the Belgium wonder midfielder from Benfica! How that helped us.
Financially sober Celtic routed the financially drunken and drugged Benfica, Spartak and Barca. Happy days!
Vmhan,
Afraid not mate, he was way to confident, funny and smart to be me.
All joking aside, this place was better with the presence of him. Christ we could get stuck right into him and he just took it without resorting to personal attacks.
myboysnowatim it is not necessarily the case that all ntassoolla reviews are mine.
When I posted on the DR some disgruntled shysters set up under my moniker elsewhere. another site I posted on inadvertently showed email addresses after a change so I’d to eliminate that address.
I posted quite a few reviews on lovefilm because I found the reviews by other people very helpful.
Chris Commons is going to be on Talksport in about 5 minutes.
Yewtree??
Gogol! Yes, Gogol! Bulgakov! Pushkin… Oh what wonders you produce but… Oh, Turgenev! Put down your pen. Tolstoy: can you hear us? We are in Glasgow… Shalamov you surreal man, what happened? Oh yes… Ivan Bunin, you maestro of story, please listen to us? Oh yessssssssss!
Fyodor Dostoevsky, you are the greatest but one must say your boys did indeed take one hell of a beating yet again from Celtic!
Ntassoolla,
You dont have to explain anything to me mate.
BTW you (or an imposter) left their name on one of them.
J J
Why?
As for Georgios, what a performance.
I got the impression last night he was playing for the jersey and that says a lot for the man.
Salute.
Kris on Talksport now
Jude
You said :
“Dont see John Clark abt the dug out of late emdae know why?”
I replied:
“You need glasses?”
An obviously failed attempts at humour!
JJ
Up Over Goal
Gary Hooper’s goal last night was a tremendous strike and as good as anything you are likely to see in Europe.
Kim Chelstrem: “Celtic” deservedly went into the playoffs, ”
Midfielder “Spartacus” Kim Chelstrem after defeat in a match of the 6th round of the group stage of the Champions League with the “Celtic” (1:2) expressed satisfaction with the game team in attack. According to him, the experience was good for red and white, despite the setback.
– We played pretty well and created enough chances to score – leads the official site of UEFA word Chelstrema. – Given the recent setbacks, we have to find the right balance. Unfortunately, we were not lucky in the episode when the “Celtic” scored the first goal. We really tried hard, but the result will still get a failure, and it will not add to our confidence in myself. It is necessary to work on the mistakes and learn lessons for the future. Certainly any party eighth finals deserves that he was in the playoffs. I have to mention the fans, “Celtic”, and when the owners of all get started, stands began to behave even louder. In general, for us it was a good experience, except for a bad result.
Translated from Roosky!
What an achievement.
Given where we’ve come – Lenny having to build a whole new team from scratch over last 2 years – and our massive financial disadvantage versus our CL opponents….What An Achievement.
Forget ITV comments on bye-bye Celtic and other pundits, the vast majority of OUR support did not believe we would qualify from this group.
To qualify into the CL itself was a massive achievement, and the actual group games were viewed by most of us as a bonus – “We’re having a party in the Champions League” celebrated the fact that we were actually there and that it didn’t really matter how well we did, especially given the group we found ourselves in.
To put things in perspective, my most nervous moments of our entire season to date was the away leg in Helsinki. The risk was not participating in Europe at all and we were defending a precarious 2-1 lead after conceding the vital away goal. No chance to even qualify for the Europa League if we lost out….another Artmedia…..this would be Mecca for the Armageddon predictors……
I watched that game in the grand company of CQN legends Thomthethim & SFTB and a blast-from-the-past CQN legend, Noel90 as well as a few others in a fine Gweedore pub – Sean Og’s – in Donegal. The Celts were solid, Sammi started on his Euro scoring spree, the Guinness flowed, songs were sung, and our worst nightmare was avoided.
I maybe should know better after watching the Celts for 40+ years but I would never have believed before that game that we would go onto beat Barca (are we the only team to date that has beaten them in a competitive game this season? Think their Real defeat was in a Charity-Shield type game…) and qualify in a group that also included Benfica (conquerors of Man Utd last year) and Spartak (with all their millions & millions of roubles).
Anyway – this is the team that Lenny built so well done to the wee man from Lurgan, who has achieved all this – in tandem with coping with physical attacks, bombs & bullets in the post, and demonisation from the MSM.
I did not want Neil Lennon as Celtic manager after the Mowbray fiasco, but by God, I am thankful we got him. And I hope he is there for years to come – sign him up now please Peter & Dermot…on the money he deserves – he has passed the test.
On the subject of Neil Francis Lennon, I got home from the game last night and watched my recording of Champion League Goals on Sky. On the panel with the consummate-professional Jeff Stelling (I always think he likes the Celts) was Jamie Redknapp, Ray Wilkins & Celtic-Hater Graeme Souness. Redknapp was waxing lyrical about our qualifying achievement. Stelling then asked Souness about it – and in particular about how well Neil Lennon had done.
Souness could not bring himself to even mention Lennon’s name far less give him direct praise….through gritted teeth he managed to pass indirect praise in that “Rangers & Celtic” play smaller teams in Scotland every week who treat the game against them as a Cup Final and that it is not easy to move from that standard of football to the Champions League.
This guy – with no history of being an Oldco supporter, he was an Edinburgh Jambo – is a fine example of the Oldco Rangers Hate Machine. After 4 years there, he has forever since despised Celtic, reflected in a variety of comments over the years. I remember a spat he had on Sky with WGS who was Celtic manager at the time over zonal marking. Whatever you think of it’s merit’s (statistics will always prove it’s success if properly deployed) I was struck by the vitriol in his demeanour with Strachan…he was sitting next to him but could not bring himself to LOOK at him as he was speaking.
Anyway I can never look at him now without thinking of the Men Against Boys night at Blackburn – a tremendous night.
Back to last night and The Now.
Thank you Neil my bhoy – you have given us more than just The Thunder back.
You are creating memories for us.
These are special times bhoys – enjoy them.
tully
Ive been calling for Mc Gowan to be signed for months. Glad Im getting support now!!
It is interesting how many posters are praising Sammi so highly for last night`s performance.
For me, Sammi was occasionally brilliant last night ; no change.
Sammi was occasionally less than brilliant last night; no change.
Sammi worked extremely hard most of the time last night;no change.
Sammi won nearly every ball in the air last night; no change.
Sammi strolled back on the odd occasion last night; no change.
Sammi used to be greatly maligned, now Sammi is roundly praised. Big change. Why?
JJ
Refrained from posting last night as certain posters were spouting nonsense decided to wait until the cold light of day … but feelings remain the same
Ed is a gentleman and a scholar that I and many others have had the pleasure of meeting and Paul67 is correct he is a very welcome addition to CQN, the others I will scroll on by!
Delighted to be in the last 16 would love to get Madrid but will settle for Man U as then I could go with my bhoys!
J J
I got it but I havnt saw Luggy in the last few games. Last saw him at Tannadice.
jude2005 – Same question was asked a couple of weeks ago I believe he is recovering from an operation
.
auldheid
13:34 on
6 December, 2012
As for Georgios, what a performance.
I got the impression last night he was playing for the jersey and that says a lot for the man.
Salute.
Auldheid..
Was that Tongue in Cheek..I think Sammi has Played for the Celtic Jersey since He took a Pay cut to Stay permanent ..
The Difference IMO now.. Is he is Also playing for the Man.. NFL..Did You see Lenny Whisper in his Ear at the End..
That is One small Part of Big Jock the I believe Lenny Already has..
Summa
minx1888
Glasses aff then J J?? <:o)
minx1888
Ta.
Really good result last night-and good to see players sticking with it for the duration.
Agree with Pauls observation re application and discipline, however possesion by good players most usually results in goals-so this area is always a concern for fans when playing at this level.
Did I read somewhere that Efe wished to play in midfield as a preference?-The number of times he appeared to be bullied out of possesion by Emenike was a definite concern ,however maybe he was helping a mate look good for prospective employers who knows? The overall result and collective performance was great however.
Am now (for a long time lurker) beginning to feel rather exposed on the forum -not being used with this altitude!-however could I add my concern to that already expressed over some reactions to Edward Ursus’s recent post. I have enjoyed many of Edwards comments in the past-and would like to continue to do so-more power to your pen Edward.
Final comment is to the latest edition of the CQN annual which we recently took delivery of-excellent work Paul.
All the best to the good ship CQN, and all who sail, read or lurk in her! HH-SL.
tully57
13:41 on 6 December, 2012
Souness is conceited and egotistical.
The reason he hates us so much is because we threaten his sense of his own achievement and involvement with the huns.
It’s not because he cares about the huns, it’s because he cares about, to the point of obsession, himself.
.
JungleJim..
Re; Sammi..
Peeps have Started to.. Do the Math..
Summa
tully57, 13:41
A fine post sir
Some fummy stuff on Russian websites today when google translate is being employed!
Both players scored “Celtic” scored after technical errors defenders of “Spartacus.” In the first case Insaurralde could not take the ball flying him exactly at the feet, resulting in a Scottish striker Gary Hooper went one on one with Pesyakov sets and “shoot” the goalkeeper to open the scoring. A second – Marek Suchy bought into feint Samaras in his own penalty area and the striker put the bandwagon, which led to the appointment of the 11-meter strike.
Читайте далее: http://izvestia.ru/news/541023#ixzz2EHPbZAxG
tully57
There was never any other than Neil for me. He’s Celtic thru and threw and through!!!!
Just noticed my Twitter account has been suspended. Anyone else Ever have this problem or how do you solve this?
SffS