Celtic have enough in the tank

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The most important aspect about team plan for tonight will be the balancing act between aggression and discipline.  Celtic need to get in about Legia without losing discipline.  Legia roped us in perfectly last week.  A buoyant home crowd fed off meaty challenges but when the red mist rose, they adopted choir boy looks.  We didn’t.

Celtic need to disorientate Legia in a similar way; get physical, expect the same back, but remain in control of events.  Efe Ambrose’ red card was critical to the outcome of the game in Warsaw, let’s work on their less-controlled players to see if we can tempt them into a similar fate.

An early goal would be nice but it it’s not necessary.  90 minutes is a long time to defend a lead and we should remember how last year Shakhter Karagandy kept things tight for 44 minutes before losing 3-0.  If we can’t get an early goal it’s just as important to get Legia chasing the ball and making tackles.

Legia’s first half game plan will be to keep it tight frustrate the crowd.  If there’s little penetration in the opening period we need to stick with the players, give them encouragement whenever possible – this works.

Beside our normal game plan there are a couple of objectives we should be looking for:

Get into the box.  Despite having limited possession, Legia did this perfectly last week.  If you’re in the box you force defenders into committing to challenges they would rather not.  Make getting into the box a territorial objective and we’ll get a penalty.  Or two.

Shoot often.  Both our goals away from home in Europe this season have come from deflections, from limited opportunities.

Legia will tire late in the game.  Teams always do when they have to traverse the Continent before a game.  Teams also tire when the opposition have the bulk of possession and move the ball, and therefore opponents, around quickly.  Keep the ball moving, bring on four fresh legs with 20 minutes to go and exploit this natural advantage.

Play it clever, and we’ll have enough in the tank.

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  1. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    anyone in town just now?

     

    got a meeting at 1.30 but could sneak a couple of beers…

  2. MWD, eddieinkirkmichael & An Tearman

     

     

    I saw you guys react to the latest Antifa post during the night.

     

     

    Antifa was spotted as a “false flag” poster fairly early on in his career. I suspect TSD created him but, whereas TSD does a passable imitation of Kojo/Molly Weir posting, he seems to not be too bothered to keep the tone and spelling of Antifa consistent. I was amazed that he kept up with such an unconvincing false flag but, given the standards being produced on CQN these days, leading to the departure of decent men like JImbo67, it gets harder to spot the obvious imposters from our own genuine eejits.

     

     

    Anyway, Antifa has joined TSD and Chris Torey in achieving levels of offensiveness that I never thought would be tolerated on here.

     

     

    Shame that.

  3. whinhallkev

     

     

    Apologies it was luck. I posted on the last article and it came up just as Paul67 had put up highlighting the new one!

  4. traditionalist88 on

    Paul67

     

     

    Glad you are an adovcate of the shoot on sight policy.

     

     

    Only certain players mind! But we wouldn’t have got through vs Karagandy if Commons hadn’t had a pop from 30yds and found the net.

     

     

    Overpassing and overthinking things will play into their hands.

     

     

    Shoot on sight and things will happen, deflections,corners,GOALS – we will make our own luck and we will go through.

     

     

    HH

  5. It’s Fantasy football time.

     

    According to the Herald, Ronny is going to lay down the law to PL and DD concerning next year’s pre season friendly schedule. Dream on Deila.

  6. A few years back I hit black ice and end up somersaulting the car into a field. Car was totalled. My two wee ones in the back.

     

     

    Crawled out the upturned without a scratch on any of us.

     

     

    Put it down to the Grace of God and my red boxers which then took on the status of my lucky pants!

     

     

    You’ll all be pleased to hear that I am today wearing different, but equally lucky, red pants.

     

     

    So if we get through tonight you all owe me a pint. ;-)

     

     

    Memo to PL. CL qualification shouldnae depend on ma undies!

     

     

    HH jamesgang

  7. On train from Peterborough to Edinburgh and coach is full of Legia fans. They’re pretty tanked up already! Interesting evening ahead

  8. prestonpans bhoys.

     

     

    I’m meeting up with kikinthenakas at 3.30pm,I picked that bar because it’s not so far to walk from the Station,it could end up a bit of a pub crawl,as both of us aren’t that good at walking far,

     

     

    Quiet bars in Edinburgh are at a premium at this time of year,we’re heading for York Square to catch the tram a few stop offs on the way.

  9. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists

     

    11:50 on

     

    6 August, 2014

     

    Without pointing fingers at who is to blame, I am making a rare political post on the day of the game.

     

     

    This is what is happening without even seeking our consent.

     

     

    Police Scotland

     

     

    Along with a single police force, this willhave been the brainchild of the self serving Stephen House.

  10. It’s time to dust off the depression of last week.

     

    Get the brain in positive mode.

     

    Gargle the old throat

     

    Iron the Hoops.

     

    Head for auld reekie

     

    And cheer on the hoops ……

     

    It makes sense to me.

     

    HH

  11. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Tom

     

     

    some of the grey brigade where in platform5 that afternoon/evening, top of the stairs at the right hand side…

  12. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on

    JamesGang

     

     

    What that tells me is that you should get the train to the game fella and don’t risk driving!

  13. I am making my first live match this season at Murrayfield tonight.

     

     

    Like most Celts I will travel with a feeling in my head that ultimate aggregate victory is improbable but with a growing sense of optimism as kick-off approaches. If we are 0:0 or, better still, 1:0, after 15-20 minutes, I will have a totally irrational belief in our ultimate triumph and that will last, as long as Legia do not score.

     

     

    I expect to see a more coherent and accomplished Celtic tonight, regardless of whether Charlie is CB, MF or on the bench. We are good enough to win. The question is whether we are good enough to win by enough.

     

     

    I will be thinking of an absent friend tonight. I know he would have been supporting Celtic, if he had the chance.

  14. Tom McLaughlin

     

    11:52 on

     

    6 August, 2014

     

    quonno –

     

     

    So Ronnie Deila says he is going to stand up to the plc and you mock him?

     

     

    I think that he is living in fantasy land if he thinks he can lay down the law to PL and DD.

     

     

    If NL could not do it, RD won’t be able too.

  15. Got a feeling that tonight will be a night for the Mineshafters. Don’t see us having the footballing acumen to deliver a 3-0 win, perhaps a 2-1 or a 3-2. We lack quality and discipline – that much we know already – tonight we’ll see if we also lack bottle and passion or if RD is capable of firing them up and putting a team out ready to give it their all.

  16. Starry – what I am saying is that there will be no big revolution. It is incredibly difficult to remove a board unless there is a clear financial threat to the club. What we have here is deliberate mismanagement, Thats not enough to take people to the car park.

     

     

    What will happen is a long and slow painful decline, with supporters losing heart and simply giving up on the club because those that run it are effectively abusing them.

     

     

    It will take a few more years but the club is in an awful decline for no good reason.

     

     

     

    HT – naw he was reading between the lines at CP. Hasnt it been heartening to see PL stand side by side with Ronny (whats that – oh he hasnt!)

  17. BRTH

     

     

    Car’s safely left behind in dunblane!

     

     

    Reckon I could either do 1 beer from every CQNer. Or 2 hours drinking with BMCUW.

     

     

    Probably equates to much the same!

     

     

    ;-)

     

     

    HH jamesgang

  18. From the previouse article……………an informative read……….

     

     

    http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/27/stories-from-the-battlefield-hamas-tunnels-used-to-target-israels-kindergartens/#!

     

     

     

    Stories From The Battlefield: Hamas Tunnels Used To Target Israel’s Kindergartens

     

    9:16 AM 07/27/20144

     

    By Mordechai Ben-Menachem

     

    Multiple media outlets report that Hamas’s offensive tunnel network – now known to have been composed of over forty attack tunnels dug underneath Israel’s border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – was set to be activated during the Jewish High Holidays (September 24th) as a mass terror attack.

     

    The attack was meant to generate as many as ten thousand casualties, men, women and particularly children and hundreds of captives. Explosives were particularly placed underneath kindergartens to make certain that these “institutions” would be the first struck, even before any thing else.

     

    The IDF recently published the below map showing that tunnels were created in pairs, to empty out on both sides of nearby communities. The known cost of the infrastructure – each tunnel costs upward of some $1 million – clearly shows that Hamas was planning a coordinated mega-attack. It must be understood that use of even one tunnel would inevitably trigger Israeli retaliation against the entire network.

  19. Good article, our best hope will be reducing them to 10 men. Could well understand the frustration of the celtic players in the last game, felt like going after a few of their players myself such were their antics. However , big hearts and minds needed of we are to have any chance. C’mon the hoops

  20. Legia will tire late in the game. Teams always do when they have to traverse the Continent before a game.

     

     

    Err Paul – its what an hour and a half flight?

  21. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists

     

    11:50 on

     

    6 August, 2014

     

     

    While it first started happening in 2008, under Salmond’s initial period as First Minister, it was when SNP were in minority. So we can only assume it wasn’t heavily opposed.

     

     

    Does the Assembly even have a say?