Celtic progress with worthy win

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Reo Hatate endured a torrid start to the month but what a return to form he enjoyed last night.  In earlier seasons, Reo’s energy levels dipped late in games, but against Young Boys he covered every blade of grass.  After Daizen Maeda’s dismissal, it was Reo who marshalled the left wing, throwing himself at the ball to squeeze the life out of the Swiss attack.

Space and time on the ball is a premium at this level, but players with elite ability can manufacture both.  Reo’s first touch, combined with intelligent use of his body, allowed him to repeatedly settle Celtic into possession.

He did this deliciously with five minutes remaining, before carving open the Young Boys defence with a pass into the path of Adam Idah for the goal.  The goal itself was a lucky break, but you often make your luck.  Reo made ours last night, without his skill, the Young Boys defence would have not have been stressed.

You will wait 20 years before seeing another hattrick of disallowed goals (I have a vague memory of Tommy Johnson being incorrectly penalised like this against Kilmarnock).  Kyogo’s three goals were all correctly disallowed, but seemed an indication that the opener would soon come.

Greg Taylor’s cardio capacity almost came to the rescue, when he hit the byline inside the box and crossed, while being dragged to the ground by the neck.  Arne Engels’ attempt from the penalty spot was poor.  If you stagger your run as Arne did, you are in trouble if the keeper is not already on his way down.  The resultant shot had no momentum from the run-up, allowing the keeper time to read it.

Keller in the Young Boys goal had an outstanding game, although there was a ‘saveable’ element to each of his seven shots stopped.  His final act of heroism, getting a foot out to stop Adam Idah, became a short pass to the onrushing defender Benito, who could do nothing but bundle the ball into his own net.  The cheers at Celtic Park were loud, matched only by the sound of television channels being changed in unison across large parts of the country.

Unlike the first, the second half lacked chances (we will come onto this in a moment).  Maeda came close early in the period, while Kasper Schmeichel made a tremendous double save to stop Young Boys taking the lead.

The late goal should have seen Celtic close the game out comfortably.  Instead, Maeda’s temperament led him to retaliate.  The red card which followed will cost us one of our truly Champions League-class players in Birmingham next week.

Young Boys halted Celtic’s relentless first half procession at the start of the second period when they figured out they needed to deny Callum McGregor space.  Callum was imperious in the first half.  The key to Celtic’s play is finding angles to make simple forward passed into.  Callum was able to make and (more importantly) receive these passes, which repeatedly triggered an attack.

Modern football increasingly resembles a chess board.  Everyone who can receive a pass is covered, to progress the ball, you need motion and an understanding of how to create an angle where the recipient can move into to receive a pass.

Celtic did this terribly at Ibrox this month and were vastly better last night.  Remember also how often Taylor and Johnston passed the ball along the line into empty space, knowing it would be met by a Celtic jersey.  Our success as a football team is all about how we move the ball forward.  I don’t think we are the finished article, but you can see what the coaches have been working on since 3 January.

Young Boys remain rooted to the bottom of the table and are ninth in the Swiss league but still managed to give us a proper game last night.  This demonstrates the gap between most of our domestic opponents and even the Swiss league.  It is difficult to live week-to-week in one environment and then step up to a vastly higher level.

We will have at least 10 Champions League games this season and five against Newco; each match a genuine test.  Other games are of little developmental value.

An interesting aside: five clubs are currently on 12 points, each of them a past winner: Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Celtic.

Congratulations to Celtic on progressing to the next stage.

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325 Comments

  1. Wow that must be an absolute sickener for der Hun filth. Hopefully Scotland’s shame don’t start their rioting.

     

    On a positive note no Man Utd players or staff were hit with any missiles. Surely the SFA can follow Man Utd lead and put der Hun scum in cages?

  2. bigrailroadblues on

    I may celebrate…..can’t remember what I’m celebrating though. 🤔

     

    Oh aye Celtic 2 hun 1 Scottish Cup replay 1971.

     

    Macari, Hood.

  3. Just seen the hun goal Dessers pushed mcguire under the ball enough to allow him to miss it, shocking that was given, VAR disallowed a goal for Man Utd for much less.

  4. “NOTTACLUE1 on 23RD JANUARY 2025 10:14 PM

     

    But what about the coefficient ????”

     

     

     

    The coefficient thing always makes me wonder if I am missing something. The claim is that it helps Scottish teams. I have seen very little evidence of just quite how it helps them. Anyway, the only one I am interested in `helping` play in green and whie hoops.

     

     

    PS To be fair, there are some Scottish teams I would be happy to see do well in Europe. Locally, for instance, I quite like Dundee United.

     

     

    Cheerio for now.

  5. Am I the only one not overly excited by the return of jota ? Hardly kicked a ball for over 2 years

     

    Can’t get it at all !!!

  6. garygillespieshamstring on

    Not quite as good as them losing to a last minute own goal but an own goal and a last minute winner for Utd will do nicely.😁

  7. glendalystonsils on

    There will be a lot of huns stuck in Manchester tonight . Not just to do with the weather though, ………. it’s because the cells will be full .

  8. bigrailroadblues on

    Glendalystonsils 10.37

     

    There’s a few hun in our hotel getting the pish ripped right oota thum. Be rude not to join in.😂😂

  9. Vinnie,

     

    Well,maybe not the only one.Kris Boyd is on your team.

     

    Jota signing is a masterstroke.

  10. Not sure how much you’re allowed to push a defender in back before it’s a foul, but Dessers shoved that lumpen oaf Maguire. That said, Dessers took the opportunity well, and Igamane continues to show he has something (in addition to Morelos like girth).

     

     

    Re Jota return; I’m excited but as said earlier, not at 10mill.

     

     

    If that figure is true we kinda swapped Kyogo for Jota, which gives us a younger tho out-of-form wide player for an older player with a very sharp instinct.

     

     

    I’m sure its part pf Brendan’s plan; and in that, I must have faith.

  11. glendalystonsils on

    BIGRAILROADBLUES on 23RD JANUARY 2025 10:45 PM

     

     

    Hiv they not suffered enough ! -))))))

  12. Jobos man of match

     

     

    *SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2024-25*

     

    *RESULTS FROM GAME #35 CELTIC 1 YOUNG BOYS 0 (Benito (o.g.))*

     

     

    Good evening, friends.

     

    An extraordinary European night under the Celtic Park lights ultimately saw Celtic meet one of most folks’ targets for season 2024-25 – a guaranteed top 24 spot in the Champions league.

     

    The first half had absolutely everything with more highs and lows than the Pepsi Max. Here’s a brief timeline of that first 45 –

     

    6 A defence splitting pass from Engels put Kyogo through on goal and Mr Furahashi battered the ball into the net, only to be (correctly) flagged offside.

     

    9 McGregor brke from midfield and fed Kuhn on the right Nicolas came inside, jinked past 3 (or was it 4) but his netbound shot was deflected for a corner.

     

    15 A ball over thye top put Kyogo clear on goal but, having decided to shoot early, the effort went disappointingly wide.

     

    17 Johnston’s cross from the right looked to sail past everyone, but Maeda with his back to goal brought it down, then over his shoulder and almost turned to get a shot away.

     

    22 Meade broke into the box and despite a clear push in the back there was no penalty.

     

    25 A Hatate left foot low curler was tipped round the post.

     

    30 On our high press, McGregor nicked a 50/50 ball through to Kyogo who’s shimmie sent the keeper the wrong way and the ball was in the net for a goal at last – but 90 seconds later it was (correctly) disallowed for a foul by McGregor.

     

    33 Kuhn played a lovely Crossfield pass out to Maeda and his cross into Kyogo lad to a fairly easy tap in. But it was (correctly) offside again. Kyogo now became the first player I ever remember having a disallowed hat trick!

     

    39 Talor chased a loose ball into the box and was hauled to the ground with a hand round the throat – a clear penalty was correctly awarded but why no card (yellow or red) against the defender who made no attempt to play the ball yet stopped the goal opportunity?

     

    40 This moment was my fault. 15 minutes before the game I said to a friend that my worry was that Engels has a 100% record from penalties with 5 or maybe 6 already scored; I suggested he was due to miss one! And he did, a pretty tame effort easily saved.

     

    42 A cross into the box was headed clear. Hatate caught it on the volley from 25 yards but the keeper dived to parry away the goal bound effort.

     

    So, incredibly, we went into half time goalless and yet I was exhausted having celebrated our 2 “goals” and the award of our penalty. Surely we would ultimately make one count?

     

    The second half saw Young Boys come more into the game and have a few forays around Celtic’s box. And equally, Celtic’s own chances on goal decreased from that amazing first half.

     

    Celtic did come close on 55 minutes when Trusty got a strong header onto an inswinging corner only for his effort to clip the top of the bar. A more worrying moment arrived 7 minutes later when Young Boys built a good attack down the left. A cut back from the bye line to the penalty spot was perfect for the oncoming striker but his strong effort was well saved by Shmeichel who then also managed to save the attempt from the rebound. As good as a goal at the other end!

     

    Celtic kept plugging away and introduced Bernardo and Valle after 69 minutes, replacing Engels and Taylor. Then on 75 minutes Idah replaced the departing (quite literally as it turns out?) Kyogo.

     

    The breakthrough finally arrived in the 86th minute. Hatate played the best pass of the night, a beautifully weighted ball into the path of Idah who bore down on goal, Adam’s close range clip was saved by the foot of the goalie but the ball then ricocheted off the defender and rolled into the empty net. For once, Celtic actually benefited from last minute calamite heartache having been on the wrong end of similar goals in recent years.

     

    Just as the board was going up to indicate an additional 5 minutes stoppage time Celtic went down to 10 men. A rather harsh red in my opinion, when the referee had seen the original kick and decided to award a yellow. Scales came on for Kuhn to bolster the defence and ultimately Celtic kept the required clean sheet to win the match by a goal to nil.

     

    A fantastic night’s entertainment.

     

    We have now played 35 games this season, winning 26, drawing 7 and losing 2. We have scored 94 and conceded 28 (domestically it’s 83-18 and in Europe it’s 11-10). Thank you so much to the 81 who voted this time around. The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.

     

     

    Schmeichel: 71

     

    Johnston: 0

     

    Carter-Vickers: 8

     

    Trusty: 8

     

    Taylor: 2

     

    McGregor*: 70

     

    Engels: 4

     

    Hatate*: 56

     

    Kuhn: 0

     

    Kyogo: 6

     

    Maeda*: 16

     

    Valle: 0

     

    Bernardo: 0

     

    Idah: 2

     

    Scales: 0

     

     

    And so, the players receiving POINTS for the game against Young Boys are –

     

    Schmeichel – 5 points

     

    McGregor – 4 points

     

    Hatate – 3 points

     

    Maeda – 2 points

     

    Carter-Vickers and Trusty – 1 point each

     

     

    And the overall positions after 35 games played are –

     

    58 points – Kuhn

     

    44 points – Maeda

     

    42 points – McGregor

     

    41 points – Bernardo, Engels, Hatate, Scales, Schmeichel

     

    31 points – Trusty

     

    24 points – Kyogo

     

    23 points – Carter-Vickers, Johnston A, McCowan

     

    19 points – Taylor, Valle

     

    7 points – O’Riley

     

    5 points – Idah

     

    4 points – Forrest, Yang

     

    3 points – Welsh

     

    0 points – Holm, Johnston M., Kenny, Nawrocki, Palma, Ralston, Turley

     

     

    It’s back to league action this weekend with a home tie on Saturday at 3.00pm against Dundee.

     

    Hail Hail!

  13. vinniethedog on 23rd January 2025 10:30 pm

     

    Am I the only one not overly excited by the return of jota ? Hardly kicked a ball for over 2 years

     

     

    Can’t get it at all !!!

     

     

    Aye me annaw……especially letting our no1 striker go!

  14. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Watched a fair bit of football this week.

     

     

    Drop off in performance levels between the Champions League and Europa is stark.

     

     

    Celtic’s 12 points from 7 games at the top table draws grudging praise only.

     

     

    The other lot’s inferior tally bizarrely draws lot’s of plaudits.

     

     

    PS – didn’t watch man utd game tonight, just saw highlights.

     

     

    My favourite bit?

     

     

    Tav remonstrating at the left back for losing his marker on the blind side resulting in a goal.

     

     

    Glass houses and all that.

  15. This guy that Celtic are rumoured to be potentially signing from Rennes looks like a player…

     

     

    https://youtu.be/Gc_nBcRzosQ?si=crlLSaZPuTO2OtWY

     

     

    Without Kyogo we could do worse than paying Maeda as a central striker with Kühn and Jota on the wings, occasionally swapping sides to further test the opposing defenders. According to the player info on Wikipedia, Maeda has 15 goals from 31 appearances this season, while Kyogo has 12 goals from 32 appearances. So effectively Maeda is an up front upgrade! And with the goalscoring threat of those three supported by Hatate and McGregor in midfield, we’d still carry plenty of threat to any opponents.

     

     

    On our Champions League performance, I would point out that of the 36 teams involved, only Liverpool have lost fewer games than Celtic, and everyone else other than Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter, Atalanta and Juve have lost more games. And if we exclude the Dortmund anomaly, only 4 teams have a superior goal difference, with only 3 teams conceding fewer than the legendary sieve!

  16. Sargassosea on 24th January 2025 12:24 am

     

     

     

    I would try to buy Evan Ferguson just now.

     

     

    ——

     

    That is a good shout,tho i dont think he would take the drop in wages.He recently returned from an injury so i think would want to get back to the form he was in pre injury

     

     

    HH