Celtic will almost certainly face HJK Helsinki in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. The Fins are 7-0 after the first leg of their second qualifying round against KR Reykjavik.
HJK were the first team to beat Martin O’Neill’s Celtic as they overcame a first leg deficit in the 2000 Uefa Cup to force the tie into extra time. Chris Sutton scored late to prevent the tie going to penalty kicks. HJK are also top of their domestic league after 17 games, so will be a well-oiled machine by the time the arrive at Celtic Park on 31 July or 1 August.
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Weefra- cheers for that.
BSR
Formerly HJK had ice hockey, bowling, field hockey, handball, figure skating and bandy sections. In 1972 the hockey section separated to independent club Helsingin Jääkiekkoklubi.
What would the “bandy” section be? People with a rolling gait?
Or a Glee Club?
Starry plough
The quality of astroturf now is such that it should not be a concern to our players.
A bit of deja vu with Helsinki though….lets not take them lightly..they will be a decent organised team. Be professional and we could kick on from a positive result.
came across this little ditty earlier. Very true and something out game should take note of and embrace:
Integrity is doing the right thing…even when no one is looking.
And BTW Bhoys
Do all Rhodes lead to Jordan?
Just askin like!
P67
Second in their league. Goals spread between a few players. Difficult one.
googy
Viva La Bandy Brigada?
Paul67 et al
Wit an excuse to go and see ma granddaughter .
Weefra HH
Hamilton Tim
Ryanair fly to Tampere from Stansted – you can get a train from tampere to Helsinki.
That said, Tampere Ryanair terminal is like something out of the third world.
Get it won at Celtic Park, bhoys.
Hamiltontim
Finland in Euro zone so not nearly as expensive as Norway and Sweden in my opinion – but beer and grub still probably more expensive than Hamilton.
Jacques Chirac did once famously say that the Finns were the only country to have worse cuisine than the British – how to insult two nations in one sentence :)
stephbhoy
I know where you’re coming from- however if we were able to compete in the transfer market we wouldn’t get so many calls to spend more!
Its a vicious circle- like the not spending until we see if we get to the Champions League vs spending to give us a better chance of actually getting there…in a business sense, there is only one winner, and that is waiting to see if we get there so we have a ball park figure of what we have to play with.
I just think we have to see the bigger picture, and if we have the worldwide support we think we have, we CAN help Celtic become a major force again by helping the club bridge the gap.
We didn’t let our club die like the huns did. Lets not allow it to limp along either.
HH
TopCorner on 20 July, 2012 at 11:37 said:
Helsinki desperately need to bring in a quality centre half!
Posting part one of CD one hoping it inspires you to buy the box set.
The Official History of Celtic Football Club – CD 1.1
Just spoke to ma bhoy, he says the flight prices were hiked up within 10 mins of the draw. Shameful.
Weefra HH
Helsinki beat Schalke 2 -0 at home in last seasons qualifiers, before losing 6-3 on aggregate.
Hmmmm © Paul67
starry plough –
Don’t know about Basel to Roma but ——
Depending on who you do it with —-
Roma – Helsinki return is between 230 and 300 euros —-
Off topic
We should sign…..
Johnny Russell – Dundee Utd
Darren Barr – Hearts
Two shrewd move’s IMO.
Ahh Helsinki,that brings back memory’s ,last game against
them I was Flittin into my current house,all my so called mhates
forgot they were giving me a hand…..fekn green huns.
after watching thier 7-0 first leg win i noticed that thier opponents had 8-9 good chances ….
chances that stokes/hooper will punish them for!
only concern is that they are up to speed with thier season midway…
personally? i think we should have had more games lined up…
hopefully real,ajax and milan are the exact quality of opposition that we need to work on our defensive duties…
going forward and punishing teams will tke care of itself
We’ve been struggling to compete against lower league German teams – this isn’t an easy draw. Although if we can’t comfortably beat HJK then we have no chance in the following round and have no right to be in the competition.
My brother sent it over last year Kitalba . My old ma sent the history of Scotland . great sets both of them . 2014 seems like a long way off. Enjoy the season Celts. Look forward to making history.
These qualifying rounds are our season.
Can´t say I am happy about playing a team 17 games into their season but think we should have enough.
neil……get a experienced old headed centre half of real quality in quick….
Rogne though i rate the boy very very highly indeed i worry about his fitness with these 3 games looming ……one injury (which he has been prone to) will leave us very very short indeed …..2 would be a absolute disaster!
South Of Tunis on 20 July, 2012 at 11:52 said:
Outside of easy jet destinations Basle is usually a bit more expensive than say Zurich, Mrs Starry has just reminded me of several outlays we have on the budget( I’m going to night school) so I won’t be heading to Helsinki.
Let’s hope we get through and see where we land…
Just watched the highlights of their 7-0 game looks like they have a few players, middle of their defence looks suspect though..
Off to watch the rest of Kitalba’s CD’s.
Superb Stuff M8.
Hail Hail
possibly to Tallin via Ryanair from Dublin or Luton or Manchester, then a 2hr ferry from Tallin to Helsinki (<100euros) total around £250
ferry
http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/
Let’s give ’em hell and sink ’em!
I’m not one to defend Ryanair, but I imagine that the price hike on the flights to Finland was due to a rush of bookings – these things tend to be done automatically. Supply and demand.
How come UEFA don’t remember to put Sevco Rangers in the CL draw, – they appear everywhere else in Scotland?
any transfer snippets?
Optimistic little soldier
Sure am mate
TopCorner on 20 July, 2012 at 11:56 said:
possibly to Tallin via Ryanair from Dublin or Luton or Manchester, then a 2hr ferry from Tallin to Helsinki (<100euros) total around £250
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZnQ7hX8cM
malone 19…the german tour is to get he squad/youth up to some sort of match fitness…
chopping and changing constantly…
and never our strongest team playing at same time.
bear in mind the german league starts this weekend so they are further ahead of us too in terms of fitness.
the games v ajax,inter and real madrid will be the shaping of the team
I sincerely hope that we can get by Helsinki and go on to qualify for Champions League proper (there is a further play off I think) but I genuinely fear that we will fail to beat Helsinki
They may be no great team but in Europe unfortunately neither are we.
They are 17 games into their season which surely gives them a edge
Our squad is good enough to win the SPL but I fear thats as good as it gets.
I genuinely hope to be proved wrong and the benefits of getting into the Champions League proper would be enormous but I expect us to be dumped out by Helsinki
A monumental classic case of Cognitive Dissonance from The Heid:
If Rangers players win all four leagues it will be like a new signing.
By Mark Hateley on Jul 16, 12 08:25 AM in rangers
DUST yourself down with triggers broom. Draw up a little battle plan just like Napoleon used to do with his dinky soldiers, because everyone knows old Bonaparte had little baby hands and fingers. That’s what you do when you’ve been knocked from pillar to post and back again, when everyone kicks down every fence your enstranged wife tells you to put up, and it’s what The Rangers FC will do now. They will start life in the Scottish Third Division this season – with a massive point to prove. And there is much to look forward, none more so than a trip to Sunny Stranraer or in Alistair’s case for the Pies up in Elgin.
They will also have a target in mind – to become the first club in history to win all four leagues on the trot and get back to where they belong. Imagine that. I hope I’m not being biased when I say that I think that would be a greater achievement than Celtic winning the European Cup in 67. But I do think it would be a step too far saying four in a row would be a similar feat to the famous nine in a row I was part of alongside Rangers boss Alistair McCoist- after all that was MY team. But, then again, you have to believe me, if Alistair’s side can win the Third, Second and First Divisions followed by the SPL, it will feel just as good as Walter Smith’s remarkable achievement in the 90s- in fact it would go down on Alistair’s CV as a greater achievement than Pep Guardiola’s clean sweep of a few years ago. And who knows: maybe Kyle Hutton will be the new Messi?
As players back then, well before Alistair’s unsavoury and much maligned addiction to pastries, we set ourselves goals to aim for all the time. Yes we rarely met those targets, particularly when it came to Europe, but to be honest, with that side, our target was to win every game in every competition we played in. And that’s why, with such unrealistic expectations, with diddy’s like Scott Nisbet and Alex Cleland, we took our regular European pumping’s so badly. It didn’t help that semi-illiterate gluttons like Traynor and snivelling brown nosers like Chic Young were constantly bumming us up as world-beaters no matter how crap we were. But that’s another story for another time.
But through all the constant embarrassment of our European pain, the ritualized humiliation and being shown up for what we really were we still had domestic success- and at the end of the day as all true blues know getting one over the tims is all that matters anyway. That was the secret of our success. Pure unadulterated hatred of the enemy. Walter used to say to Bomber and Terry Hurlock through the bars of their cages: “Hate them until your last breath has left your bodies.” But even when Walter had lost his way in Europe and got mixed up in front of the tactics board we would soon forget about the latest disaster in Europe. We simply didn’t care what had gone on before, it was all about what was ahead of us. We were too stupid to know any different. It’s the sign of a real poor education. But, as we closed in on the nine, perhaps two or three years before we achieved the feat, it was definitely in our heads as something we were desperate to go for. And it was a bonus in those days before Celtic started questioning evry decision that we had so many good referees, really good guys who were so sympathetic to our cause. The nearer you get to your object point the harder you work, unless your on benefits or an EBT. And of course there is no doubt it helped that Celtic were on their knees at the time with a gang of clowns and chancers in the boardroom. As well as the fact Walter practically had a blank cheque with all the Bank of Scotland money Sir David kept giving him. But all that’s besides the point. This season’s Rangers squad, whoever they may be, and that is a very big “maybe”, will need that kind of focus. Yes they won’t have the unlimited resources from a corrupt bank like Walter did, unfortunately, or EBT’s or even the non-payment of PAYE tax to prop up a team you can’t afford- but maybe, just maybe, those at the club might find some other way to gain an unfair advantage. Lets hope so. Its The Rangers way. In our eyes back in the 90s it was all about identifying an achievable target. And what a feeling it was when we pulled it off, even if it wasn’t on a level playing field. But at the end of the day its really just all about winning AND it doesn’t matter HOW you do it. Walter used to say winning is everything. It was better to cheat and win than to be an honest loser. And I have always thought he was right, no matter what all these mealy-mouthed do-gooders who go on about a mythological “sporting integrity” say about it. They are just a bunch of jealous losers.
It will be the same for the Rangers boys, who are preparing for at least one season in Scotland’s bottom tier. Everyone will hate them because they are the People. But do they care? No. Maybe. How do I know? And of course, it’s the lower leagues we’re talking about. But if they could win four titles on the spin and take the club back to the summit of Scottish football it would be an incredibly big feet, maybe even of abominable snowman proportions- but lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. It hasn’t happened Yeti.
The whole club will also have been completely restructured. Because there practically nothing left anyway.They’ll want to do it ASAP and that means rapidly going through the leagues. And by the time they reach the top, which we know is inevitable, other clubs in Scotland will hopefully be in turmoil, and maybe even Aberdeen and Dundee Hibernian will be bust. Alistair will want to build a side now that will be ready for the SPL in three years. But that’s if there is an SPL, and for the purposes of gloating and reinforcing our superiority complex lets hope it goes to the wall. The way things are going, with clubs set to go into administration due to the cash crisis, Rangers could be in the top flight in two years. And who knows maybe we, alongside them, will be the only two team left, then we can slug it out until the end of days, like Jesus and the Devil on the pitch at Megiddo?
But right now all this John the Baptist doom and gloom is not Alistair’s concern. His job is to rebuild the squad and that means having an experienced spine, although not to experienced, as in geriatric, as it might end up with osteoporosis, really frail and end up breaking. And nobody wants a broken spine. So Alistair must protect the experienced spine with a group of very hungry talented, promising, maybe even vicious young players around them. And they will be hungry because the catering facilities at Ibrox/Murray Park have all been sold off. But nevertheless I’m sure, just like Churchill with a cigar in his mouth, Alistair with a pasty in his, he’ll keep his troops nourished and strong with fresh supplies from Greggs. He’ll want a keeper, centre-half, central midfielder and a striker he can rely on. In fact he’ll need a whole new team. How he does that with a Transfer Embargo hanging over him is anybody guess and for somebody more clever than me. Lets just hope he doesn’t ask me. That’s where he’ll need a bit of wisdom. He will immediately ask for Walter the wizard’s advice. But that will be a waste of time. Walter wouldn’t know what to do if he didn’t have a cheque book to rely on. But there is one thing I do know Lee McCulloch is an ideal captain for him as he has been there and done it. And many of us would rather not have been there when he done it. But still he must build the team around Big Jig. He has nothing to prove but it’s great that, at this stage in his career, he has a brand new challenge. In fact he’ll be glad that Rangers went into liquidation just so he could have this challenging experience in the Third Division. Its a chance for him to roll up his sleeves and show off his elbows as he goes into the trenches. That is something I know he will relish. He will be like a new signing. Guys in the lower leagues will be keen to prove themselves against Rangers in every game but that’s where pros like Lee will come in extremely handy. He will be like a new signing- did I already say that?
This is a chance for the young players to find their feet in the game. They will be bullied by other teams in the tough lower leagues but Big Jig will teach them how to bully back. It’s what he does best. In fact it the only thing he can do. But that is where he will come into his own. And they will learn about football, The Rangers way, from the bottom and ensure they’re ready when they reach the top, ready to stamp, snarl, moan, cheat, lie and dive with the very best of them with Big Jig as their mentor. So that by that time Celtic will be swept away like so much fluff on The Rangers coat tails. They could be legneds through this turmoil. They will be remembered by supporters as the players who took the club back to where belongs, back to crushing all pretenders beneath their triumphant jackboots.
Everyone has to pull together at Ibrox, even if it is in different directions, from Charles Green all the way down, all the way back up again, like doing the hokey cokey. Now that he knows what league they’re in, Green must reveal his plans and his vision because the supporters have still to be convinced.Even though many will never trust him with that NAME. And there is a school of thought that says he should change it by deed poll. I think he should do the honourable thing, particularly if he ever wants those loyal fans to truly , truly, trust him. Maybe even could change it to Blue or Orange?.
The fans are ready for this long journey to nowhere. Even though they don’t know where its going or when they’ll get there or even how or why they want to go in the first place. But they are like lost orphans dumped on the side of the road. Any wheels will do when your lost and desperate enough. Jeez, right now, The Rangers followers will hitch hike with Hannibal Lector. That’s how bad it is. But, somehow, people like myself keep repeating, incredibly, that the club could emerge from this carnage in a few years far better off. And if you repeat something enough it might just come true. That is the power of magical thinking. And that is something the Rangers faithful do really well. Its been said we could be debt-free, cash-rich through season tickets and in a better physical condition than most of the SPL clubs, in fact we might even be better off than Celtic and maybe even make Real Madrid look like a diddy club. In four years’ time, I don’t think the SPL will exist anyway. In fact, if our prayers come true, God willing, it could be disbanded within a year if half of its clubs go to the wall, then we can go at it hammer and tongs with a real gloatathon and really rub their noses in it. That would just be brilliant.
The whole of Scottish football needs a total revamp, like the English FA embarked on in 1993 when the Premiership was formed. They got rid of all the old guard at Lancaster Gate and brought in young, upwardly-thinking, really greedy and ambitious professionals. They looked at the game from a different angle and look at English football now, they can’t even get by the quarter finals of a major championships. That’s what we need to aspire to in this country. Maybe if they play Italy soon enough Pirlo can have more passes than the whole Scotland team put together. That is my idea of progress. That’s what is needed in Scotland, and as quickly as possible. We have two bodies with completely different agendas and outlooks, like conjoined twins with schizophrenia, with one that is a Dorothy and the other straight, with one that wants to travel and see the world and another that wants to stay at home and bake cakes – and that is a situation that sin’t good for anybody. It’s ridiculous and if it doesn’t change soon, to get everyone pulling in the same direction, instead of a conjoined twin tearing itself apart, under the same big blue umbrella, or something like a Royal blue awning, or a Union Jack Gazebo, like it used to be in the good old days, the game is screwed for good, but if it does then it will be like a new signing.
As told to his resident psychiatrist.
What is the Stars on 20 July, 2012 at 12:06 said:
Cheer up walturd smiff :o(
Thanks as usual for the helpful information.
What is the exact date of the game in Finland?