The manager got the big calls right. Moussa Dembele’s form has shaded recently, while Leigh Griffiths has been scoring freely, so the latter was the form horse. Not only did Moussa score the equaliser, Newco found it impossible to deal with him throughout.
His circumference of control with the ball at his feet is considerable. I’m not going to burden him with the ‘new Dalglish’ tag, but that ability to shield the ball in tight areas takes me back to my early days watching Celtic. Kenny did this to great effect, creating space for others as he used his strength and close-control to create havoc.
Kenny Millar’s opening goal had been in the post from the first minute as Newco pressurised Celtic off their game. They were the team forcing mistakes of nervous looking defenders (I’m looking at you, Erik). Celtic just didn’t get going early on as the home team controlled midfield with Barrie McKay in particular causing problems.
The turning point came around the time Scott Brown picked up his yellow card (deservedly). It was a typically-calculated Brown intervention.
Moussa’s goal was quite unbelievable. The corner came from a breakaway chance when Scott Sinclair seemed to lose the opportunity by standing on the ball, but recovered to run at the Newco defence before firing a shot which was deflected onto the inside of the post before being knocked behind by a defender for a corner.
Dembele was standing 8 yards out when a high corner fell to his feet. Unchallenged. The ball bounced head-height but Moussa still had time to wait on it falling before finishing into the top corner.
Danny Wilson was marking him when the corner was taken but for reasons all too evident to those who have followed the player’s recent form, he left Celtic’s striker to challenge players already marked. It was an unfathomable mistake.
From that moment on, there was only going to be one result. Celtic should have gone ahead three times in the opening nine minutes of the second half. Their passing was now crisp and fast. Sinclair and Armstrong’s movement made defenders look statuesque.
One stat I’d like to see is the number of touches we had inside the opposition box. We spent a lot of time in there, pinging tight passes, which opened up the home defence. Dembele, Forrest, Sinclair and Armstrong should all have added to the score but Foderingham made himself big throughout and stopped the result from being as embarrassing as the performance.
Forrest made way for Patrick Roberts, who, at his first involvement, released Armstrong with a reverse pass into the box. Celtic had been in this position many times in the minutes beforehand. Their format was to cut the ball back, which is what we were all expecting Armstrong to do, but he released the ball a fraction of a second early across the face of goal for Sinclair to side-foot into the net at the far post.
Craig Gordon had a few comfortable saves, which he dealt with assuredly. Sviatchenko made up for two early poor touches by making the tackle of the game to deny Forrester. Emilio Izaguirre put in his best 45 minutes of the season in the second half; he looked like the player who arrived six years ago.
Mikael Lustig sprinted 40 yards across field to cut-out a breakaway inside the box. Big Jozo Simunovic must be wondering when kick-off is, he didn’t break sweat.
Off-piste mention to Leigh Griffiths, who was warming up behind the goal when the guy who kept him out the team picked himself up off the turf after a fruitless effort. Leigh stepped forward and patted his team-competitor on the back three times while shouting encouragement.
Great team-mates make great teams.
Have a Happy New Year, everyone.
842 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 23
- »
Podium HH
http://www.skysports.com/football/rangers-vs-celtic/357145
Bout time
P67 & everybody in the CQN family…. I wish everybody the very best for 2017
Doc…… Hope that wee 2-1 win today will live long in the memory
Hail Hail
Really nice of them to have a minute’s silence for Princess Leia at the Death Star today…
Anyway…
Gordon – 9/10 Big, solid, unbreachabble by various excited Zombies trying their damnest. Took an Ex-tim to poke one past him.
Lustig – 6/10 Unusually troubled by tricky Hun Hobbit mckay. Tho Mick, I think, realised he should have chopped the wee height-of-nonsense irritant long before he got a soft yellow for a tug.
Sviatcvhenko – 7/10 Calamitous giveaway for the Hun opener as a result of self-satisfaction at having knocked out Cockerney prick Garner immedaitely beforehand. Utterly BRILLIANT goal-saving tackle in last few minutes to deny undeserved equaliser.
Jozo – 7/10 Seemed unnerved by Erik’s Fawlty Towers defending early on and took a booking before re-asserting his overall competence. Another gem we’ve done qwell to hold on to after nearly gifting him to Torino. Big fella got the perfect attitude to go with his natural defensive talent.
Izzy – 7/10 Our Roaming Catholic puts the fear in me every time he exposes his defensiv earea whilst marauding uop the wing. But the vast percentage of time in Scotland we don’t get punished and he adds to our attacking power. His committment to the Hoops is laudable.
Broon- 8/10 Solo hero in the middle as he dragged us back into it. missed his usual Rogic outlet, coped well with Huns buzzing about him all first half like illigitimate wasps. But for the ubiquitous yellow we might have seen the ‘Broony Moonie’ as he stood atop the advertising boards in fron tof the Copeland scum; he was thinking about it… ;))
Armstrong – 8/10 Our bobby Murdoch; timing of runs, precision passes, constant movement tidying up the midfield. Outstanding, thanks to a real football manager actually playing him in his true position.
McGregor – 5/10 Never a fan of Calum, think he always looks out his depth in ‘big’ games – i.e when the pressure’s on. Expected him to grasp the Rogic role today and let his feet do the work, but he looked at their level for all his time on the park. Disappointment.
Sinclair – 9/10 Oooooofft. Lightning in his boots. Terrorized the Huns on and off the park. Three stands shutting their eyes every time he got the ball. Nailed them, could have had 3 or 4. Magic signing. Utter class. Well worth the big money.
Moussa – 8.5/10 Hahahahahahaaaa… ‘Moussa’s finished’ ‘Dembele’s lost it, punt him’… Hahahahahaaaaa. BANG! There’s yer f#cking dinner, Huns!
Jamesy ‘The Prestwick Pele’ – 6/10 Never in it, disappointingly. Lacked service, yes, and looked dangerous on the few occassions he did have the ball but expected a LOT more form his pace; felt we could have annihilated them if all 3 front men were firing.
Bitton – 7/10 fitted in just fine when he came on; never let up the slack.
Paddy – 8/10 Fantastic reverse ball for SA to carve the winner. Enhance dthe Hun torment when he appeared.
Griff – 9/10 Right in there with Sinky’s celebrations. :))
BR – managed a lacklustere performance well; half-time rocket? Or just a reminder we might need to compete?
Anyway, at some point around 1pm today the Celtic alarm clock went off and the Bhoys delivered.
Lurking Huns, don’t be fooled – it was 2-1 going on 6/7.
Happy New Year to yeez all; heading out to family NY dinner; should be a blast.
Celtic Champs Elect – HNY; and check yer spam filter from back on Sept 1st ya bam; will meet up in ’17.
—————————–
TIMREAPER – I understand what ye’re getitng at from last thread re; McGregor but he was given the role he’s always desired today – to be THE main man, the playmaker, and got overwhelmed until others carried the day; hence my 5/10.
In Brendan We Trust.
HH.
DougC – Congratulations on both the podium and the winning tickets – were they for good seats?
PAUL67
Perfect title.
I believe they are still on their knees.
Dembele is a HUNSKELPER.
happy new year p67
I posted on the last threadbefore I read Paul’s article, honest!
I thought Brendan looked very tense in his pre match interview so it wasn’t a big surprise to see the players most of whom have never been to ibrox being nervy and slow to settle
Broonies yellow card tackle seemed rash at the time but it seemed to rouse the players
I was also a bit surprised at how quickly the belief drained out of their players after 25 minutes. Maybe they ran themselves out or maybe once the adrenaline wore off they couldn’t kid themselves about the difference in class. A nice long break until the next game to contemplate their crapness
What a great way to end the year
Jobo Baldie , excellent seats , I have a great video of the players at the end , if i can work out how to upload and link i will share it, although after standing for 90 minutes don’t know how you manage it in the standing section every week especially a man of you vintage :)
Personally I think Broony did their player because he and the rest of the team were a yard off the pace, be surprised if it was some calculated move to jee up his team mates.
Good on him for not putting himself in the 2nd yellow card position for the rest of the game, that was talent.
Happy New Year to all on CQN off to enjoy the rest of the day HH
Oh dear, the silence ,& the delayed reaction in the Sky Studio as they tried in vane to disbelieve the reality of that goal……. I hear there’s shorter delays at Dulles International Airport when they got 2 million Mid-Eastern tourists passing through it.
Worse was the lame attempts at excusing Steven “Integrity” McClean’s decision to blow his whistle, for a free out from the Pretendybears penalty area, just as Celtic were getting control of a scrappy contest with 2 of the Sevvies Aussie Rules hatchet men, which most likely would have resulted in a goal.
& those offside decisions. Even Tanner had to take a redner at Sinky’s break “Oh was on onside there, just…..Yea just 5 yards. Easy mistake to make…if you get around in a Zimmerframe!
And, Stuart Armstrong…To think that he was a couple of hours from a loan move in September?
LuckybhoysCSC
Happy New Year!
CELTIC CHAMPS ELECT on 31ST DECEMBER 2016 5:16 PM
Sandman
Celtic Champs Elect – HNY; and check yer spam filter from back on Sept 1st ya bam; will meet up in ’17.
Send me your details again to joshirons@msn.com. :-)))
Out with Tony tonight to Guidis to celebrate then back to ours lol lol. You want to come
I said to my brother after 30 minutes that the Hun’s tempo was too high and they would die off sooner than later.
Just read the magic hats comments, words of a man knowing he’s on his last legs, which is a shame since he’s doing a great job :0)
Andy Walker (think that’s who was on Sky), said it was close call at the first Celtic offside, despite the replay showing him 2 hun players ahead of the ball
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1A3GzUXcAAcBne?format=jpg&name=large
Whether broonie knew the exact effect of that booking or not, the consequences were clear.
Sometimes a player needs to do something to get himself focussed. The rest follows. He wasn’t getting the ball, he was missing tackles. He needed to sort himself out and then pick up the team.
He’s no stranger to sorting out a mess at ibrox. Remember where ‘doing the broonie’ was born!
I loved his little stand on the hoardings. ‘We own you!’ Was the message.
Liverpool v Man City – all my money is on Aguero
I work in TV, so I thought I’d give Sky’s coverage the professional view today (as opposed to just watching the match).
Overall, it was terrible, significantly worse than BT’s efforts in every department.
The Match Coverage: This was the best bit – they stuck to a tried and tested formula regarding number of cameras, positions, and replays. Difficult to getthis wrong (unless, like last week, they forget to bring a rain cover).
The commentary: Dreadful. Crocker seemed eager for Sevco to score, and I lost count of the number of times he seemed to want things to “kick off” – clearly he doesn’t live in Glasgow.
But once again it was Andy Aloysius Walker who singularly failed to analyse the game or inject any level of excitement into his voice during what was, in fact, quite an entertaining match. Baffling decisions (like the free-kick to them when their defender trapped the ball between his legs) were glossed over, not analysed. (It’s worth noting this is an approach they would never use with the EPL – where every mildly controversial decision is poured over again and again).
The Studio. Deary me. Deary, deary me. Tanner is a cut price Jim White. And Neil EBT McCann actually said, seconds before kick off “I really hope Rangers win this”. Staggeringly open bias, which was reflected in their “analysis” of the main events. Nothing on Moussa hitting the bar, the multiple saves their keeper made, but minutes on Old Man Miller’s geriatric sclaff against the post….
And then, that was it. No in-depth interviews, no pouring over what the result means. Nothing. Just cut to Jeff Stelling in another studio, five minutes after the game ended.
BT would have had a field day with this game. Sky can’t be a****. Especially when their team doesn’t win.
Bang goes the bets as Liverpool go 1 up :o)
Take away all the unmerited hype about playing at Ybrox,remove the top tiers,delete the dirge…and you had Celtic v Kilmarnock (or A.N.Other team) today.After the first 20 minutes of miscontrolathon their was only one team going to win.All the football came from Celtic.
They are like a diver with 5 minutes of oxygen trying to do a 20 minute dive.
By the game’s end a few hoops players had put themselves in MOM contention:Armstrong,Izzy,Sinclair,and Broonie spring to mind.But Moussa was class.He gets my nod as top performer.A brilliantly venomous strike for his goal and then ran the Sevco defence ragged for the rest of the game.
58 points from 60 is a wonderful return but there’s more to come from this Celtic team.
I enjoy the huns desperate folly.
“I KNOW THE TRUTH AND I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING…” ;))
https://youtu.be/BBsazIACpYM
“Subjugation of the Zombie nation”
Moussa Dembele,Moussa Dembele, Moussa Dembele ohoooo
Pundits’ views on Celtic’s derby win BBC 17:29
If you thought Sky had a monopoly on shoite, read this nonsense.
glendalystonsils on 31st December 2016 5:47 pm
Pundits’ views on Celtic’s derby win BBC 17:29
If you thought Sky had a monopoly on shoite, read this nonsense.
————-
Bonner really was shite
Babasonico – exactly that. To me it feels different. Loved beating them but I noticed my own reactions to Sinclair scoring were similar to USC coming from behind against Motherwell or similar. Not the mad celebration that used to greet goals against Oldco.
We all know what they are.
Italia – sky is awful throughout. Not just Scottish football coverage. It’s the tv equivalent of the Sun newspaper. Squalid.
Well played Celtic Football Club today. That was Sevco’s cup final and the one they wanted: we took the points and responded magnificently to the minutes silence (as we should) and their horrendous obsession with child abuse. This should be challenged.
I’ve just left a fair-minded sevconian in the pub-yes they exist-who was disappointed not to have sneaked a draw but realised the skill of the Celts was way ahead of his team. He also commented on the energy of our fans…Happy days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQfjIw3mivc
Logical Song
HH
Glen hoddle is a pindit for sky. What a fud!!
Bournesouprecipe-3:42pm best laid plans of mice and men was the brilliant book I got my English o level from,holly cross :-)))
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1BCRThWEAANQd8.jpg
waiting time 90 mins
KidonhardmanCSC
Admittedly they had the better of the opening exchanges but I fail to see how they dominated. MaybeI’m missing something.
58 out of 60 points.
happy new year to CQNers, family and friends.
Given how 2015 ended (RD looking haunted), I honestly never expected things to have turned around so much and so quickly. Spectacular job by BR
SANDMAN on 31ST DECEMBER 2016 5:16 PM
McGregor was dropped deeper in the second half to allow Armstrong into the creative role and played well there.
A minor tweak by BR but a massive impact on the game!
KTF
Extended highlights on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JACfOsiOPY
MINCEYHEIDMAN
Thanks man,
KLV
I know I might get battered for this, but there was times before SS scored where I thought he was infuriating and trying to do it all himself