Outrageous results, and a 4-5 win is an outrageous result, could be seen as reason for encouragement by future opponents, but Barcelona played the majority of the game against Deportivo with 10 men, scored an own goal, conceded from a penalty and their keeper made a mistake for another, yet they still scored five goals and won the game.
That is formidable form.
On Tuesday evening Celtic face one of the greatest teams in history but there is reason for confidence. We have been to the Camp Nou three times in the last decade, a 0-0 draw in 2004 was enough to eliminate the Catalans from Europe. Later in 2004 we recorded our only away point in the Champions League, prior to beating Spartak Moscow in the last game, and we lost there to a single goal four years later.
Each Barcelona side was vastly more talented but they found each Celtic team a handful.
Any team which takes a point or more from Barca this season will have to man the barricades for long stretches of each game, will have to show enormous concentration and discipline, and take whatever luck is going. If Celtic do this, they will have one inherent advantage over the home team on Tuesday.
There will be changes in the starting 11 for both teams but a cursory look at yesterday’s starting line ups is educational. Eight out of Barca’s 10 outfield players were under six foot, six of them (Jordi Alba, Iniesta, Mascherano, Messi, Montoya and Villa) three or four inches below. Celtic’s smallest player, Gary Hooper, is only two inches below.
Seven Celts were six foot or higher. Ambrose, Wilson and Mulgrew are all 6’3”, taller than anyone in the Barca team, while non-starters, Lustig and Samaras, are 6’3” and 6’4” respectively. Celtic’s outfield players were, on average, more than three inches taller than their Barcelona counterparts.
Even the Barcelona keeper, Valdes, at 6’0”, is a bit on the short side, seven inches below Fraser Forster.
Height doesn’t make you a better player, or collectively, a better team, but it does instil an enormous advantage at set pieces. Celtic must defend when necessary but any free kick inside the Barcelona half is an opportunity to drop a ball onto an elevated Celtic head inside the box.
Play to your strengths, Celtic. Keep strategy simple, and your probability of taking something on Tuesday will increase significantly. You have everything to play for.
Fancy writing an article for the ever-popular CQN Magazine or maybe advertising therein? If so get in touch, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
Click here to read the fabulous CQN Magazine for free, or strain your eyes squinting below. You can also buy a hard copy of the magazine here from Magcloud.
[calameo code=000390171a36dad35d58c lang=en page=44 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
514 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- »
Cause we only know that there’s going to be a show……..
Happy times for us following the Celtic: from Seville to Lisbon to Barcelona again. Such pleasure and experiences do we get as a reward for supporting our club.
Tony Watt will be a sub on Tuesday, maybe coming on to chase the game when we are behind.
Hooper will start to do his Moscow stuff, with Sammi and Kris supporting.
BB
Go for it, you only live once mi amigo, go on, hit the key, you know you want to :>))))
Bada
If you took Voguepunter’s scooter and left the now you may just make it!! ;-)
Nitgt bhoys
Much to do in the morning.
Take care and god bless Timland.
HH
Hit the feckin key………..
Watt, Hooper Sammi, Commons -a few options to play with, but I suspect whoever among them gets the shout -they will run a lot and get only the odd touch of the ball.
Lenny will be more focussed on other areas of the pitch – he might even be phoning Levien for advice on the 5-5-0 formation.. :-)
Bada Bing,
i only wish i was sitting with the opportunity to go to Barcelona,
get booked,get over there and have a blast with the greatest
fans in the world
sojealousitsunbelievableCSC
Off to bed – safe journey to all our intrepid travellers.
Hope the Barca players are having a few sleepless nights after their lucky 5-4 win. :-)
The bhoy jinky.
Give me a bell when your back.
Hh
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Petec.
Ah doubt that Hooper wull be wi’ us .. fur much longer…
therefore..in light o’ that…
We should be thinkin’ ahead..
and.. in that respect..
Pierre and Neil.. are way ahead of Me..
Note.
We jist added TWO.. additional Strikers.. at the last windae.
Yep.. Hooper, will soon be struttin’ his stuff…somewhere in England.. soon.
Face it..
We canny keep him..
the Mair Successful he becomes.. the harder it wull become fur us tae keep him.
Only a maitter of Time… as the saying goes.
Right?
Damn right.
Kojo
Yer pal.. who thinks yer swell.
Still.. laughin.
gotta Go Joe..
Good Night Scotland
Good Night Ireland
Good Night Wales
Good Night England
Good Night Canada
Good Night New Zealand
Good Night Australia
and
good Night.. Ronnie Anderson, wherever you are.
Bed time for me as well, up in 5 hours.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
Here is another track from the same guys that will hopefully get you thinking even more.
The MSM are not reporting news, they are projecting the views that they want you to believe.
The MSM is not just the news channels. ;)
The Royal Society have been working their agenda for hundreds of years now.
This begs the question, why so much of the same thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbbBe9EKyPY
I sense Neil is relishing this game more than any other in the group. This is his toughest test and that is the way he likes it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEVayzpBmus
Kojo
Hail Hail
THE EXILED TIM
haha just read that back and realised I said wednesday! Lets hope by that time we are top of the group!
Hail hail all
It’s been a while since I’ve posted but had to put down in word my tactics after reading the article.
I would play the 8-0-2 system.
4 midfielders playing deep in front of the 4 defenders.
Every time we get the ball don’t worry about passing it just the big hoof up the park and let the two forwards play off the shoulder of the last man.
This stops there fullbacks flying forward so much and gets us out our half.
To talker talking tic
Morning,all.
Anyone wondering what piece of garbage the MSM would come up with to deflect from our stunning victory on Saturday and impending night in Barcelona need look no further than the lead story on The Sun’s website.
Seems someone complained about Scott Brown making a “noise” in his hotel room after a Scotland match.
Jee-zoh. Quiet news day,perhaps?
Good morning all
Going to Barca this morning flying from
Manchester via Zurich looking for a spare ticket for one of our squad staying in the royal ramblas hotel any help muchly appreciated
Barca trips rank highly on my Celtic travels.
Hope you all have a brilliant time and we all enjoy watching our team grow from Bhoys to Men
Morning All
Leg one completed, glasgow to Manchester. Right where’s the bar!
HH
CAN I HAVE RASPBERRY ON THAT…. 0556
Dunno if anywhere will be open this early-but I suspect BLANTYRE TIM and OLDTIM might have tracked one down.
Dry hotels are an abomination,but since they discovered this on a Sunday,they might have gone to Barra instead of Barca……….
WeefreeCSC
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
Have found one , roll n lager. My favourite
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
Still I’m Manchester? Bhoys a plenty here.
I’m = in
BMCUW………
Don’t think you’ll find many ‘wee frees’ on Barra bud………
How’s things anyway??????
Regards & Hail Hail
TBM
Good mornign friends from a dry and clear skied East Kilbride. Good luck to all those lucky enough to be heading to Barca.
Charles Green was so despised that cops joked that he should run to Celtic fans for safety
IBROX chief Charles Green was warned by cops to be on his guard against deadly mail bombs amid fears he could be targeted by crazed Rangers fans.
Worried Green was forced to move between a string of safe-houses after police received credible intelligence that his life was in danger following his takeover of the club.
He was ordered to check his car for explosives and Ibrox staff were given special instructions for handling his post.
But incredibly, just a few months later the 59-year-old businessman has won over the majority of fans who slammed his buyout of the club — with a £20million share issue set to be a massive success.
In his most in-depth interview since taking over at Ibrox, he admitted: “I got death threats. There were lots of threats.
He added: “I was staying maximum seven nights in a hotel. Once it got known where I was staying then we’d move again.
“I’d stay in the Holiday Inn, airport or this hotel and that hotel. I had to keep moving during the worst of it all.
“The longest I stayed anywhere was at the Menzies Hotel, where I stayed a couple of weeks.
“But by this time the relationship with the fans was improving.
“Now I’ve got a flat in Glasgow’s West End — and I can live a normal life.”
Green was left a prisoner in his office as furious fans staged protests and screamed abuse outside.
He was so despised that cops joked that he should run to Celtic fans for safety if he was ever caught between them and furious Rangers supporters.
And there was even a massive demonstration outside Ibrox led by former Gers star John Brown urging fans to boycott the club while the ex-Sheffield United chief was in charge.
Green also faced abuse on the streets of Glasgow from supporters who wanted him to sell the Ibrox side to other would-be buyers, including Walter Smith.
He said: “I had several episodes when I was out and about Glasgow that were unsettling, to say the least.
“But I was brought up not to run from anything.
“It was direct confrontation with people who clearly didn’t think much of me.
“I was physically intimidated on the streets of Glasgow. It was Rangers fans coming up to me and not mincing their words.
“They would shout, ‘F*** off, we want our club back’, while others would be more sinister, threatening me with harm.
“There were times it happened when I was alone, but one time I was with Brian Stockbridge, the financial director.
“Obviously times have moved on and people have got guns and knives now.
Very jealous of those lucky fans who are having a party in the champions league in the beautiful city of Barcelona, can we sneak a result……………………
It must have been Pat Butcher that tried to shove Henrik Larsson over when he scored against the Huns in the 5-1 game at Celtic Park.
According to Scotland’s second biggest selling tabloid ‘Scotland legend’ Colin Hendry is ‘currently coaching at Blackburn’ – no reference to his time with our former rivals though.
Odd for a Scottish paper to overlook a former Rangers captain in this way – anyone would think there is bad news coming…
Morning chaps, down in Birmingham for work all week.
Anyone know of a Celtic friendly bar to catch the game tomorrow?
Has anyone won the £1m ‘hit the bar’ competition yet….?……..He He
THE BARCA MOLE
Stop being so pedantic-spoiling my fun,ya bam!
All smashing here,bud. You hooked up for the match?
Gotta be honest,waching a game isn’t the best prep for a wee 12-hour nightshift,and watching through my fingers won’t help,but if you fellas on the other side of the world can make the effort,so can I!
But,as I’ve said before,it’s possible for us to qualify with two draws from our last two games-I’d have bitten the hand off you for that when the draw was made……
CAN I HAVE RASPBERRY ON THAT…. 0611
Apologies for misreading your post-and to the good people of Barra…..
Congrats on finding an open pub-I’ve still got about an hour to wait.
I’m reliably informed there are a couple in Swindon open from 8am,but don’t want to look like a choob if sumdy’s at the wind-up!
Seeing reports via Vmhans eldest,in Aussie that Shania Twain has died
LIONROARS67
Charliebhoy dissing all those nice Rangers fans who wouldn’t hurt a fly and luv their muvver might not go down too well in some quarters.
They might even decide to withdraw their offer to buy shares.
Leaving only us uber-generous Tims in the frame.
I see Mrs Messi had a baby boy, so the little maestro will be available….. Bring it on
Coorslad
Saw that on vmhan juniors fb too.
Sipsini
Nope … But i was out for a beer with dk a couple of weeks back . He is flying back to africa today in fact.
I met ak in asda toryglen earlier this year. They were both my apprentices many moons ago.
BMCUW……..
PedanTIC……..Moi???
Aye, will be watching at about 03:00 Wednesday………
Glad you are back safe and sound bud……..Enjoy your pint.
Will respond to your email later today as I too am just going for a pint (or seven) shortly. Cheers.
Regards & Hail Hail
TBM
Just reading through that charlie green story …… he gets physically threatened face to face .. Has to move every week … Check his car for bombs !!!!!
Then he falls in love with the club and its fans
If you cant beat them … Join em
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?