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.
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Glasgow housebreakers – now’s your chance to become Efe’s agent.
BT…………………………..
Or anybody………………….
if you are about, my phone member is
0034 699 170 815
Bigjoe…………………….
Morning from a Dreich Barcelona.
A splattering of Tims about the
Big Joe
09:26 on
22 October, 2012
• timbhoy in spain
I´ve watched a few games in Paddy´s point maeself.I see it´s up for sale ?
You live near La zenia then ?
the above phone number will self-destruct in 10 seconds
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up_over_goal
09:39
Its their six second rule. The 5 second rule is what we use for food in west of scotland,
And what they do is all press rigourously for the first six seconds, if they dont win it back after that then yes, they do stand off and control the space, but they will keep fighting for the ball if its right tactically.
“if we can force them to punt it” didn’t think I’d even seen that word when used with barca before. But I do agree, pressing ALWAYS starts from the front.
Messi:
You say dont man mark him, saying he will make runs and drag his marker.
If your talking man marking and messi then do it the greece template, 1 man always on him and make the game 10vs10. Despite thinking that would stifle him I dont agree with this method either.
So; the zonalmarking method you mentioned. Seems rather simplistic way to put it but I know what you mean, messi keeps the ball glued to his feet, has ridiculous levels of acceleration and is not easily bullied off the ball.
If you stand off him he’ll either 1-2 it with another player to take it past them, or he’ll shoot.
The team does have to be drilled in who is picking him up in certain areas of course so do agree with you.
But depressingly for us its no where near as simple as the players knowing where to be and when to be there, he is just too good, I wish I had an answer.
Agree with the rest of what you say other than one thing; busquets is not eh conductor, he is the one tasked with dropping deep to pick it up from the centre halves while setting them spred wider as the full backs push on.
Oh, and yes teh successful teams against barca were physical and direct but more than that they all excelled on the counter attack, personally I think Madrid are the best counter attacking team there is and Chelsea used Ramires beautifully along with attacking again in numbers on the break.
So we are on the same page I think
Big Efe forgets his passport?
What is it they say about footballers + brains? :)
Big Joe – Alex O’Henley suggesting thst Efe’s passport fell out his pocket when he was doing those somersaults.
Ola Hoopsters ,
from a dreich, Avenue Diagonal.
A splattering of Tims about the place.I came here expecting nothing, and hoping for everything.
Wee Oscar YNWA.
Keep fighting wee Mhan.
A67
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
09:46
completely agree, no pressure on us.
Just clocked who the Ref is ——
Gianluca Rocchi –
A controversial figure in Italy . Famous for the quantity and quality of his errors .
Heavily implicated in Calciopoli . Much debate whether he is corrupt or simply astonishingly inept . Very card happy .
Claudio Ranieri described him as the worst Referee he had ever seen .
Mourinho publicly accused him of bias .
A big selling national newspaper calls him — ” The Rocchi Horror Show “
Shouldn’t someone be co-ordinating things for the team, making sure they have passports and tickets, etc?
South of Tunis @ 10.10
“Much debate whether he is corrupt or simply astonishingly inept”. That sounds strangely familiar.
Craig Thomson gave a ridiculous penalty to Holland against Romania a week ago. This was after an awful performance in a Europa League game when the Schalke manager called him a clown and an amateur. Inept abroad, inept and possibly something else in Scotland.
Our game plan for tomorrow, should be
1. concentrate
2. disrupt
3. hit on the break
4. Any set pieces to be launched into their box
5. learn
21-5-79
Cheers fella
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
10:15 on
22 October, 2012
Shouldn’t someone be co-ordinating things for the team, making sure they have passports and tickets, etc?
……..
I’m sure they were all given a checklist/itineary, best laid plans n all that
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
10:15
Interesting point, wouldn’t cost the club much to employ a “logistics and administrations supervisor” (ie personal travel agent/tour assistant) who got teams bags checked held passports etc.
Could be same person who arranges bus travel to and from games or the European flights, where the team stays, makes reservations on restaurants etc.
In saying that stuff like this doesn’t happen very often
South Of Tunis
Let’s hope Ole Rochhi doesn’t have an aberration of a night leading to a horror show for the Hoops..
Son of Gabriel
On the counter attack it’s obvious – Samaras. On the right wing it’s a bit less certain – Brown and Forrest have question marks around their fitness. Besides, Brown is there to break up play and make runs off the ball.
Lenny has said only players who are 100% fit will make the team.
Almost tempted to go with the Lustig/Matthews pairing down the right (see the Inverness game), as both have decent pace and can put in a good cross. Their lack of experience would worry me.
79caps
10:18
What are you suggesting?
Your starting to sound paranoid ;)
BT
enjoy your tour
Son of Gabriel
Yes, I know it’s the consensus on here that SPL referees are merely (occasionally) inept. ;)
I wasn’t having a go or making some sort of point about spending money. I just always thought that clubs employed a co-ordinator/ administrator to take care of this sort of stuff. You know, the kind of details that are too important to leave to footballers to remember!
up_over_goal
10:23
Samaras is your wide left option yes? Personally I have forrest wide right with brown along 2 others in the centre, but playing one of the right backs there wouldn’t worry me but would still stifle our already limited attacking options in teh game, they need targets (plural) to aim for
Only problem with sammy on the counter is when he releases the ball and, at times, his decision making but he is still a mandatory piece of teh puzzle.
To me on the counter in modern football you need 3 miniumum going forward, preferably 4. So I’d be thinking sammy, hoops, right winger and either brown or ledley.
I think the club usually holds onto players’ passports, but with Efe being on international duty last week, he must have taken possession of his own documents. Perhaps, with arriving back late in the week and all that, he didn’t get round to handing it back in.
There are people who take charge of Passports and travel documents etc.,
They are called your Mammy or Daddy.
Efe? all his brains are in his feet!!
Wednesday would be a good day for the huns to bury bad news.
Are zombie’s good at digging?
Dig, dig; dig dig; dig… dig, dig, big breath and wipe the flaking flesh from your brow and – dig-dig-dig-dig-dig-dig-dig. For the love of your sash and tainted glory – dig.
South Of Tunis – Interesting Re the Ref. Is he arrogant? Does he like to be the centre of attention?
I find the ones who are crap and arrogant are the ones who enjoy being booed by large crowds which may mean we could get some joy out of him
RFCCreditorOfTheDay@RFCCreditors
Rangers Creditor Of The Day No.22 Culture & Sport Glasgow Glasgow City Council £10,338.96 Total debt to date: £565,691.11
Son of Gabriel
I’m against playing 5 across the middle.
Hooper is a certainty to start, so, if Commons is fit, he must play as an advanced attacking midfielder. Leaving Hooper isolated will not work. His performances against Helsinki and Helsingborgs showed he is not lone striker material.
From what I saw of Ledley on Saturday, he didn’t look properly fit. Mulgrew looked in superb condition, so if it comes down to it, I hope Neil picks Charlie.
I feel he will go with Samaras as the lone striker. My thinking being he holds the ball up better than Hooper whose first touch is not the best. We are not going to have a lot of the ball but when we get it we cannot be wasteful.
Just received my password reset at last,just in time for the biggest match of the season,c’mon you boys in green do us proud hail hail ;-)
blantyretim takes in the air during his morning stroll on Barca beach
Italian media made a big thing re Rubin Kazan beating Barca .
Remember seeing the Kazan Manager being interviewed and asked how it had been done ——–
He said ———– I paraphrase.
Man marking Xavi / shooting on sight / having lots of luck and praying .
With all the staff who travel with the team one might think someone would have it in his job description to take control of that type of admin task
So Pop pickers, the excellent CQN’er Barrach Obampot and myself have started a CQM Celtic Quick Music group over on Mixcloud for those music lovers amongst us who would like to contribute to the group.
You don’t have to mix the tunes to take part you can compile playlists and upload them, you will however probably have to make a Mixcloud account to join the musical chairs.
Mixcloud is spam free and a great free way to listen to many different styles of music..
http://www.mixcloud.com/groups/cqm/ is the group address…
Look forward to hearing some CQN classics from y’all..
Starry
We don’t need to beat Barca; just give a good account of ourselves; show them we can play a bit of football, too.
‘Mixcloud’, can’t be as good as an ole Dick Byrne mixtape.
‘A Flux of Pink Indians’ on an ole C90.
Asthey say, form is temporary, class is permanent.