For years we’ve analysed Celtic performances, wins and losses, in the rarefied Champions League environment with a recurring theme: more often than not at this level, mistakes, not great play, determines the outcome.
Last night’s top match, Juventus v Real Madrid, was no different. Real lost two goals, one from a penalty after a reckless challenge inside the box by Varane, another when the same player turned his back on the ball to watch Llorente, instead of attacking a 40 yard cross. The worst mistake came from Juventus. Instead of clearing the ball long, a defender put teammate Caceres under pressure, who could have put his laces through the ball and conceded possession 50 yards downfield, but chose to attempted to reach his keeper with a back-pass, which found Christiano Ronaldo instead.
The ‘schoolboy error’ metaphor is way overused in the game, but is never more apt than when watching the Champions League. Perhaps a bountiful source of individuals with rock-solid Superiority Complexes.
These are two of the most professional teams in the game. Their market knowledge, sports science, mental strength and tactical awareness will be as good as anyone in the game, but still this result was determined by a wayward and pointless back-pass, an equally pointless penalty box lunge and forgetting that crosses into the box take priority over watching your man.
Celtic know this well. We make fewer mistakes in Champions League games than we do in domestic football, while our recent wins benefited from opposition mistakes (penalty against Ajax, penalty against Spartak, Xavi kung-fu kick missing the ball, Spartak player red carded). Scott Brown’s off the ball indiscretion, which cost us a point, and Nir Biton’s ‘challenge’ are notable exceptions.
Ajax think they are the better team – which gives Celtic a great advantage. They think they can overwhelm us tonight, that they failed to make the most of their chances at Celtic Park and that we benefited from a couple of fortunate moments. This is a reasonable assessment based on last month’s game but know better as we’ve been watching re-runs of this script for years. Celtic’s win had nothing to do with fortune or missed chances, it came about as planned – deny the opposition space in dangerous areas, clear your lines and exploit their mistakes.
The Champions League is not about your best 89 minutes play, it’s about your worst minute, just ask a few sore-feeling footballers in Turin this morning. If Celtic avoid unenforced errors and wait patiently to exploit those a self-assured Ajax will make (no one does self-assured like Dutch footballers), they have nothing to fear. Keep 11 players on the field, don’t give away penalties (evidence elsewhere last night suggests unscrupulous players dive inside the box) or free kicks around the box, block shots from outside the box, and most of all…. clear your lines.
Do this, and our clever players will ensure that the result will take care of itself.
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Hope Celtic get a good result tonight. Head not in it right enough due to some bad news today.
Keep The Faith.
The Dutch polis make our mob seem competent.
9 Ajax fans lifted for last night’s events.
!!Bada Bing!! @ 17:27
There’s also photos. Never saw photos of water cannons but I did see tweets from Celtic fans who say they are there and saw it.
ASonofDan -sorry to hear about your dad.
The Sky msm reporter saying Ajax should have won in Glasgow .
@Marti Sandino
Thanks
~SPF~
ASonofDan, Sorry to hear you had bad news today. Obviously not knowing what it is, its hard to know what to say. Hopefully you will be Ok and will have better days. Hail Hail
Morrissey the 23rd
17:23 on
6 November, 2013
Alex hooligans got off a tram in Dam Square. Got chased. Cops seperated fans with water cannons. Some Celtic fans threw bottles at police. Source: Twitter.
====================================
Morrissey, sorry to contradict you but it was Chelsea fans that threw bottles at the police. ;-)
A SonofDan, Just saw Dontbrattbakkinangers post, and see the news relates to your Dad. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
morrissey the 23rd-unacceptable if true HH
Surprised to hear of trouble in Amsterdam. There is an abundance of Irish tricolours waved by the Celtic support on these trips and many of the support are composed of Irish working in Germany and Holland etc who gather for these games.
The Dutch and the Irish have played against each other in the World and European championships finals in Italy, USA and Germany and enjoyed huge post game parties where alcohol flowed freely with not a hint of trouble.
Celts to get at least a point to-night. We’ve a great record against Ajax.
Jacaknory will be wanting to give the wee hunned-up subby on the Shortie website another opportunity to put Celtic Fans and Warning in the same headline………this time augmented by “troubl”e and “hooligans”, “ugly scenes” etc etc etc
The F-side is a Dutch football hooligan firm associated with AFC Ajax. The name came from the stand in Ajax’ former stadium De Meer Vak F
The F-side was founded in 1976. The biggest rivalry was between the F-side and Vak S of Feyenoord. The F-side has also many clashes with the North Side of ADO Den Haag and the Bunnikside of FC Utrecht. After the famous Staafincident ( Iron bar incident ) in 1989 Ajax took measures. After a very high fence was installed in front of the F-side’s traditional seating in Vak F, the F-side decided to move to Vak M, next to the stand for away supporters. Other supporters from other cities in the Netherlands came to use the old F-side stand. The old F-siders came mainly from Amsterdam. In the F-side there were now two groups – the old and the new generation.[
Ajax is popularly seen as having “Jewish roots” and in the 1970s supporters of rival teams began taunting Ajax fans by calling them Jews. Ajax fans (few of whom are actually Jewish) responded by embracing Ajax’s “Jewish” identity: calling themselves “super Jews”, chanting “Joden, Joden”” (Jews, Jews) at games, and adopting Jewish symbols such as the Star of David and the Israeli flag. This Jewish imagery eventually became a central part of Ajax fans’ culture. At one point ringtones of “Hava Nagila”, a Hebrew folk song, could be downloaded from the club’s official website. Beginning in the 1980s, fans of Ajax’s rivals escalated their antisemitic rhetoric, chanting slogans like “Hamas, Hamas/Jews to the gas” (“Hamas, hamas, joden aan het gas”), hissing to imitate the flow of gas, giving Nazi salutes, etc. The eventual result was that many (genuinely) Jewish Ajax fans stopped going to games. In the 2000s the club began trying to persuade fans to drop their Jewish image, yet have achieved no success in this pursuit. Supporters, on and off the field, still employ imagery associated with Jewish history and the Israeli nation.
Much mischief making likely by supporters of the Tribute Act seeking to muddy the waters of truth and class us in the same light as them.
Shameful.
The BBC report of last night’s attack was shameful.
“… fans involved in violent incidents…”
It wasn’t till about the 5th par, in a quote from Celtic FC, that we learn this was an unprovoked attack by Ajax hooligans.
Should be used to it by now but I’m not.
Seems when Celtic were attacked. They charged the Ajax fans and the cops responded by penning the Celtic fans in. The police are not getting glowing reports.
Hankray
Been to Amsterdam for the last two Celtic games. They have a scum element of coward back stabbers. Knew they would cause bother tonight.
ASonOfDan
You and your Dad are in my thoughts and prayers.
Take care.
Hankray-can’t say im surprised at trouble after the number of travelling bams the other week.
Crowd who attacked didn’t look like typical Ajax fans, dark ugly skinny fexkerdee anyone hurt, just a
Jeg er………….
deliberate and conscioius effort to move the agenda on Scotland’s Shame……..
it’s the wan’s as bad as the ither strategy………….
…………epitome of lazy Journalism.
Thanks for that, obviously a different class of fan follows the national team who have always mixed well with the Irish.
Sorry, its an Amsterdam thing…
A few people spooked but no real damage done.
Hail hail
Finding it hard to shake off pessimistic thoughts about tonight’s game. Ajax are exactly the type of team that can cause us issues. I just hope the news of their defensive weaknesses are not exaggerated.
Would love to get away with, at least, a draw.
Hope to be proven wrong later tonight
If James Forrest is fit and healthy, he is a certain starter tonight, indeed, in any of Lenny’s teams.
Big night for the wee man. There will be more space tonight to run into as Ajax* are likely to hold a high line. He will also need to close down Danny Blunds bouy, who is the go-to for the Ajax keeper for starting moves from the back.
God speed JF.
* for the record, in this post I am pronouncing Ajax as ‘A-Jacks’, as a tribute to simpler times.
No doubt the bhoys will be made out the bad guys here . Morrissey the 23 rd,s filmof what went on should be posted on every news site in the country .
SFTB
Sincerely hope your wrong!
0-1 for the ghood ghuys!
timabhouy
17:16 on 6 November, 2013
Sorry, just on….do these figures mean what I think they mean….?
Greengo and whyte (and their allies) have the majority vote…..and……many of the shares were sold at 1p per share, as I’ve been saying all along……(“£22m my erse”)….
Jings .john bluetie just showed footage on the news . that was quick .
All this fighting in the Dam. Everyone should just take hunners of drugs and have a big cuddle
Last night: https://twitter.com/KayleighM2445/status/398137564160618496/photo/1
If Celtic win tonight, I will be proud as ever of my club.
If Celtic lose tonight, I will be equally proud of my club.
So long as Celtic give it everything they have, then there is NO result that will disappoint me.
They will be no more or no less the same club that Brother Walfrid, James McGrory, Patsy Gallagher, Charlie Tully, Jimmy Johnstone, & hundreds of other great Celtic men have spent their lives loving & serving.
We are in a better place than our club has EVER been before.
Whatever happens we will still be part of the greatest sporting club on planet Earth.
Que sera sera.
Evening CQNers,
gonna be a long night. Almost more worried about folk getting home okay than the result after watching that CCTV clip from last night. Did I see it correctly and did they all turn and run when just 2 or 3 security guys appeared?
Cowardly lowlifes.
Attacking a few middle-aged guys not looking for any bother.
HH
We are 11/4 to in tonight, A-Jacks are odds on at 5/6.
Wonder what the bookies know…..
The majority of Dutch football fans detest the Ajax hooligans. As i mentioned previously they also believe the Dutch police are fearty barstewards for not dealing with them.
My work colleague and mate is over in Holland – one of his best mates lives not far from Amsterdam. They were hopeful of getting tickets. But he told me that his mate had said even if they did get tickets they would only go to the stadium and leave.
But most importantly – without tickets they would stay away from Amsterdam as a whole because the Ajax fans are bad, bad news. Away fans visiting their stadium are always kettled and contained away from the Ajax fans.
They never got tickets – he’s spent a boozy afternoon away from Amsterdam in some great dutch company and is really looking forward to the game.
As am I.
SFTB.
Optimism costs nothing. And we all know the power of positive vibes man…
U
①③①② @Makavelli1312
Ajax Hooligans Have Pulled Guns Out On Celtic Fans Tonight.