Celtic passed the ball well throughout last night’s game. The players were confident enough to take a touch under pressure, which was key to the performance and a step beyond the more rudimentary show in the Camp Nou last season. In this respect, it was a better performance than the win in Moscow, and was an improvement on even the home game against Milan in 2004.
Countless screeds were written about Efe Ambrose after his mistake against Juventus, which seemed to affect the rest of his season, but the Nigerian international looked every inch a Champions League player. His composure and driving runs were crucial in determining Celtic’s effectiveness.
All played well but if we are going to push for highlights the right flank was exceptional. How proud of Adam Matthews were you after his full-speed dribble through the Milan half? At Euro 2012 I remember some respected observers wrote that Mikael Lustig was the weakest link in the Sweden team. If the Spanish international manager watched last night’s performance he would surely lobby for the introduction of national team transfers.
These two were scouted and brought to the club for a combined total of around £1m. Since arriving they have both grown into players who can excel at the San Siro. The clues of what is happening at Celtic are not hard to find.
Charlie Mulgrew has to endure the mantle of ‘utility player’ and in the absence of Joe Ledley and Beram Kayal partnered Scott Brown in central midfield, his fourth best position. Not that there was any sign of this. Brown and Mulgrew’s intelligent movement made possible all that passing and control.
Despite the great performance Milan came away with the points and a great chance to progress. They gave Stokes, Samaras and Commons little opportunity all night. The chances which Samaras, Stokes and Brown had were ultimately all defended well. Stokes free kick which rebounded off the crossbar would have changed the result but it was far from an easy chance.
Going forward we would do well to remember the importance of winning free kicks around the edge of the box. Teemu Pukki looked to have lost possession but used his strength well to win the infringement which resulted in Stokes free kick. Mario Balotelli needed little encouragement to tumble all night and he did so effectively five minutes from time.
Make sure we win free kicks 24 yards out and don’t concede them.
An away defeat against the second seed in the first game is probably a better result than the 0-0 home draw we achieved against Benfica last season, but Milan have an important 3 points in the bag in what looks like an interesting fight for second place.
Celtic are the team who can most improve their chances of qualification on match day 2. Another win against Barcelona at Celtic Park would give us an excellent chance of progressing but the journey up from pot 4 is incredibly difficult.
Is it a worry that we conceded late goals after the players were showing signs of lethargy? Lethargy is a well-documented part of the game, one which is often crucial in determining success in Champions League football and which we can learn to exploit.
1254125 at The Great Scottish Run.
On Sunday 6 October there is a 10k and Half Marathon. If that is beyond you. There are family events taking place the day before. This is your club, remind the world of what really counts and get involved in 1254125.
The first thing you need to do is sign up for the Great Scottish Run, or here for one of the family events.
Once you’ve done that, you can register for the 1254125 campaign here.
Then you can create a donations page here. Click Start Fundraising, search for Celtic Charity, setup your My Donate account).
Email me and let me know if you are having trouble signing up or need any more help, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
To read the new issue of CQN Magazine click here (don’t try to read the graphic below).
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Dessie
Does anyone suffer from sunstroke out there ;)))))
CQNrs
Just dropped an e mail to Kano in oz .
Remember Martin ?
If you do … drop him an e mail .. or drop me one and I will give you his addy.
If you don’t remember martin kane .. read up on kano .. please keep in touch with our bhoy
Good morning friends and a Big Happy Friday from a dry but cloudy (of the darkish variety) and calm East Kilbride.
Seems like ages since we’ve had a home game so I’m already looking forward to the next few weeks when we have 4 of our next 5 games at Celtic Park –
Sep 21 – HOME to St Johnstone
Sep 24 – HOME to Morton
Sep 28 – away to Killie (although a few CQN’s may be watching this at our home?)
Oct 1 – HOME to Barcelona
Oct 5 – HOME to Motherwell
Magic!
SEptember 21
– St Johnstone
Oops, sorry about that end bit ;-)
Tbj… Sunstroke, yes I believe they do
..me.. An remember to tell the milkman to make sure the rolls are well fired an crispy!!
Morning,
Henrik’s Birthday today.
“You only get monkeys when you spend peanuts” – Derek Johnstone on the signing by Celtic of Henrik Larsson.
Happy Birthday to the King of Kings…
A son of Dan
Would like to echo your birthday wishes to Henrik.
The greatest Celtic player I’ve seen.
King of Kings indeed!
Guten Morgen from an overcast Niedersachsen, heading by ICE train to Bayern, specifically Munich for a couple of large beers. Have a good one Henrik.
Burghbhoy
I second that – Henriks is the best Celt Ive seen. I cant say about before 1965.
Happy Birthday Henke.
Top of the morning to you all from a fair and mild Fife.
Two top Scots writers are publishing a pamphlet for the Saltire Society today, which savages the Ofensive Behaviour at Football legislation which threatens freedom of speech.
Yesterday’s Courier gave details of a Celtic fan fined £600 and banned from all football matches in the UK by a sheriff for singing “The Roll of Honour” at Dundee. Another sheriff in the same Dundee court acquitted another fan recently for the same offense and called the new OBFM laws “mince”.
How this legislation came into being and survives now when only one political party supported it is beyond me.
We see squads of highly paid police officers and vast resources expended on often futile evidence gathering and time consuming trials to convict young football fans for offending (who?) while organised crime is given a free reign to: sell drugs, sell people, extort money, murder, maim, and menace with impunity it seems.
Who apart from the police wanted this legislation?
Just in to say…
Many Happy Hoopy Returns to the 2nd best Celt that I have ever seen
Kenny Dalglish 1st
Henrik Larsson 2nd
P.S. Many thanks to Wim & Murdo
for giving us the gift called – Henke
Hail Hail n God Bless – Off oot.
meansong
05:06 on 20 September, 2013
A few folk have raved about “The Wire” looks good, it’ll be next on my list. HH
A team of British scientists is convinced it has found proof of alien life, after it harvested strange particles from the edge of space.
The scientists sent a balloon 27km into the stratosphere, which came back carrying small biological organisms which they believe can only have originated from space.
Professor Milton Wainwright told The Independent that he was “95 per cent convinced” that the organisms did not originate from earth.
“By all known information that science has, we know that they must be coming in from space,” he said. “There is no known mechanism by which these life forms can achieve that height. As far as we can tell from known physics, they must be incoming.”
Some of the samples were captured covered with cosmic dust, adding further credence to the idea that they have originated from space.
“The organisms are not usual,” said Professor Wainwright, who works at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. “If they came from earth, we would expect to see stuff that we find on earth commonly, like pollen.”
“We’re very, very confident that these are biological entities originating from space,” he said, acknowledging that absolutely certainty is hard to achieve in science.
The team believes that the entities are coming from comets, which are big balls of ice shooting through space. The samples were collected during a meteorite shower from a comet. As they hit the earth’s atmosphere, the comets melt – ablate, to give it a technical term – releasing the organisms as they break down.
“The particles are very clean,” added Prof Wainwright. “They don’t have any dust attached to them, which again suggests they’re not coming to earth. Similarly, cosmic dust isn’t stuck to them, so we think they came from an aquatic environment, and the most obvious aquatic environment in space is a comet.
“They’re very unusual beasts, not your normal kind of life from earth.”
The organisms are probably not alive, but, excitingly, probably do contain DNA. Similar ones harvested during an earlier experiment have contained the chemical, which is one of the fundamental building blocks of life on earth.
The fact that they contain DNA is probably one of the most exciting aspects to this discovery, as it is a big hint that life on earth may itself have extraterrestrial origins.
“If we’re right, it means that there’s life in space, and it’s coming to earth. It means that life on earth probably originated in space,” said Professor Wainwright. “Statistically, there’s no reason why life should originate on earth. There are billions and billions of comets, but most biologists are stuck on earth.
“The earth is an open system with biology raining down on it as we speak.
“It’s almost too amazing to believe.”
He scotched the theory that the life forms arrived in the upper atmosphere after being blasted there from a volcano.
“The last volcano was three years ago, and the matter has all been deposited by now,” he said.
Professor Wainwright’s team is hoping to extend and confirm their results by carrying out the test again in October to coincide with the upcoming Halley’s Comet-associated meteorite shower when there will be large amounts of cosmic dust. It is hoped that more new, or unusual, organisms will be found.
The group’s findings have been published in the Journal of Cosmology and updated versions will appear in the same journal, a new version of which will be published in the near future. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Buckingham University Centre for Astrobiology also gave a presentation of the group’s findings at a meeting of astronomers and astrobiologists in San Diego last month.
Despite these fantastical claims, the Journal of Cosmology has had its reputation called into question more than once by other members of the celticquicknews community.
An esteemed CQN poster instantly dismissed the notion “A big ballon in space ? Are we talking about Sevconians here ? Have they truly analysed these particles ? We would not be surprised if it was dandruff from a very excitable Sevconian doing a really big bouncy after the Ramsden Cup results recently. That would explain why this has never been analysed before. There is noone brave enough to be exposed to such matter in a normal atmospheric conditions”
When Professor Milton Wainwright was confronted by these contradictions to his theory he could not be contacted having been arrested for shop lifting and embezzling the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology slush fund for the annual Christmas outing.
Sipsini
The Wire is a fantastic series.
You’d need to hurry up with BB though. Its all over in less than two weeks and its going out on a bang.
It will be hard to escape the spoilers
sipsini, you’ll go square eyed ya bam. Get aff that telly and away oot and dig a hole in yer garden or sumat.
One Henrik Larsson, there’s only one……………………………………..
Bah, I tried to call him to say hoopy birthday but there’s 16’492 of them in the Stockholm phone book.
Thank-goodness it is Friday.
Big Nan
08:29 on
20 September, 2013
Meanwhile “The cry was no surrender……. ” and the accompanying ” bonds “are tolerated,nay protected, as they pollute the streets of Scottish cities with their anti-Catholic agenda.
No.Not braindead politicians.
Bigoted politicians.
Careful what you vote for next year ,lads.
Aw-naw if you are reading, are you going back home by train today or do you fly back? If you are going by train and fancy a quick beer at the station before you board let me know and I’ll meet you at the Hauptbahnhof, I arrive in Munich at 13:11.
Wee Jinky was the best followed by Henrik then KD, I did see all 3 in the flesh but it’s all just a matter of personal opinions.
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
Bobby Murdoch
Pogmathonyahun
I arrive in HBF around 13.30.
My train leaves 13.45 (which I have to be on or I will be standing for 3 hours and 20 minutes)
If you fancy a ten minute meet up. Sounds good to me.
Its a busy place at this time so where do you want to meet up
I suggest the French coffee place .. cant remember its name
HH
pog and aw_naw
either cqn badges or red carnations?
For me,George Connelly
Since he cut his career short,Bobby,thenJinky.
BTW-ACGR
“One Henrik Larsson, there’s only one……………………………………..
Bah, I tried to call him to say hoopy birthday but there’s 16’492 of them in the Stockholm phone book.”
Belter!
BT
I always wear a red carnation so it will have to be the badge.
I´ll put my green and white hoops on so that Pog can pick me out ;-)
HH
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
09:03 on 20 September, 2013
Big Nan
08:29 on
20 September, 2013
Meanwhile “The cry was no surrender……. ” and the accompanying ” bonds “are tolerated,nay protected, as they pollute the streets of Scottish cities with their anti-Catholic agenda.
No.Not braindead politicians.
Bigoted politicians.
Careful what you vote for next year ,lads.
…………………………………………..
Yes that as well and not a mention of it in the Bill.
Of course it only offends Timmy, they think. They are wrong.
aw_naw
pog likes his beirs…
Aw-naw I’ll meet you in front of the info desk in the centre of the Hbf. I’ll be wearing a brown hooded jacket, a washed-out black T-shirt and light coloured breeks. I’ll be sporting a pair of specs and respond to the salutation ” Howzit gaun ya fat bassa”.
BT
Yeah me too but not any really distinctive meeting place as there is som anay watering holes. We will get a quick couple in
If I hear from him !! ;-)
HH
Pog
I will be wearing a green and white hooped rugby shirt. See you there !!
HH
Aw-naw, looking forward to it. Just had a coffee so far but will probably partake of a Weißbier or 2 in the buffet. It’s going to be a long day as meeting a big Bavarian Tim pal tonight.
Morning all.
Met quite a few red-faced Milan fans since yesterday morning.
“We were lucky!”, was the general consensus. A couple are desperate to come to CP for the return match.
Happy birthday Henrik.
HH!!
After telling you of the horrendous amount of ex-huns masquerading as panelists on Al Jazeera,on CL nights,I tuned in last night to watch the Europa games.Straight away confronted by the ugly coupon of Mark Hately.It seems this channel has an endless supply of this strain.
Very sorry for all the CQNrs that never got to see “Jinky”.Watched him from 1st to last.The greatest.Genius winger,playmaker,goalscorer,supreme entertainer,heart of a lion,there was nothing the “Wee man”did not have.Still miss him.
clink\o/, acgr.
That’s the thing about nightshift, I can watch what I want, rather than two teenagers dictating to me.HH
leggoland
▼
Friday, 20 September 2013
PROCURATOR FISCAL LAUNCHES FRAUD PROBE INTO RANGERS
RANGERS are being investigated by the Procurator Fiscal after allegations of fraud.
The bombshell news follows information and evidence of alleged wrongdoing which I can reveal was handed to the Serious Fraud Office in London this week.
They have no jurisdiction in Scotland, but senior figures in the Serious Fraud Office were sufficiently impressed by the nature of the evidence and details in the complaint that they immediately contacted the Procurator Fiscal’s office in Glasgow.
Now the Fiscal has called for a full police probe into these extremely serious and wide ranging allegations and senior officers will now interview the Rangers executive directors who were responsible for the share issue last December, plus certain transactions which took place earlier this year in the aftermath of the Imran Ahmad, Charles Green and Brian Stockbridge launched IPO which saw Rangers quoted on the Stock Exchange.
The IPO raised £22.5M which financial director Stockbridge, the only one of that trio who is still on the board, has admitted is now all gone.
I understand that the Procurator Fiscal-ordered-investigation will focus on certain transactions which came in the wake of that £22.5M being raised, transactions which helped drain that huge cash injection and reduce it to zero in a matter of months.
The news that the Rangers books could be seized by the police with financial director Stockbridge, former chief executive Charles Green and ex commercial director Imran Ahmad facing a grilling, possibly under caution, will undermine the current board’s bid to stay in place.
For the police probe into these serious allegations will almost certainly still be under way when the current crop of directors, including financial director Stockbridge, are forced to offer themselves to the shareholders for election at the Annual General Meeting which must now take place no later than October 31st
Happy 42nd Birthday to The King of Kings.
He’s the best all round player I’ve seen at Celtic. Jinky was at times world class, and the top entertainer.
Dalglish, Murdoch and McGrain make up my top five.
hh
Page 14 started at 07:00 GMT and the latest post is at 09:51 by Sipsini. CSN today?