The margin between great success and disastrous failure at this level can be paper thin. Celtic failed to make the most of a 28th minute corner kick and within 30 seconds, Cluj opened the scoring. Lewis Morgan missed a challenge in the 70 yards from goal and the inch-perfect through ball got beyond Boli Bolingoli for Mario Rondon to score.
We have seen many Celtic teams wilt after losing a goal away in Europe, but James Forrest made sure the same would not happen on this occasion.
Within nine minutes of the opener, Forrest played a give-and-go with the impressive Hatem Abd Elhamed, collected the return pass and shot, the ball clipping the inside of the post on its way into the net. This passage of play turned the tie in Celtic’s direction.
While there is a high expectation Celtic will progress to the playoff round, our chances are no more than they were when we secured the same result away to Maribor in 2014. There is work to do on Tuesday. In particular, the nature of the Cluj goal is of concern.
Apart from one dreadfully defended corner, Celtic restricted Cluj to few genuine chances, but they were able to punish us on the break. This will be the basis of their game plan next week. Soak up as much pressure as possible and overload on our flanks when we are forward. It does teams no harm to have a simple game plan. We will need to be at our best.
More on Kieran Tierney later. There will be chat like: “This is how football works and has done so for decades. It’s why many players come to Celtic. They come and go, our job is to understand how the sport works and to be good at it….”
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TURKEYBHOY on 8TH AUGUST 2019 2:41 PM
Oh right, I thought that might have been the case!
Yes, huge pressure matches to be thrown into, scrutinised to the finest detail. He seems a bit on edge defensively, like he is afraid of making a mistake. Hopefully just taking time to acclimatise.
HH
AURORABOREALIS79 on 8TH AUGUST 2019 2:41 PM
Someone above said that KT’s love & commitment to Celtic could never be questioned. He just walked out on the Club he loves while only 2 years in to a 6 year contract, which he (apparently) begged for.
Nonsense, if Lawwell said Ajer was not for sale, he obviously did say KT was for sale, he never asked to go, we could told Arsenal et al he was not for sale,but didn’t.
I’m late to the party on this. Haven’t been on CQN since before kick-off yesterday.
Firstly : A more than decent result. Would have taken a score draw before the game.
Performance wise.. it wasn’t pretty. But we fought and dug in well enough. I thought the last 15-20 minutes, we looked capable of adding a 2nd. With the pace of the game, and with Cluj having half a dozen players in their 30s.. I definitely suspected they were starting to wilt.
And for me… that is key for the return leg. We are younger, fitter, fresher than Cluj. With the right energy and support from the stands, I expect Celtic to go at this team, relentlessly, high press, high tempo. Because, our reward may come later in the game, deep in to the 2nd half. But it will come. I believe we will wear them down.
seems PL want s a smaller squad… bigger bonus.. selling SS is a complete farce.. We have no replacement Seem to think if we have a decent first 11 then that#s fine. LG – no idea how he will cope this year. ON might throw toys out pram. New boys could be rotten. anda few players will get kicked lumps out of with no protection (Christie McGregor Johnston)
PS if PL can’t persuade Celtic Fan KT to stay with 4 years on contract what chance with Ajer, CalMac. or are celtic forcing KT out to get cash in now.?
badabing
every player has a price, if celtic were offered 20-25ml for ajer i think pl would bite,lmo.
MARADOMINIC on 8TH AUGUST 2019 3:05 PM
PS if PL can’t persuade Celtic Fan KT to stay with 4 years on contract what chance with Ajer, CalMac. or are celtic forcing KT out to get cash in now.?
____
The argument is, how can we convince young players to come to Celtic if we won’t let them go when a great offer comes in.
We’re a stepping stone if you like it or not.
BIGBHOY on 8TH AUGUST 2019 2:34 PM
What about Meling of Rosenberg? He looked a Talented player and looked
___
I liked him yes.
Don’t know why we aren’t interested
Some will agree… some will disagree… This is life.
But at what point does N.L pull Broony aside for that talk ?
You know the one.
When a true great …player & servant is no longer indespensible. When the old legs aren’t quite shutting off the spaces, and closing down opponents are sharply as they used to.
Because we can all be in denial about this… but to my mind the cracks are evident.
The pace of the first 30 minutes last night was such, the game was far too open. It went from one end to the next. All the time, Broony couldn’t exert his control on proceedings. His influence was minimal. Game was passing him by.
And I’m not using last nights game in isolation.
As 34 year olds go, he is still fit. He can still play an important role. But to my mind, we must… really must be looking at a succession plan. What is that succession plan. Who is the succession plan?
If Wanyama on loan is viable, that would be a yes from me.
With £25 mil in the coffers, the lad Cifuentes would be worth pursuing. Wanted by Man City, starred at the U’20 World Cup… You would suspect there is talent there.
AURORABOREALIS79 on 8TH AUGUST 2019 2:41 PM
Someone above said that KT’s love & commitment to Celtic could never be questioned. He just walked out on the Club he loves while only 2 years in to a 6 year contract, which he (apparently) begged for.
I guess that is the modern day commitment for ye
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Does every player who leaves Celtic ‘walk out the on the club’. Did the King of Kings do that when he came to the end of his contract? Bit of perspective needed.
Celtic stated KT had a price, which is more indicative of modern day football, instead of this ‘modern day commitment’ you refer to.
KT wore his heart on his sleeve and as a result showed that he shares the passion he has for Celtic with his fellow supporters. That seems to have gone against him now judging by some opinions.
KT leaves the club knowing that he always gave 100%, played with injury when asked to/when not asked to, and as a Treble Treble winner. He’ll leave with a heavy heart at not being around to achieve 10, but he has a career to think of. He leaves in very good circumstances.
HH
Get Involved #bbcfootball
Guess the transfer deadline day signing:
Martin Wigham: That is 100% Yerda Selzavon.
Harrison Short: John Carew?
Stuart: Rudy Gestede?
******
BBC been caught out a bit here!
HH
Some amount of nonsense on here again today.
How exactly could Celtic “force” Tierney to leave? At gun point?
Why is this so hard for people to comprehend? He’s been offered three times his wages, and he’s taking the money. Nothing more, nothing less. Celtic have not treated him unfairly, nor done over the fans. All Kieran Tierney had to do was say “no thanks, I’m quite happy here.”
What do people think would happened? Would Lawwell have forced him into the reserves?
What nonsense some people believe.
Does Celtic actually employ PR / media gurus? If so. Could they kindly tell the puppet master that the season has started.
Every single year……..
B Merling from Rosenborg
Cifuentes from Ecuador
Get these 2 lads in the door, and that’s good for starters.
News just in…
We’re using the £25 million we got from Arsenal for Kieran Tierney to buy Kieran Tierney from Arsenal for £25 million.
(courtesy of “Thornley Manor” on Twitter…)
allifsandbuts.com
Let’s call it for what it is – we’re in full squad re-build, innit?
No efen around, it’s clearout time so we can build for Lenny’s Arsene-like dynasty.
Sad if Scott Sinclair goes; just when he’s had hair sorted and reunited with long lost brother Chris Jullien.
I can see Tommy R struggle for game time unless another midfielder (Cal or Olli) is moved on.
I think we’d take offers for Jonny and Jack H. Will Calvin M or Tony R ever cut it at first team level??
Suspect the other Oz Mr Arzani may have missed his chance if Maryan and Lewis keep doing the biz.
Awesome; we’re en route for 9, a poss quaddie treble, still in Europe and spendish dosh on prize assets.
Shame we missed out an an ex-Hibs loaner eh ;)
JAMES FORREST on 8TH AUGUST 2019 3:13 PM
Couldn’t agree more
Turkeybhoy
So it’s Suttons fault Bolingoli cannot find a teammate?
He certainly didn’t influence me because i posted before the match, that he and Morgan constantly lost possession.
I also posted after the player gifted an opportunity to Sarajevo in the first match.
I also posted at half time in the Kalju match that it looked like a competition between Morgan and Bolingoli as too who could loose possession the most.
So if you were paying attention and not just clapping you would see that Morgan and Bolingoli have been our 2 weakest players in qualifiers.
I also posted that Bolingoli looked more steady when Morgan was replaced because the combination of the two was compounding matters as i had been warning for 3 weeks now.
I get you want every signing to be a success, we all do, the same support was offered to Jack Hendry by the same posters, he wasn’t good enough either.
The bottom line is Bolingoli and Morgan have to stop losing possession cheaply and make a big improvement or they will cost us dearly or be dropped.
It’s that simple both players must improve, let’s hope they do.
Name any player,who has refused to go after a fee is agreed? Players are commodities, like it or not,differently priced assets,if you can buy and sell Ronaldo, everyone is for sale, the angst is best kept for the lack of a transfer strategy, as in getting players in before we sell,we’ve done it this time with Boli .
SID
I think BigBhoy on here stated it earlier.
And to me it was evident. But when Ntcham came on, it actually helped Boli.
Boli played better last 15 mins. Because he had a stronger and better quality of player ahead of him. That was capable of showing for Boli’s passes, then strong enough to take receipt of the ball, and hold his opponent off
PS: Anyone heard if big Jozo’s subbie was precautionary or is there talk of damage??
I wish folk would leave Boli alone. He needs time to settle.
Bada,
I have asked you before and not had a reply,
what could anyone do at Celtic if Arsenal met a sell on clause in KTs contract?
I also wonder if Ashley Williams is worth a go on a bosman.
Though doesn’t look like we will offload Hendry after all…
GORDYBHOY64 on 8TH AUGUST 2019 3:32 PM
Bada,
I have asked you before and not had a reply,
what could anyone do at Celtic if Arsenal met a sell on clause in KTs contract?
======
Sorry to butt in, but do you mean a minimum fee release clause?
If so, I don’t think KT had one.
Arsenal enquired about the player, were told the price we would accept, worked their way up to it gradually, trying to tempt us with add ons here and there, and eventually bid the quoted price.
Months of negotiating and they have met our asking price. But as far as I know there was no minimum fee release clause ie. in theory we could have bumped £1m on the price for every time they submitted a derisory bid. Whereas if a minimum fee clause is inserted and the fee is met it has to be accepted.
HH
Ruggyman
I posted that right after the game finished. My worry is Boilingoli is giving cheap possession away in every game, even against weak teams.
We’re now stepping up levels big time, we won’t get away with it against good teams.
GORDYBHOY64 on 8TH AUGUST 2019 3:32 PM
Bada,
I have asked you before and not had a reply,
what could anyone do at Celtic if Arsenal met a sell on clause in KTs contract?
Excuse me,I’ve not seen any post from yourself direced at me,I’m not aware of any buy out price in KTs contract mate,if that’s what has triggered the move,then that could be the deal. HH
Based on what NL has been saying over the last few days, I think Celtic were trying to push through KT’s move to Arsenal. Not sure how he would pass a medical right now, but if he goes, good luck to him. Personally I’m not too concerned about him leaving as for all the energetic runs he made going forward, there were many more back passes and safety first decisions. He’ll be a good fit for Arsenal as they have a boring approach to football. 25mil is decent business for us especially if we get a big slice of any future sell on fee. He’ll appreciate in value quickly in the EPL.
Getting back to NL. The fact that he has been pushing this along would suggest he knows what the next step is regards reinforcements. A lot will depend on whether we reach the CL groups, but I’m confident Lenny will have us in good shape.
Good business offloading Sinclair if we can as well. Still a good player who can do a job for another team, but his involvement with Celtic this season would be no more than an impact sub.
Hotel coming along nicely….
https://twitter.com/sharko67/status/1159197820320194566?s=12
Hope Shved gets a start on Saturday
Bada
Nonsense, if Lawwell said Ajer was not for sale, he obviously did say KT was for sale, he never asked to go, we could told Arsenal et al he was not for sale,but didn’t.
I am pretty sure when Arsenel made an I initial approach for Tierney they were told the same. Only when they got close PL’s valuation of the player they would have been told ok, this is what we want.
As for “every player can be bought & sold for a price”; if that were the case then they would all be in China right now – Ronaldo included!
Bada,
Ive mentioned before that the information i have is that nobody (from the tendering side) is interested in tendering for the hotel. Though theyre predominately from the dark side, so treat with a pinch of salt.
After a promising start to the transfer window, incoming wise, if we end up the with the two haddies (has anyone seen the scotland game they played in) and Scott McKenna then, for me, that would be extremely disappointing.
Ive seen enough in Boli to think there’s a player in there, Big Tam has made an impressive start, Julien i liked his leadership and marshalling but its early days for all of them.
AURORABOREALIS79 on 8TH AUGUST 2019 3:50 PM
Bada
Nonsense, if Lawwell said Ajer was not for sale, he obviously did say KT was for sale, he never asked to go, we could told Arsenal et al he was not for sale,but didn’t.
Come back on in half an hour after seeing KT in an Arsenal jersey…….and you won’t see Ajer with a Leicester/Milan jersey before 5pm.
Go Tell- please no Kilmarnock players, or McKenna……
Celtic never received a bid for Ajer..
Don’t see the comparison.
Bada
Come back on in half an hour after seeing KT in an Arsenal jersey…….and you won’t see Ajer with a Leicester/Milan jersey before 5pm.
What’s your point?
Timaloy- Lennybhoy, who is noted for Celtic info, said both Leicester and Milan enquired about Ajer.,and were told where to go.