A game which was marked by unaccustomed misplaced passing by Celtic was lost due to two even more unaccustomed miscalculations by Kolo Toure. Celtic had the majority of the ball but only crafted one gilt-edged chance. Glabach won the majority of the 50-50 challenges, and the second balls, but were not as productive with the ball as Barcelona or Manchester City in Celtic’s earlier group games.
Within the opening five minutes it was evident Celtic were not playing with the confident abandon they did three weeks ago against Manchester City. We were reluctant to press the fullbacks forward in the first quarter of the game, even in possession there was often a back four line.
Gladbach are a counter-attacking team and would have hoped to draw Celtic forward. It occurred to me that, perhaps as a consequence, Brendan was reluctant to get caught too far up field. The upshot of this was that when Gladbach did get forward (which happened often), Celtic defended well. The downside was that our shape when passing out of defence was all wrong.
We didn’t pass well. It looked like players were not making the correct angles early enough. Scott Brown was caught out a couple of times early on and it took him a while to get into his stride thereafter, but Nir Bitton’s night started indifferently, then went south. His first touch, passing and movement were well below standards achieved on match day two. From as early as 30 minutes I was pondering if replacing Nir with Callum McGregor was the right move. Callum hadn’t played in a month, but when he did come on in the 63rd minute, the hesitancy in midfield evaporated (though not until he got one bad pass out of his system).
With central midfield not getting much joy in the first half, Rogic, Forrest and Sinclair saw little of the ball. Moussa Dembele saw even less.
The best chance of the opening period was created with a sublime pass from Tom Rogic in the 45th minute. His diagonal pass from deep into the box split the defence open. Scott Sinclair met it first time, but sent it over. I had a great view from behind Scott. The obvious shot was low to the far post, but the angle was tight and the keeper would probably have blocked.
Trying to finish high into the net was the right decision, if poorly executed.
At halftime the plan looked to be the right one. Gladbach were as comfortable on the ball, as we expected, but we were tight and the back, and could hope to open them with pace and (better) accuracy. Celtic enjoyed their best period in the opening 12 minutes of the second half. Then the game changed.
So many Champions League games are decided by mistakes. If you look back over the home games we’ve won in this competition, we’ve rigorously stuck to task at the back and exploited mistakes in the opposition box. Kolo made a couple of wrong decisions and was punished. The first changed the direction of the game; Celtic’s momentum stopped.
Them’s the breaks. We lost a game without landing a glove on Borussia in earnest, but it MAY have been different if Kolo had cleared that ball up-field on the 57th minute. For Celtic at this level, winning points is all about fine margins. As Brendan said, we’ve no complaints, but there was a point, and maybe more, there to be won. We’ve certainly beaten better teams than Gladbach.
Shout out for Erik Sviatchenko, who had his best game in a Celtic shirt. And for the Gladbach fans, who came with a plan to dominate the Celtic Park atmosphere and didn’t drop the ball.
Andy Lynch’s autobiography, Hoops, Stars & Stripes, is arriving here this afternoon and the man himself will be signing copies imminently. If you have pre-ordered, your book will be with you soon. This is a deep, reflective and revealing insight from a prominent Celtic player under Jock Stein and Billy McNeill:
“[Rangers’ Colin] Stein made a beeline for me. With his teeth clenched and both fists held up to my face in defiance, he came right up to me to celebrate. In a moment of madness, I spat at him. Stein’s celebrations instantly ended, he edged backwards and stood on the sodden Hampden turf looking absolutely horrified. We were both speechless and I instantly regretted what I had done but no-one else had witnessed it.”
Our competition to win TWO TICKETS to Sunday’s semi-final, courtesy of Intelligent Car Leasing, ends at 14:00 today! Thanks to everyone who took the time to donate here to the Celtic Foundation while entering. It is enormously appreciated. To enter, email competition@celticquicknews.co.uk with the correct spelling of Monchengladbach (or close enough). Make sure I can contact you later!!
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Fair play ti you wee man.
Leigh Griffiths insists Gordon Strachan is the right man to manage Scotland – despite failing to break into his team.
The Scots have fallen 13 places to 57th in the world rankings after a draw with Lithuania and defeat by Slovakia in their latest World Cup qualifiers.
Celtic’s Griffiths was on the bench for both but says Strachan should lead the team for next month’s game in England.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s the man to try and get us to Russia – 100%,” the striker told BBC Scotland.
“His training’s great, the way he is with his players is magic, his man-management skills are second to none and who else could you bring in to replace him at this stage?”
Griffiths also responded to remarks attributed to Strachan suggesting he might prefer taller strikers because they were more useful at defending set-pieces.
The Scotland boss has come under increasing pressure to play Griffiths, who scored 40 goals for Celtic last season and has eight this term, as his main forward.
“It’s one of those things,” said the 5ft 8in frontman. “I think the fans are crying out for me to start, but ultimately it’s not my decision, it’s Gordon’s.
“He’s got to pick from a pool of 25 for his starting XI – he’s also got to leave players out. I can understand it’s a difficult job.
“I’m sure the comments were taken out of context. But I have a laugh about it. I’m not too worried about it.
“I’m short and I don’t need anyone else to tell me that. But, if you put the ball in the box, I’m the first one to be challenging for it.”
Leigh Griffiths
Leigh Griffiths scored 40 goals last season for Celtic
To compound a disappointing couple of weeks, Scotland have been overtaken in Fifa’s rankings by group rivals Slovenia, who have jumped 15 places to 52nd.
Fellow Group F opponents England remain 12th, Slovakia are up two to 26th, Malta are down two to 178th, and Lithuania have made the biggest jump – 19 places to 98th.
The Scots next game is a trip to Wembley to face leaders England and Griffiths admits he is desperate to be involved.
However, the 26-year-old acknowledges that a more pressing issue is impressing club manager Brendan Rodgers.
“I’m struggling to get into the Celtic team just now, so I’ve no qualms about getting into the Scotland squad,” he added after Wednesday’s Champions League defeat by Borussia Monchengladbach.
“There’s a lot of good strikers there who can’t even get into squads – like Jordan Rhodes and Ross McCormack – who’ll be disappointed.
“If I’m in the squad for that game, I’ll be delighted and, when we go away, I’ll try and change the gaffer’s mind to see if I can fit in that system.
“But, if not, I’ll be sitting on the bench ready to go on whenever he needs me.”
Cowiebhoy,
Sorry to read about your father’s illness, thoughts and prayers with you and the family.
_________________________________________________
Quote from the magazine article, entitled “We Need to Invest”
Rodgers said: “There are certain attributes you need and, of course, that does cost you money.
“That will be up to the club and our recruitment to look and try to find these players.
“We know that availability and affordability figures, but it is something that will happen over a period of time.
Says it all really for me, lets see what happens…
A lot of posters say it’s hard to raise the standard of our game, from what is required to win in Scotland, to the level required to win against the better standard of teams we meet in the Champions League, and that is undoubtedly true.
However, at this moment in time, we can’t change where we play. So what to do about that?
Well one thing we could do is stop paying straight win bonuses. In spite of the perceived gulf in class between us and the rest of Scottish football. How many games have we won in the league this season without conceding? Not too many. As a way of honing the team to display the high levels of concentration required to thrive in the Champions League environment, we should restructure our bonus scheme to only reward say, wins with clean sheets.
We were outplayed tactically and technically last night, but actually only lost the game because of two avoidable lapses in concentration, leading to costly individual mistakes, punished by goals. If Kolo, or any other player had been incentivised to collect clean sheets, rather than just wins all season, then surely their concentration levels would improve, when we really need them to.
Pride in clean sheets, would breed confidence and better team play. Currently we ship amateurish goals with no real penalty, as it only equates to a 4-1or 5-1 win rather than 4 or 5 nil.
Use the superiority we generally have in games against SPFL teams, to sharpen up our ability to close games out. At the moment in Europe you feel that we have to score 3 goals to have a chance of winning, because you know we are always liable to ship a few.
Reward winning professionally, not just winning. It might transmit to better results in Europe. It can’t do any harm.
Malorbhoy
Thank you and I hope you had a great day.
For a variety of reasons, mostly because I kept changing parts of my opinion, I’ve only just this afternoon got round to submitting my response to the survey to repeal the Act. By God it felt good!
My thoughts, for what they are worth beaten by a better team on the night. Gladbachs tactics spot on, they targeted Kieran Tierney down the left forcing Sinclair to spend most of his time tracking back to help. They made sure they had an extra man in the middle making it really difficult for Nir and Scott. They made sure Moussa had at least 2 men on him at all times.
We didn’t react to that. I thought Lustig and Forest done ok down the right and passed the ball quickly and moved the ball well, managing to get a couple of decent crosses in. As we shouldn’t go over the top with a win, we shouldn’t either with a defeat. 12 days to the hottest ticket in town. 10,000 fans going only 2,500 have tickets, or so I’m told.
Another wee point about last night. From my perspective in the standing section, we were on it all through the game.
If it wisnae good enough then I would suggest that is down to the other 54,000 in the ground! (61,000 less 2,900 of us and 3,500 Borussia fans).
FAC the Act
KTF
VFR.
That was the issue, the rest didn’t join in, no Glasgows Green and White last night, which personally I think is brilliant on a champions league night, allows everyone to join in, no Grace either if my hearing was ok.
That’s not a criticism, sometime in life it all connects other times in doesn’t work as well.
Hail Hail my friend.
H.T.
I’m sure they will find a reason to reject yours :-)))
Sent from abroad.
JNP
They can try! :-)
It’s Friday it’s five to five it’s………….
Celtic have had more than half a million fans through the gate so far in 2016 -17 more than any other club in Europe.
Shhhhhhhhhhh ffs, don’t say the GB through in the towel last night, you’ll upset the clique and the CT hanger ons, pphhhfffttttttttt, touchy touchy or WUT?
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 20TH OCTOBER 2016 5:23 PM
Celtic have had more than half a million fans through the gate so far in 2016 -17 more than any other club in Europe.
You’d think that mob at UEFA could award us a couple of points for that record :-)
Thoughts and prayers with ole Cowiebhoy and his family at this difficult time..
VFR
Come on now sir! Ye cannae be coming on here giving a first hand account of the GB singing throughout the entire game last night. It’ll have those with pathetic agendas in a state of wild confusion! :-)
BSR – -a Worrld record, surrely?
TD 67.
I don’t know why your posts antagonize people.
I read them laugh, then imagine yourself killing yourself laughing down The Brazen.
It’s a blog, no one should take it or themselves too seriously.
Sorry, very remiss of me, thoughts and good wishes with Cowiebhoy at a very difficult time.
Bring Scott Allan back?? He’s a waste of space, and only useful for propping up the takings of the Bothwell take-away outlets. As for having a go at Forrest, he was completely isolated against 3 opponents at times with nobody anywhere near him, what he was supposed to do i don’t know. He has been outstanding this season so far.
As for the crowd in general, far too quick to turn on the players. Anyone could see we were up against a classy outfit. Regardless, it only took a few bad moments for the howls and groans to start. Privately, i think Brendan views the crowds lack of understanding of the game a problem.
Team for Sunday,
Gordon
Lustig Jozo Erik KT
Brown Henderson Armstrong
Roberts Griffiths Sinclair
The GB were the only ones making noise at all for us last night, the rest too quick to get on the backs of the players. It wasn’t the GB who threw, not through, the towel in.
JIMMYNOTPAUL on 20TH OCTOBER 2016 5:47 PM
TD 67.
I don’t know why your posts antagonize people.
I read them laugh, then imagine yourself killing yourself laughing down The Brazen.
It’s a blog, no one should take it or themselves too seriously.
——
Post of the day.
I don’t think the crowd’s lack of understanding is a problem.
I had the privilege of sitting next to Mr and Mrs J.Mourinho last night; their brilliant shafts of tactical insight dimmed even the ole flares of the Gladbachman Turner Overdrive.
three things Brendan has been drumming into the players since he’s arrived are high press, one touch and pass, and being brave on the ball. The players were spooked and panicked from early on, everyone took the easy option when it came to passing and it looked after a while that there were too many Who didn’t make themselves available because of the opposition system or because they didn’t want to.
Cheer up,folks.
http://thefox.iheart.com/onair/roger-king-31002/little-girl-regrets-asking-ship-to-15219553/
JIMMYNOTPAUL on 20TH OCTOBER 2016 5:47 PM
TD 67.
I don’t know why your posts antagonize people.
I read them laugh, then imagine yourself killing yourself laughing down The Brazen.
It’s a blog, no one should take it or themselves too seriously.
No “Glasgow’s Green & White” or “Grace”; disappointing but there ye go!
HT – ah know; tactless eh? Imagine the facts getting in the way!
FAC the Act
KTF
__________________________________
I’ve started viewing them the same was as I view Mike Parry – eccentric but harmless. I imagine Parry saying it and they are then very entertaining! He’s entitled to an opinion and I don’t think he takes himself too seriously.
I happen to be one of those left-wing Uni educated lot (even abhor fae the Drum can go to Uni) as well as being in the North Curve; I also have a lot of time for the Celtic Trust so I’m apparently everything he dislikes; but if I see him in the Brazen, I’ll buy him a drink.
I have the advantage – I’ve seen him waxing lyrical on TV, but he disnae know what I look like! :>)
HAMILTONTIM on 20TH OCTOBER 2016 5:44 PM
VFR
Come on now sir! Ye cannae be coming on here giving a first hand account of the GB singing throughout the entire game last night. It’ll have those with pathetic agendas in a state of wild confusion! :-)
___________________________
I know; how tactless of me. Imagine letting the facts get in the way, eh?
FAC the Act
KTF
Can someone (hopefully a leftist Celtic Trust Uni dude) text me next time Uber Celtic Fanatic speaks. Got to keep up the stalking of he who is better at supporting Celtic than the rest of us.
Plus he also has a fascination for seems my soiled pants for some really strange reason! Weird. But hey ho. Each fly to their own taste.
MWD
Did the Daily Recurd blame the Green Brigade for the flares?
See Johnjames still going on about Water supply across the city
I seriously thought that was a red herring flung out by L5
he begs to differ.
Right enough he claims it as an exclusive hmmmmmm.
Not sure about that.
https://johnjamessite.com/2016/10/20/the-reservoir-dogs-of-scottish-water/
John James saying the asbestos dome could be shit in 24 hours by Scottish Water.
Hundreds of Hampden Hogmanay Hatefest Headlines Heading Heatedly Our way? Hilarious
I so want this to be true. The spin will be awesome and it will spell the end of ibrox as a football stadium. The SFA will have their favourite team in their own building.
Please be true. Pleeeaaaassseeee
EuroChamps67
Difficult to do are the ole Sellick Euro nights especially back to back expected Paradise extravagandas.
Tidy wee Prussian side brought their choir ,shut up shop, and picked off Brendan ( and the green brigade.)
Vorsprung durch technic CSC
JC2 – great timing ……
I’m just delighted to be going home from work tonight and not rushing to a game on a Thursday.
Thank you to the players and the management team, it’s appreciated.
Typo alert – accidentally used a swear word – sh£t should read shut.
Freudian eh?
I was in 444.
Plenty of supports. Songs . chanting.
I heard the green brigade throughout the game.
The BMG fans were a great watch as well. Provably biggest euro away support ever.
ROBERTTRESSELL
I thought SNAP
I read the players faces wrong last night. I thought the Germans were keeching it as they lined up for the anthem and handshakes.
Celtic4me – I think some of our players were indeed spooked. It was almost surreal at times