After 14 games Udinese sit joint top of Serie A with Juventus. For a club who challenged, unsuccessfully, for the league only once before, and that was over half a century ago, this is unquestionably the best team in their history. Their home record in the league reads: played 7, won 7, scored 14, conceded 2; they also won Europa League home games against Atletico and Rennes.
They have taken 4 out of 6 points from the San Siro this season and have failed to win only one of their last eight league games. You would be hard pushed to justify nominating anyone else as the ‘form team’ in Europe right now.
This is the test Celtic need. Few positive lessons can be learned from home games against St Mirren, even if they deliver a deluge of goals, but a field in Udine tonight presents our aspiring winners with a stage to demonstrate their potential. Before this month is out we will have different challenges; St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and Rangers present different dangers, but any team that can win in Udine can beat anyone in Europe.
We’ll witness 90 minutes of difficult personal challenges for Celtic players all over the field tonight. It will take more than just concentration to deny goal scoring chances and any opportunities we get in front of goal will be hard earned.
There are reasons to be hopeful. A decade ago a team of equally illustrious Italians were rocked by Celtic, so much so they reverted to diving in the box. Gordon Strachan’s un-fancied Celtic team subsequently took AC Milan to extra time at the San Siro in Champions League, denied by a legitimate penalty claim of their own. There is also the nagging feeling that Celtic’s resources are actually more suited to the counter-attacking game they are seldom able to play. We’ll see.
Birthday wishes to Kano today (or yesterday as it now is in Perth, WA), a child of ‘67. Two years home and still itching for get hold of the keyboard for the songs debate.
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New article posted.
Be interested to see how young Wanyama gets on against Di Natale.
Vmhan,
I know what you mean by that but if we’re drawing with 10 minutes to go I’d rather we threw everything at them and lose by a couple than go out with a whimper.
I just hope that we’re pataient tonight and then take any chances if and when they come along. personally I thought it might be Stokes up on his own. I don’t think Hooper does this role particularly well and so I’m wondering if it’s a straight 4-4-2 here with Sami and Hooper up top and Brown on right midfield.
Jobo
Bizarre!
Shamrock Rovers fans chanting some lyrics to the melody of Flower of Scotland.
Illicit chanting in Dublin, UEFA?
Udinese (3-5-2): S Handanovic – M Benatia, Danilo, J Ekstrand – D Basta, E Badu, K Asamoah, T Doubai, P Armero – A Abdi, A Di Natale
indio
ah, now it’s clear why Flower of Scotland is being sung….
“Scottish striker Gary Twigg became the first folk hero in Tallaght, and a version of Flower of Scotland is sung in his honour by the fans”.
whitedoghunch says:
15 December, 2011 at 18:27
I’m wearing tights and gloves
and no because it’s cold
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here-you’re off to rob a bank to pay for your next gourmet
meal. Or maybe your jolly to Barcelona.
The alrenatives are just unthinkable……
SCOTT Brown makes his first start in nearly three months for Celtic tonight in the UEFA Europa League clash against Udinese as Neil Lennon makes two changes from the weekend win over Hearts.
The midfielder takes the place of the injured Glenn Loovens, with Victor Wanyama moving back into central defence. The other alteration sees Ki Sung Yueng come into the team at the expense of Anthony Stokes, who drops to the bench.
Tonight’s team:
CELTIC (4-4-2) Forster; Cha, Majstorovic, Wanyama, Mulgrew; Brown, Ki, Kayal, Forrest; Samaras, Hooper
Subs: Zaluska, K Wilson, Stokes, Bangura, Toshney, George, F Twardzik
Happy Birthday Kano ,
The Kano Foundation has a ticket for the game on the 28th December
North stand upper
Area 406, Row w, Seat 25
We are going to raffle the ticket £3 per go
if you are interested you can go to our web page http://www.thekanofoundation.com
and hit the donate button
or text kano11 £3 to 70070
If donating online , can you tag your donation -ticket raffle
THANK YOU TO GRA123 FOR DONATING THE TICKET
Philbhoy , thank you for the gesture .
HH
Sanna
Hebcelt
from earlier.
How about the 7 dwarfs who all end in I
Happi
grumpi
dozi
sneezi ……….oh, no wait a minute………….. I forgot about bashful and doc