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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If its not the SNP then who do you vote for next time round?
Well you surely cannot vote for any of the main political parties, Labour,Tories or Liberals, because after all, when they were displaying and openly proud of their sectarian employment policy, not one of these political raised a voice against it…Not One…
Not even the Glasgow Council made any kind of remarks whatsoever about it, and it was only miles for their HQ.
So the best party for a load of tims to vote for is, The Greens…por cierto.
It’s sad to see that not one SNP member voted against this bill. It’s not as if it was in their election manifesto. It was quickly cobbled together after the Shame Game when Celtic shamefully embarrassed the establishment club by causing them to commit all those fouls and manhandle the referee.
whitedoghunch says:
15 December, 2011 at 12:27
maxibhoy
Rome Hotels
Rome food
———————————————————————————————————————————–
Maxibhoy
Once you have booked a hotel, if you e-mail me and let me know where you are staying I may be able to give you a wee personalised itinery for your stay, as I was once guide in Rome. You will have a finite amount of time no doubt and there is so much to see and sample. I have done this for a couple of people and they seem to have enjoyed it and found it worthwhile.
Brogan
RobertTressell says:
15 December, 2011 at 13:05
‘It is funny how, in a country which the IRA ordered it’s members never to fire a shot or plant a bomb’
I think that policy was more for practical reasons (to keep security at Stranraer ferry terminal relatively low key) than anything else.
Competitive Record v Italian Clubs
« Thread Started on Sept 26, 2011, 11:16am »
——————————————————————————–
25/05/1967 ECF Lisbon Inter Milan W 2-1 Gemmell (63), Chalmers (85) HT 0-1 55,000 – Celtic’s first European Cup Final and first win
19/02/1969 ECQF1 A AC Milan d 0-0 72,402
12/03/1969 ECQF2 H AC Milan L 0-1 75,000 HT 0-1
04/03/1970 ECQF1 H Fiorentina W 3-0 Auld (30), OG (49), Wallace (89) 80,000 – Wallace’s goal was his 100th for Celtic
18/03/1970 ECQF2 A Fiorentina L 0-1 50,000 HT 0-1
05/04/1972 ECSF1 A Inter Milan d 0-0 80,000
19/04/1972 ECSF2 H Inter Milan d 0-0 75,000 – Celtic lost 4-5 on penalty kicks much to the breaking of my nine-year-old heart
16/09/1981 EC1/1 H Juventus W 1-0 MacLeod (65) 60,017
30/09/1981 EC1/2 A Juventus L 0-2 69,000 HT 0-2
18/09/2001 CL A Juventus L 2-3 Petrov (67), Larsson (85 pen) 43,017 HT 0-1
31/10/2001 CL H Juventus W 4-3 Valgaeren (24), Sutton 2 (45, 64), Larsson (57 pen) 57,717 HT 2-1
29/09/2004 CL A AC Milan L 1-3 Varga (74) 52,648 HT 0-1
07/12/2004 CL H AC Milan d 0-0 59,228
20/02/2007 CL H AC Milan d 0-0 58,785
07/03/2007 CL A AC Milan L 0-1 AET 65,000
03/10/2007 CL H AC Milan W 2-1 McManus (62), McDonald (90) 58,643 HT 0-0
04/12/2007 CL A AC Milan L 0-1 38,409 HT 0-0
29/09/2011 EL H Udinese D 1-1 Ki (3 pen) 37,000 HT 1-0
P 18 W 5 D 6 L 7 F 16 A 18
« Last Edit: Sept 30, 2011, 6:03am by winningemmell »
Afternoon Gents,
Can anyone confirm what channel is showing tonight’s game ?
HH
Happy Birthday Kano
hail hail
Cant make the boozers tonight ghuys sorry, been asked to do stuff, so will be heading back to Bow and catch whats left of it in the Bow Bells.
I’m a wee bit annoyed cause I was looking forward to putting more faces to names and the pleasure of good company.
damn and blast
hail hail
TBB
A very impressive performance good on ye!
It is not on TV in the hoose but if any of the pubs you know have al jezeera then it may be on in that hostelry por cierto
Por Cierto says:
15 December, 2011 at 14:30
‘Not even the Glasgow Council made any kind of remarks whatsoever about it, and it was only miles for their HQ.’
Yeah, I always suspected that Peter McCann, Michael Gray, Alex Mosson, Michael Kelly and all the other Labour Lord Provosts were secret huns.
I don’t like Wisla Krakow but the clip from yesterday is warth a watch.
Sad atmosphere after Wisla v. Twente… then the news from London
STOP PRESS
New Evidence Unearthed Explains “OLD FIRM” Domestic Abuse
“People eat and sleep Glasgow Rangers. Supporters go home on a Saturday night, if the Rangers lose, they give their wife a bashing about.”
1974
WILLIE WADDELL
RFC DIRECTOR & GENERAL MGR
Ryan\o/D
SNPE
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Kano 1000
just mailed your tale to the venerable
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain amoung others.
I was once a Brownie in Cambuslang.
Stringer Bell – Yup. I’m quite impressed with that Ruth Davidson lass.
In other news, maybe this devolution thing isn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Lot of names on that list are nonentities who’ve been political geeks since university and have never done an honest day’s work in their lives.
I’ve pointed out in the past that the boy MSP Hunza Yousef is a poster child for this deleterious trend. Apart from a six month stint in a call centre when he was at university the only paid employment he’s ever done has been working as an errand boy for serving politicians. But he’s far from being the only one who would struggle to clothe or feed himself if he was forced to find a real job outside politics.
Since they have no experience of ever making or building or selling things, or providing any other form of useful service to society, what gives these people the maturity or insight to make them fit to make your laws?
Answer: nothing does. That’s why they are making silly, illiberal, sinister laws like this one. Because politics geeks live in a bubble, isolated from the concerns of normal people. They lack the perspective on life required to realise that there is a limit to what government can or should attempt to achieve.
In a perfect world, their lack of experience or indeed qualifications for elected office would make them humble and far more willing to listen. Sadly the opposite is the case in the real world. Because they’ve never had to work to achieve anything outside the slimy world of political posturing, they’re often puffed up with their own imagined wisdom and importance. (thumbsup)
ESPN 8pm
brimmer
ernie lynch
“Yeah, I always suspected that Peter McCann, Michael Gray, Alex Mosson, Michael Kelly and all the other Labour Lord Provosts were secret huns. ”
Obviously saw their political careers ahead of any moral compass then, not a chooky birdie from any of them…
Ryan it is on ESPN.
TBB Is there a new dress code for the Gazebo or can we wear the old ones?
EC67
Thanks you Gents,
May your travels come with three points as standard….
HH
The ole Gazebo houses the real sharp suited man.
It’s nice to see some optimism regarding tonight’s game. I don’t know where it’s coming from though as we are playing a top Italian team coupled with us having a very poor away record in Europe.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see. I hope it works out.
C’mon the hoops.
philvisreturns says:
15 December, 2011 at 14:15
Who says we need to vote for the establishment.
It’s easy to start a political movement if you have a strong enough reason!
Por Cierto
The Greens are the only party to have openly stated their wish to see the end of faith schools in Scotland.
Not for me thanks Mr Harvey.
There are a lot of articles out today that say the SNP’s new ‘football’ legislation breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.
pflan76 – Sure.
Maybe I should have said: In case anybody is wondering who not to vote for in the next elections
I don’t think many of the people who voted SNP in the last election thought they were voting to throw people in jail and ruin their lives on the grounds that they may have “offended” somebody else.
Or as one of the Wee Scotlanders put it, “aggressively making the sign of the cross”. (thumbsup)
From the BBC
FC Sion have lost their fight to be allowed back into the Europa League.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Uefa’s decision to expel the Swiss club from of the competition for fielding ineligible players.
Five such players were fielded in Sion’s two-legged play-off win against with Celtic, who were reinstated in the competition after making a complaint.
Sion have also been ordered to pay Uefa 40,000 Swiss Francs for the governing body’s legal costs.
Two courts had ruled Sion could register six players despite a Uefa transfer ban, and should have been reinstated.
Sion took the matter to CAS after world governing body Fifa appealed successfully to the higher court.
The outcome of the ruling could have had implications on Europa League Group I, which features Celtic, Rennes, Udinese and Atletico Madrid.
The six players in question joined Sion in the close season when the club was serving a ban – lasting two transfer windows – for breaching rules in the signing of Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in 2008.
The players won the right to play in August after taking their case to a court in Martigny, Switzerland, and the club won an injunction ordering their reinstatement at a further hearing at one of the country’s civil courts, this time in Vaud.
As a result, the Swiss Football League (SFL) backed down from enforcing the Fifa ban in domestic competitions.
But Fifa announced in a statement that their appeal against the Martigny ruling had been successful.
Uefa insisted that CAS was the only valid authority with jurisdiction over the matter, after Sion claimed Uefa denied the club access to an “independent and impartial judge” and breached the players’ working rights under the European Union-Swiss treaty.
Sion were helped in their case against Uefa by Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer who won the landmark Jean-Marc Bosman ruling in 1995.
EC67 – I expect Gazebo managment will shortly issue a revised Undress Code
Hamiltontim – cheers
It seems a crowd of idiots have been voted in that will do nothing to upset party unity. If they share a collective brain then it’s a shame that it is the brain of an idiot.
(Note to SNP: Is that post offensiove?)
BTW, the new legislation effectively gives the likes of Eddie Smith the ability to criminalise any Celtic supporter they don’t like the look of.
Thanks, SNP. (thumbsup)
Re Wisla
I had watched the first half of the Fulham match and it was so one sided. It was hard to believe that Odense would draw 2-2.
Its amazing that they can bring in new laws to address the threat to society caused by Rebel songs yet don’t seem to have the stomach to bring in any laws to deal with outbreaks of rioting and looting. £450 million quid anyone?
It seems that if you are going to be bad you should be very bad
Happy Birthday, Kano. It was mine yesterday so, a la On Golden Pond, we are virtually twins o:-)
JJ
Ten Men Won The League says:
15 December, 2011 at 15:07
Thanks for posting this. I was wondering what the latest was. Good to see that that particular fiasco is at an end.
ianinascoli says:
15 December, 2011 at 15:13
I too watched the first half and didn’t bother watching the second. I won’t make the same mistake tonight :-)
Been lurking from afar this week (dont use company hardware to post- just lurk) but it has been a miserable week, the songs debate to end all songs debate. I have my own views on this week’s events but would prefer talk about the football instead.
We have to play it real tight tonight, no chance of 2 strikers playing, 2 holding midfielders- or even 3 – might not be a bad idea. Would hope to see the following
Forster
Cha
Wilson
Majstorovich
Mulgrew
Wanyama
Kayal
Forrest
Brown
Samaras
Stokes
If we leave with our reputation and morale intact that will do for me.
Hail hail to Gordon of this parish, I was on the same flight to Gatwick yesterday morning though he and dozens of other lucky Bhoys were connecting on to Italy. Jealousy is a terrible thing!
FC Sion have lost their fight to be allowed back into the Europa League.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Uefa’s decision to expel the Swiss club from of the competition for fielding ineligible players.
Five such players were fielded in Sion’s two-legged play-off win against with Celtic, who were reinstated in the competition after making a complaint.
Sion have also been ordered to pay Uefa 40,000 Swiss Francs for the governing body’s legal costs.
A CAS statement read: “The CAS first decided that it had jurisdiction to rule on the request for arbitration filed by Uefa on 26 September 2011. It then decided to confirm that OLA (Sion) should not be reintegrated in the UEFA Europa League 2011/2012, confirming indirectly the validity of the decision of the Uefa Appeals Body of 13 September 2011.”
Two courts had ruled Sion could register six players despite a Uefa transfer ban, and should have been reinstated.
Sion took the matter to CAS after world governing body Fifa appealed successfully to the higher court.
Lets make it count tonight Celtic!
C’MON THE SON’S OF DAN!!
Zbyszek says:
15 December, 2011 at 14:36
Great clip. Just shows that football can (sometimes) bring real joy!
the old ones are still the best…
The wife has been missing a week now.
Police said to prepare for the worst.
So I have been to the charity shop to get all her clothes back.
Finding it very difficult to make a logical case for a win for us tonight.
Our away record in Europe, inexperience of our team and playing a top Italian team.
On the other hand, they may not be up for it. They may have their eyes on the league.
A draw is enough for them. I often feel that a draw is required Italian teams can default to factory mode. Logic says put your money on a draw.
Heart says Celtic 2-1. No evidence to support this apart from my beating heart.
So logical bet for 1-1. Half time draw, full time draw.
Illogical bet Celtic 2-1. Udinese win half time, Celtic win full time.