Winners win and losers lose, yesterday proved that beyond all doubt. Credit to Steven Gerrard, who had his team press against the champions. Celtic played an hour without a striker, but that was no mitigation for the sheer gulf in performance between the teams.
Winning nine trophies in succession gave Celtic the tools to survive an onslaught that would have buried others, although much of the credit must go to Fraser Forster, who played in none of those nine wins. By contrast, Newco played like they had a deep-seated loser schema. There is no other viable explanation as to why a team can dominate so thoroughly but show so little composure when it came to making a difference.
Central to all of this was Alfredo Morelos. He is Newco’s best player but he is not good enough. He does not have the mentality to do what is necessary against Celtic, and for a team who aspire to win things in Scotland, that is unacceptable.
His psychological makeup was questioned when he was the most red carded player in world football last season. He has not been ordered off this season, although that should change with a retrospective charge for running his studs down Christopher Jullien’s Achilles. Scoring and behaving when it doesn’t really matter is pointless if you cannot find calm when it counts.
The goal looked offside at first pass but the picture is less clear having watched the replay dozens of times. Newco’s Helander moves behind Jullien’s frame. On camera, we do not see which of them has a playable body part nearer goal when the kick is taken.
The finish was a carbon copy of Ciro Immobile’s opener against Celtic in Rome. Immobile showed his class with that goal, Jullien showed a comparable touch and composure. He is a winner and a leader.
A lifetime watching Celtic play Oldco and Newco came together for me a moment after Odsonne Edouard came on as a second half substitute. His first action was to have the legs taken from him by Connor Goldson. It was as though we were watching John Greig doing what made him the Greatest Ever Ranger – kicking a Celtic player. Some things never change.
Celtic were ahead before Newco touched the ball again. If Walt Whitman best described Wednesday’s win over Hamilton, Lennon (the other one) inspired this victory when he sang, “Instant Karma’s gonna get you”. This is Celtic in their poetry period.
Tom Rogic signed shirt raffle for Celtic FC Foundation
The Celtic squad wore a special shirt for last month’s league game against Motherwell, bearing the Celtic FC Foundation Christmas Appeal logo instead of the normal Dafabet logo on the front, and the words “Christmas Appeal” on the back, instead of the Magners logo.
Tom Rogic’s signed shirt from that day is available for raffle. Each donation of £10 or more will be entered into a draw, which will take place on Friday 13 December. The shirt will be posted on Monday 16th (or available for collection at the Hibs game on Sunday 15th).
The Celtic FC Foundation do incredible work throughout the world all year round, but their work with those most in need in the winter months, and for children and families coping with chronic poverty, can give warmth, nourishment, self-respect and human compassion that some people struggle to find. All donations go straight to the Foundation.
This is why Celtic exists. You can enter here at JustGiving. Good luck and thank you!!
203 Comments- Pages:
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Shortbread doing ‘if my aunty had a xxx she’d be my uncle’
CANALAMAR
Nice to hear Lee Griffiths was an either or choice if Edouard had been fit to start. Personally I would have started him over Lewis Morgan, but hey ho, we won and at the end of the day thats all that counts.
Best part of the day was watching the Bhoys celebrate at the final whistle. Winning never gets old.
BoBo’s gonnae get you
no seen or heard about this Jackie & Thommo audience before, colourful language warning but good stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_qGlg0E8f0
Robinbhoy,
me to but I doubt LG would have got any better service than LM
Sutton was funny when he said winning Cup Finals are ‘The best days of your lives’.
‘Forget about your wedding day or the births of your children !’.
Maurice Ross (Old Co 2003-2005 so obviously a legned) says the huns have definitely got the measure of us.
I guess we’re *****d then.
It’s the hope that kills them!!!!!!!!!!
HoHoHo!
Good evening, friends.
2½ hours still left to vote on your 3 best from yesterday – cqnpoty@gmail.com
Paul 67
Good article but it was a previous article that came to mind yesterday while happily walking out of Hampden.
You previously stated that Newco always find a different way of losing to us .
Yesterday they found another new way.
I didn’t enjoy that game apart from the outcome.
SFTB. 2.12pm
Excellent post (again) sir . Thumbs up.
Paul67.
Why oh why didn’t you let us know you were appearing on Television tonight,I was watching for any news regarding the Europa Cup this week and spotted you doing the summery of Celtic in Europe. Your now a television star, I know you have been interviewed on TV before but this time you were the main man, well done Paul but surely you should have notified your readers of your blog.
I have sky sports. Got a cheap deal a while back as I like lots of different sports. Anyway, a fascinating discussion between Rafa Benitez and Jaime Carragher about the art of defending. Rafa talking about the body shape of defenders and where their feet are as they prepare to stop faster forwards. Would rather listen to him all night as I’ve no intention of watching West Ham and Arsenal.
Shortbread show hun goal from Europe – no footage of final – the pain is tangible😀
At 3 o’clock yesterday the wind and rain were driving towards the Celtic end. Broony won the coin toss and, as is usually the case, he decided to shoot towards the away end first half. Had he opted to go against the norm things may have been different. Huns take the kick-off and do similar to what we did at Ibrox. They sent the ball deep into our left-back area and kept us hemmed in there for the first few minutes. It worked for them. They grabbed the initiative and pressed us at every opportunity and could have gone ahead but for big Fraser’s remarkable save from Cryan Jack…it certainly wasn’t easy to pass our way out of defence in those conditions and it would have been just as difficult for them. Fortunately, it didn’t matter in the end…hehehe.
Just a thought.
Jinkyredstar, I was wondering about that too, especially as they showed “highlghts” last night. They must be stuffed full of the deid team’s follow followers.
Watching the game again two things stuck out first just how good big Ajer was but also the R jack tackle on Morgan that was called great by big Sutty was actually a foul and should have been the first yellow for the wee ugly hun , don’t remember seeing the reply from behind that showed him going through Morgans leg before he got near the ball , but if you see that angle from behind its pretty clear , check it out Mncelt and see if you agree .
The main thing is the Cup ended up in Paradise everything else doesn’t really matter.
Yes 4 or 5 of our Players were below par, if this was a pattern then it would be a worry but we have been going well up to the Accies game.
We have had a very punishing schedule plus a spate of injuries so it’s understandable if we have gone a wee bit off the boil.
Send a shadow team to Cluj, recharge Batteries & hammer Hibs next Sunday, crisis over.
JINKYREDSTAR on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 6:34 PM
MacJay from earlier
I think we could take on Lennon and MCartney with our Frimpong song .
More lyrics tomorrow 😀
=================================================
The advisory :
Simple easily remembered lyrics.
Nobody needs a song sheet on the ” terracing ” .
Weebobbycollins 7.50pm
Cryan Jack :-)
Kieran shoulder injury. Taken off 🙁
dangerous flares.
https://i.ibb.co/mB9h7TQ/Captu.png
Mncelt if you watch Celtic tv first half its at 53.15 all the other camera angles it looks a good challenge but its not he clips Morgans leg first , anyway we won so Hail hail Celts win huns fail ( again ), :)
GFTB…also known as the Greetin Cad… :o)
GFTB
Thanks for your response re our extra game in December but, to be honest, I am still not sure why we should be playing that extra game.
St Stivs
`dangerous flares`
:-))))
Weebobbycollins 8.38pm
Good stuff but Cryan Jack is a belter, when he tackled/fouled Lewis Morgan a few of the bhoys in our company wanted him not to be able to play on, I was hoping he would continue … in the words of Chris Sutton the more serial losers they have on the park the better for the serial winners :-)
GFTB… :o)
Hot Smoked 8.41pm
We are playing as it’s our first available free midweek, the other mob must be playing Sunday / Friday so that isn’t a “free” midweek for them… I could be wrong but pretty sure others on here have mentioned it
Hello again all you young rebels.
Had to laugh at that video of the unique angle, in the
dressing room and Broony told the players it was a free
bar when he was talking to our CEO, big Pete just about
sh*t himself lol.
H.H . Mick
Sare heid today…
Couple of points-
A bit of criticism for NL from people who maybe can’t accept they made an arse of themselves saying he was 100pc the wrong choice for manager.
Griffiths, right now, has 50pc of the power and strength required to play in a game like yy.
Lenny just doesn’t rate Sinclair… It happens… If NL sees him in training every day and feels he sucks the life out of an attack, then that’s his call.
Bonus payments?… FFS… Geez peace.
We had 5 guys injured ( including Elyanoussi) who might have started yy.
If Sevco scored earlier ( it would’ve had to be a deflection) then the whole game changes and Brown, Rogic, McGregor etc would have come into their own, we would have attacked them for the rest of the game.
The plan was obviously to keep it tight untiil we got Eddy on- also remember that if the game had ended a draw big Eddy would’ve been required for over an hour.
Lenny and the sports science guys and physios would’ve known this.
We won the game because we had a top-drawer CF and goalkeeper allied with guys like Brown, Ajer and Hayes who don’t chuck it when the game isn’t going their way.
We all, fans, players, managers and Celtic blogggers, need to start highlighting how big FF is average with the ball at his feet.
Top managers need goalkeepers who are good at playing out…. The irony is Celtic don’t.
The way Lenny plays and the fact we attack all the time means the big man is a PERFECT goalie for us.
If it takes a £10m fee and a £15m contract to sign him in January then it should be arranged this werk.
He is the best y I have ever seen and not just for Celtic.
If we sign him he’ll be as pivotal as Brown and Edouard in any success we have.
HH
RPM – I will take a look. However, if it was a Celtic player coming back to make that tackle, we would call it good. It likely prevented a goal whether it was a foul or not.
I can understand why Celtic were unable to play their usual game yesterday, the pitch must have been very bumpy. What else could possibly explain why Morelos was constantly trying to flatten out all those bumps?
KT – dislocated shoulder.
20mins till Jobo’s man of the match votes are in … surely this must be a first and big Fraser will receive 100% first pick choices … unless SydneyTim has picked wee Jamesy first :-)
(Only kidding ST :-)
Post match.
Jullien and Frimpong.
Totally Tim.
Make sure that we bond these guys to us.
No reason not to.
*** CQN PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2019-20 ***
RESULTS FROM GAME #21 – CELTIC 1 SEVCO 0 (JULLIEN)
10 IN A ROW! After a first half where, to paraphrase Tommy Docherty “we were lucky to get nil” we then showed why we are champions. The best way to win a cup final is with a wonderful performance. The 2nd best (though not enjoyable during the game) is to win with a debatable goal. At last the Joe Miller final (with the wrongly awarded shy!) has a rival, even though we now know that Helander was sneakily hiding between 2 of our players playing them clearly onside.
Still drained from the post match celebrations (and a half an hour today in the dentists chair) so I’ll spare you my usual ramblings and move on to the result of this latest vote.
Not surprisingly we have our 2nd 100%er of the season with The Wall receiving unanimous support from the entire voting public. Incidentally, the only other member of that clique is Olivier Ntcham from our 5-0 win over Partick Thistle earlier in the same competition.
So, thank you to the 63 who voted. The votes for the 14 players who took to the field are as follows (my own choices are asterisked) –
Forster*: 63
Frimpong: 21
Jullien: 43
Ajer*: 17
Hayes: 15
Brown: 14
McGregor: 6
Forrest: 0
Christie: 4
Elyanoussi: 0
Morgan: 0
Johnston: 0
Edouard*: 6
Bitton: 0
Unused subs – Gordon, Boli-Bolingoli, Ntcham, Rogic
Therefore, the players receiving points for the Sevco game are –
Forster – 5 points
Jullien – 4 points
Frimpong – 3 points
Ajer – 2 points
Hayes – 1 point
That leaves the overall table reading as follows –
Brown – 45 points
Christie – 36 points
Edouard – 32 points
Forrest – 26 points
Frimpong – 25 points
Jullien – 24 points
Elyounoussi – 22 points
McGregor – 21 points
Forster – 20 points
Bolingoli-Mbombo – 13 points
Ajer – 11 points
Bauer – 11 points
Ntcham – 9 points
Hayes – 8 points
Elhamed – 8 points
Taylor – 5 points
Bitton – 3 points
Bayo – 3 points
Morgan – 2 points
Rogic – 1 point
Next up, Cluj and the possibility of a few different names receiving your votes for a change. Voting will open around 8pm on Thursday, just before I cheer on Young Bhoys 😉
Hail Hail
The post-match scenes are an absolute joy to watch…my face is sore from smiling so much. Wee Jeremie hugging DD lol…What a bunch of guys! And how impressed must the summer signings be? This is how it feels to be Celtic!
Broonie, a legendary legend…
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/18089266.celtic-youngster-liam-burt-slaps-rangers-fan-branded-dirty-fenian-b–betfred-cup-final/
And I love it too .
NALLY81 on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 9:09 PM
Do not see celtic investing 25million on a goalkeeper in his 30s with no hope of a big sell on fee after a few years.
If Southampton are realistic or celtic have been clever in any loan fee further proposed transfer fee…maybe there is a wee chance.
Celtic may well pay up to 7 million and pay him what they are paying him now [35k a week]
He earns a reported 70k a week on his current southampton deal which is the problem for everyone [apart from Fraser!]
CORKCELT on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 8:08 PM
In all seriousness, and as usual, you make a good point, which I 100% agree with..
However It’s funny though that our “slump” of the last two games has returned a two point advantage in the league, and the first trophy of the season, coupled with the fact that one of the two games was a psychological damaging defeat of our main “challengers” in the league.
Funny old game Saint.
🍀⚽️