Celtic suffered a 1-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League knockout playoff game last night, but there was plenty to be encouraged by in the performance and tactical maturity on display.
The game offered up few genuine chances, an outcome determined by Celtic, who were refused to expose their defence throughout the match. By the end of the game, the shot count favoured Bayern by only one attempt.
The goals which were conceded, were not a consequence of in-play tactical failings. Right on halftime, Olise got a break of the ball off Greg Taylor, before smashing an outstanding shot into the top corner of the goal. Celtic switched off at a corner kick for the second four minutes after the break. For the bulk of those minutes, both teams were camped inside the Celtic box waiting for two consecutive corners, the first delayed for Auston Trusty to receive treatment. Defences are prone to switch off after a delay.
Nicolas Kuhn finished a brilliant move 25 seconds into the game by thrashing a shot past Neuer in the Bayern goal. The goal was correctly chopped off as the ball passed through Adam Idah’s legs, while the striker was in an offside position. It was the fourth Celtic goal chopped off in the last two home Champions League games.
On another night, Celtic would have been awarded a penalty which Arne Engels foot was stamped on. VAR took several minutes before asking the referee to review. The ref seemed struck by indecision and delayed the game further before favouring the German side.
Bayern seemed in control until the final 15 minutes. For the remainder of the game, including 7 minutes added time, Celtic battered on the Bayern door. The deluge started when Daizen Maeda nipped in front of Manuel Neuer, rounded the keeper but found the angle too acute to get a shot on target.
This lifted confidence and a few moments later Celtic were back in the tie. Alistair Johnston met an Engels corner at the front post, Trusty headed the ball goalwards for Yang, who knocked it onto the head of the man of the moment, Maeda, to score from 3 yards.
It was all Celtic now. Johnston forced a wonderful save from Neuer, Reo Hatate had a shot deflected off the line for a corner, while Jota made the most of his late-game cameo.
It was the most disciplined performance I recall seeing from a Celtic team. Even chasing the game in the 97th minute, the ball was always treated with respect. On one occasion, Cameron Carter-Vickers played left back from 3 minutes following a Celtic corner, rather than sprint back into position and risk leaving a gap. There has been growth in this Celtic team since early in the campaign, credit to Brendan Rodgers and the players.
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Just noticed ticket charged for Celtic end at Munch next week is only £34. That is weird as my German friends have paid £72 for similar tickets in home end.
I wonder if I leave 15 minutes early to catch the train into city centre they might charge me even less.
For me , last night’s referee brought back all the old memories of how refs favour the ‘big’ teams in European competition . From the sending off of VVD in Milan and many other examples down the years .
Don’t know if it’s to do with not wanting to ruffle the feathers of big , powerful clubs , or to help ensure the big names have a smooth passage to the latter stages . Whatever the reason, it is something we have suffered from over the years and it is apparently still happening .
Gweedore, 3.00 Southwell, each way,been out for a while, but training well, bet responsibly….
I have been at games in Germany several times. I have been in Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Kaiserlautern, Dortmund etc. Transport to and from the stadiums is a dream. You are quickly away and into City Centres in minutes. Not only that but transport is free as it is included in the match ticket.
We could learn from the Germans
Posters regularly complain about Fans leaving stadium early but, this is to beat the rush and get home at a decent time. I have personally been stuck in our bus in Nuneaton Street for over an hour after the game finished by Traffic Police holding as back from the Clyde Gateway Road. Night games have seen us getting to Victoria Road after 11.00 regularly. after that we still have to get to our Homes.
The traffic around Celtic Park is really poor. There no longer has a Bus Route up London Road. Cycle lanes and Traffic Calming schemes restrict the traffic flow with no increase in Public Transport provision. The train Tunnel just outside the stadium is still unopened.
I know the City Council want to limit Car use but there must be a better way
Burnley 78.
Hope all is well and you are feeling better.
I wonder how close the train station is to Bayern ‘s ground ?
I dont imagine you will have to walk circa 30 minutes to get there.
HH.
Overall the team done ok last night. Seen worse. Some players stood up and some sorry to say looked like wee boys lost and kane free at back post twice was mental.
The noise supporters generated was decent, but could and would have been better if we were in the game.
Lastly, the gb’s ‘show isreal the red card’ will cost the club some money, but shows up uefa for it’s hypocrisy and double standards. Some folk get more upset about this type of action that the death of 10 of thousands of innocent men, women and children at the hands of a war machine.
HJ
GDT – yes indeed.
I doubt the ref last night was a Bayern fan, but he knew less flack would come his way if he favoured them in 50/50, 60/40 calls
Technically it’s cheating, but you could label it career risk/unconscious bias.
Just imagine playing in a league where most of the refs are fans of our main opponents and knew they’d get flak officiating honestly 😲🤔
Just googled k.o. Time v hibs on March 8th, showing 3pm.
ConfusedCSC
Leftclick – aye, can’t see 8pm anywhere.
SPFL Mediawatch has re-tweeted the bbcs tweet from earlier that said it was a 7pm kick off, saying the bbc has now deleted their own tweet. suggests the 4 fixture days/times it said are probably about right apart from our kick off time which is probably wrong – that would make sense as 7pm is a strange time for a saturday kick off but still likely to be saturday evening
bigbhoy- Hampden is the same re buses,you would think in this day and age, disperse crowds asap
itsabouttim on 13th February 2025 3:23 pm
Tangboy @ 1:31
You’re right, the fans didn’t turn up but that’s because the team didn’t turn up. The GB were really buoyed up at the start but then they saw what was happening in front of them.
They reacted to the performance and that was flat until the last 15 minutes + 7.
======================
You two need to turn your Tellys up!!
Greenpinata
Feeling a bit better today after a few rough days. I managed along last night. I got a lift from my son and was well padded in case of excessive hugging of we scored.
I do agree the Scottish transport systems in relation to sporting events is a total shambles.
To be fair I have been to Munich a few times and it is fine when the crowd at not rushing back after an evening game. The station is nearby and easy to access although many fans park up first thing in the morning and even have Barbeque type events all day pre and post game in the big car park with camper and and the like.
Evening games tend to be a bit more like ours with the train system not totally adequate and road network not great.
Blogger GM
Agree re the Ronan O’Gara quote being relevant.
I am a Greg Taylor fan but sadly last night for whatever reason wee Greg was the weakest link.
https://x.com/RebornFenian/status/1890095245955944682?t=g-mDeB0Ql_h33HTohmRVeA&s=19
🕷 🎵 ❤️
From Jobo
*SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2024-25*
*RESULTS FROM GAME #40 CELTIC 1 BAYERN MUNICH 2 (MAEDA)*
Good evening, friends.
For those that like symmetry in their life, the first half last night was a perfect example, with the ball being in the net at one end after 26 seconds and at the other with 26 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, only the second one counted and despite our very good defensive set up and display Celtic went into the break a goal down.
Earlier in the day I had mentioned that in big games my 2 hopes were always the same – to have one (at least) moment of jumping about like a daft laddie; and to still be in the game with 15 to go. Well, at least I got my first wish almost instantly, cos when Kuhn’s fine strike found the net, me and all those around me danced and hugged for a full minute before even realising that offside was a possibility. TV pictures show that the decision was correct but even so, what a fantastic start. However, the next 44 minutes was pretty much one way traffic towards Kasper in goal. Our set up and organisation was first class and Bayern didn’t really create much from open play albeit that our keeper had a couple of decent saves. Harry Kane will feel he should have buried a back post header late in the first half and we now know that he wouldn’t mess up his next big chance.
Bayern’s first goal was an unstoppable strike by Elise. At the game I was highly critical of Greg Taylor’s poor defending for the goal but having seen the move again it really was fine margins. One step further back and Greg might have cleared the high ball, but it was not to be.
The second half was only 4 minutes old when Bayern doubled their lead. All night, Bayern had been threatening from corners, but our individual defenders had all seemed clear on their roles and positions. But something went wrong with this one and the consensus seems to be that it was AJ, who otherwise was fantastic, who should have been at least closer to Harry Kane to stop his fairly easy side foot volley into the net.
We then had our first glimmer of hope on the 55th minute. An extremely long VAR check by UEFA standards left most of us thinking that a Celtic penalty was inevitable, especially when the referee was called to look at the screen. But ultimately no foul was awarded although the incident did seem to ignite the crowd even more and give the players a reminder that we only need one wee break!
Our best spell of the game followed and for 20-25 minutes we were the dominant side, helped by the introduction of Jota and Schlupp but even more so by moving Maeda through the middle. In the 75th minute Daizen brilliantly anticipated a back pass heading to Neuer and got to the ball first but touched it to too tight an angle to have a real chance of scoring. Yang then came on for Kuhn and had a pretty productive 20 minutes. None more so than in the 79th minute when a bit of ping pong in the 6 yard box saw Hyunjun flick the ball up for Daizen to nod it over the line. Kyogo departed Celtic just after Daizen was sent off against Young Boys. In his 4 appearances since then Mr Maeda has scored in every game he’s played in, netting 7 in total. Currently he can do little wrong.
The momentum remained with Celtic during the remaining 10 minutes and the 7 added and our best effort was in the 91st minute when my own man of the match, Alistair Johnston broke into the box and hammered a goal bound effort that Neuer managed to turn round the post.
So, we keep the tie alive and face Bayern again in 5 days time. Keep it tight, somehow manage to score first and who knows where that could take us!
We have now played 40 games this season, winning 29, drawing 7 and losing 4. We have scored 111 and conceded 35 (domestically it’s 97-19 and in Europe it’s 14-16).
Thank you so much to the 65 who voted this time around. The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Schmeichel: 24
Johnston*: 27
Carter-Vickers: 6
Trusty: 19
Taylor: 0
McGregor: 10
Engels*: 38
Hatate: 6
Kuhn: 3
Idah: 0
Maeda*: 57
Schlupp: 1
Jota: 0
Yang: 4
And so, the players receiving POINTS for the game against Bayern Munich –
Maeda – 5 points (A NEW SENCELPOTY RECORD – MOTM 4 GAMES IN A ROW!)
Engels – 4 points
Johnston – 3 points
Schmeichel – 2 points
Trusty – 1 point
And the overall positions after 40 games played are –
64 points – Maeda
58 points – Kuhn
51 points – Engels
48 points – Hatate
47 points – Schmeichel
44 points – McGregor
41 points – Bernardo, Scales
32 points – Trusty
27 points – McCowan
26 points – Johnston A
24 points – Kyogo
23 points – Carter-Vickers
21 points – Taylor
19 points – Valle
14 points – Idah
7 points – O’Riley, Yang
6 points – Jota
4 points – Forrest
3 points – Welsh
2 points – Murray
0 points – Cummings, Holm, Johnston M., Kenny, Nawrocki, Palma, Ralston, Turley
Our 4th consecutive home game is on Saturday at 3.00pm when we entertain Dundee United. Team selection will be interesting with Munich on the horizon.
Hail Hail!
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 13th February 2025 8:46 pm
Yes you’re right , I wouldn’t call it cheating in the way Scottish refs will do because of their allegiances , it’s more to do with the influence clubs like Bayern have with EUFA and the career risks the refs might run by upsetting them . There has always been a suspicion also , that there might be a certain pressure to ensure that the cartel of biggest clubs reach the semis/finals of the competition rather than the less fashionable clubs like ourselves
Don’t know if anyone watched the Vale tonight- cracking game.
We were lucky to go in goalless at half time, but deserved the 1-0 with the second half performance.
Up the Vale
The more humanitarian and socially conscious elements in our fanbase [who craft the quality protest banners] do a stand up job of trying to hold some of the evil-doers of the world to some kind of account.
If they want their probity to be unimpeachable, they themselves could also offer/undertake to pay the inevitable UEFA fines on the club that result from their bannering efforts.
quadrophenian on 13th February 2025 10:33 pm
When such suggestion was made previously,it resulted in ‘match the fine’ which enabled an educational and health centre to be opened as the sums raised were 6 times the fine at that time
It could be argued their probity is already unimpeachable,they are Celtic fans.
It could be further argued that any fine will be well covered by the interest made on record bank balances at at the club launched from the pulpit of St.Marys on 6/11/1887
The good ship Celtic Csc
Hail Hail
If telling the truth about genocide incurs fines from football organisers maybe it’s time to stop paying to prop up such a twisted organisation. Fuck UEFA and Fifa
They found him
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CyUSQz9Y9/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Good Morning Celts – Grand Day To Be A Tim…
Agree wholeheartedly with the lead…
We are definitely growing into a UCL side, a team requires many facets of their game to make that so, discipline definitely a major component.
To be disappointed about not getting a result, and a technically offside goal, and a technically wrong penalty decision shows the fine margins.
We now can defend against the best teams, hurt the best teams, and hold our heads high after a narrow defeat against the best teams.
A wee bit premature to look at this season’s UCL campaign in the round, yet the improvement in our performances have been palpable.
My feelings are we go with the same starting line up next week in Munich with the exception of Schlupp taking Greg’s starting berth.
We need his experience physicality and pace – tough on Greg I know, with Schlupp obviously not fully match fit yet.
However, we need to give ourselves every chance to finish this excellent campaign with a very good performance.
The Brugge/Atalanta game showed the level we are at and the level we can be at.
Our recruitment model and player development has now matured into a winning formula at European level.
Although the Bayern game proved we are not at the stage where no top team should come to Celtic Park and expect to win, but it did indicate that the scenario is far from an impossible achievement; there is clear capacity within current Celtic F.C. resources, to improve this squad of players by both development and procurement.
At the final whistle Bayern were quite happy to go away with a narrow win, let’s hope the next top European side that visits Celtic Park will be happy if they can achieve a draw.
Hail Hail
Burnley78 on 13th February 2025 7:11 pm
Not good news for us that Ferencvaros are winning. We may need to have our coefficient above theirs for seeding purposes in August. They will be 3 ahead after tonight.
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B78 – I think that ship has sailed … unless of course we can beat Bayern and quify for the next round.
Not impossible but highly unlikely.
On the domestic front ….
C’mon the Puskás Akadémia !!!
If EUFA fine Celtic for the Israel banner it will highlight their total hypocrisy . Russian clubs where band from European competition after their incursion into Ukraine , Israel has invaded two countries and has been allowed to continue playing European football. Remember Ukraine’s players entering the field draped in their countries flag and the big screens at stadiums displaying the flags of Ukraine and then Israel ? I think the Wembley arch was lit up in the colours of the Ukraines flag.We stand with Ukraine and We Stand with Israel displayed on countless screens. No politics in football EUFA say , very good.
Massive game to show the depth and capability of the squad tomorrow.
United showed at home and in second half last month that 3 points are not to be taken for granted.
A win tomorrow (any score) will heap on the pressure for our rivals.
13 years ago. What a day.
If you would like a long and detailed report on the fines which UEFA have imposed on Celtic for banners, smoke bombs etc. then those intrepid ‘journalists’ in BBC Sports Scotland have handily put together one in their main sports page.
They even give the game away when they sate,
‘Celtic avoided a ban on supporters attending the second leg in Munich next Tuesday despite receiving a previous disciplinary notice from Uefa after a smoke bomb was thrown onto the pitch at Aston Villa in January. But, while a suspended ban remains in place, Uefa decided to impose a £8,400 fine for throwing fireworks, with no additional penalty.’
They are absolutely ragin’ so they ur!
Back to Basics
You are right now re Ferencvaros.
I was hoping for a draw away in Munich and them losing last night. Then our Govan Coeff monkeys picking up 4 Coeff.
It is now all about Puskas Academy who did beat them last weekend and do have the weight of the President behind them.
Impact for Celtic of this and other scenarios in Ukraine and Croatia will be huge in August.
The new article will be up at noon.
Happy Administration Day
Still laughing
💚🤍💛
Hail Hail
Happy administration day .
As for the horrendous traffic situation on match days around Celtic Park,It’s not going to change soon ,Just for taking sake ,how much would Celtic get if they put the ground etc up for sale ,would it be enough for the club to relocate maybe in either South or North Lanarkshire we’re better transport links could be better
Tmbhoy 163
While it is feasible it is also hard to see any move away happening, there’s so much history and connection with the area moving away will not happen. With all the talk over the last few days about football and transport experiences in Germany it really is a disgrace that the city Council have not only looked to improve public transport they have actively worked against getting to and from the stadium, they really are a useless shower.
how much would Celtic get if they put the ground etc up for sale ,
——————
One pound.
it is worth nothing to a developer. The buildings cannot be used for anything else.
THE EAST END HAS BEEN GETTING SLOWLY SLOWLY SLOWLY DEVELOPTED FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS
Have Glasgow City Council some kind of antagonism to us?
Didn’t they refuse to let us develop such things as a hotel and fan zone around the ground? Why? Surely they would have brought much needed money in to the East End.
Surely they could easily improve public transport to and from the environs. There used to be a railway station about 200 yards (or less) from the ground. Is that line closed? Could it be reopened and reconnected to an existing line? Has the possibliity even been explored?
B78 @ 8:40am.
Cheers.
I’ll be honest … I’m not sure I was aware of the existence of Puskas Academy until a couple of weeks ago.
My fear is Ferencvaros, as the prominent larger club, will – a bit like Celtic perhaps? – be able to dedicate themselves fully to domestic matters after their European participation has ended … and overhaul Puskas Academy in the title race.
B78 – soz, missed this on first reading if your post.
What’s the story with Croatia?
Saint Stivs ….
THE EAST END HAS BEEN GETTING SLOWLY SLOWLY SLOWLY DEVELOPTED FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS
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Yip.
The old GEAR project !!!!