Enthralling and successful league phase

189

Our Champions League, league phase, concluded with only our second defeat of the campaign.  Like the first, it was away from home against a club from a top five league, unlike the first, it was not a humbling experience.  Although five minutes in it promised to be even worse.

Celtic steadied and grew into the game.  Our major positive is the redemption of Adam Idah, who looked like he was in the wrong movie all this term, but flourished at Villa Park, scoring twice in the first half to bring us level at the break.

There are no complaints about the result; Villa deserved to win and in selling Kyogo on Monday, we accepted this probability.  The players and manager deserve credit for competing as they did.  However, the manager’s decision to throw on Dane Murray was demonstrably unfair on the 21-year-old.

Dane has not played a single minute of top flight football in his career and made his only Celtic start (against Midtjylland) in July 2021.  Brendan has shown no inclination of developing the player, but threw him into a cauldron last night.  Managers do like to play games; you and I are not supposed to notice.

12 points and a 21st place finish feels like a huge achievement.  The draw was favourable, but as we saw against Young Boys, it does not matter who you face at this level, you still need to go out and get the job done.

It could have been better.  Brugge figured us out and it took too long to adjust, two points were there for us.  We were far better than Dinamo Zagreb but didn’t find the opening.  Those four points would have taken us level on points with eighth place Villa, but out of the automatic qualification on goal difference.

Only three of the 20 clubs above us play outside the big five leagues: PSV Eindhoven, Benfica and Feyenoord, while Sporting and Brugge mean six teams outside the wealthy leagues made it to the playoffs.

There is so much to unpick from the new league format.  Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb are examples of how to recover from a catastrophic defeat.  Dinamo were draw against Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Milan and Monaco.  They started with a 9-2 loss in Munich but finished with 11 points.  Denied progress only on goal difference from a draw which was expected to crush them.

It has been an enthralling, exhausting and successful league phase.  We have earned money, coefficient points and enhanced our reputation as a place to play and scout for players.  The platform has been raised.

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  1. Majestic Hartson on

    How many games did Ange give Nawrocki?

     

     

    It’s not just BR that doesn’t see much in him is it?

  2. fourstonecoppi on

    Saint Stivs on 30th January 2025 6:41 pm

     

    guy pretends to be a celtic supporter,

     

    very long winded call to clyde.

     

    celtic lacking ambition and rodgers working his ticket, letting kyogo go, rodgers flashing his pecs to show england he is still there ………..

     

    and then the mask slips by calling our manager BRENDA.

     

     

    Aye nearly spat oot a dinner!

  3. bournesouprecipe on

    MAJESTIC HARTSON

     

     

    Difficult selection for Ange given he was away to Spurs when Nawrocki signed.

  4. SAINT STIVS on 30TH JANUARY 2025 5:05 PM

     

    1 hour 21.

     

    Talk-sport phone in.

     

    Celtic fans sing anti monarchy songs in fron of prince billy.

     

    michael fagin, ahahahahaha

     

    simon jordan sick.

     

    —–‐——————————–

     

     

    He won’t be the only one sick.

     

     

    BBC Sportsound reporting UEFA to ban our away support next game for the flare.

     

    Also may take further punitave action for banner and chants.

     

    Awaiting Referee report before finalising penalties.

  5. bigrailroadblues on

    Good evening all from the Brazen Head. It’s a great life being a Tim and loving the Celtic. Life is too short for regrets and feeling down.

     

    Let the good times roll, Glasgow Celtic!!!

     

    💚

  6. Majestic Hartson on

    BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 30TH JANUARY 2025 6:56 PM

     

    MAJESTIC HARTSON

     

     

     

    Difficult selection for Ange given he was away to Spurs when Nawrocki signed.

     

    —-

     

     

    Excuses, excuses…

  7. Now is that a surprise or not .the bbc hinting at a ban on celtic fans ( or wishing for a ban ) and of course uefa turn a deaf ear to non stop sectarian singing . The singing obviously doesn’t count .

  8. I thought we were good last night. With some weaknesses exposed.

     

     

    We are a very good team going forward, not as good as Villa but we can match them at times. We just dont have that player who senses danger and deals with it.

     

     

    Some might say a Scott Brown or Wanyama type but the best ever to do it in modern times at Celtic was Neil Lennon. Blocked passing lanes between into front men, covered full backs, had bite in the tackle and could retain the ball and move it.

     

     

    All five of our CM’s are technically good I think, but we maybe need something different in the summer. McGregor’s 7 goals from open play this season suggest his talents might be utlilised further forward, no matter how capable he is of building play from the two CB’s

     

     

    TJ

  9. See some no mark mp and shock jocks are upset about celtic supporters singing the rebs, it’s so so bad don’t you know and we should be punished as a support and club, why? Because it hurt england’s wee feeling.

     

     

    I am offended by being called a fenian bastard, by being treated to racism on a daily basis, by britian occupying Ireland and taking our peoples land, splitting up of Ireland and running a descrimanatory policy agains irish nationaist, employing a policy that saw a million people die and a million people flee Ireland whilst the brits took food from Ireland to feed middle England.

     

     

    It seems millions dying and displaced irish is less of an issue than hundered being killed in england. I don’t give a fuck what any no mark wants to say, our history and songs are ours, perhaps instead of moaning about their wee feeling they should be owning the bastard acts of their past and stamping out the Irish racism running up and down your country.

  10. Forgot to say fuck the crown, take money from the tax payers but fet to avoid paying tax all the while the tax man goes after the wee guys with little to nothing

  11. Greenpinata on 30th January 2025 6:40 pm

     

     

    Scullybhoy,

     

     

    Totally out of order.

     

     

    Its his site, feel free to start your own.

     

     

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

     

     

    Only if I can take ORDINARY JOE with me.

  12. I really hope that our support do have the chance to go to either of these cities again. Pity that a few idiots can potentially spoil it for so many.

     

     

    Of course loads will have friends in both cities and will attend discretely but it is not the same as being able to back your team openly and enjoy as part of a support.

  13. From jobo

     

     

    *SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2024-25*

     

    *RESULTS FROM GAME #36 ASTON VILLA 4 CELTIC 2 (IDAH(2))*

     

     

    Good evening, friends.

     

    For the 2nd European game in a row, we watched a game that had just about everything! But this week it was ultimate disappointment having done the harder work last week to ensure qualification.

     

    The game kicked off at 8.00pm and 5 minutes later Celtic were already 2 down. Poor defensive cover on our right hand side saw a pass into Rogers to open the scoring. And the same player then bulleted a 20 yarder into the top corner, helped by the slightest of deflections of Scales’ big toe. Shellshocked and fearing the worst I tried to remind myself that a daft football game shouldn’t impact me that much and continued to watch as Celtic, slowly but surely, started to get a wee bit of possession and come more into the game.

     

    Midway through the first half we passed up 2 or 3 opportunities, with Villa making some unforced errors but Celtic failing to capitalise, none more so than Hatate’s weak attempt in the 24th minute. We also had scares at the other end, most notably when Johnston did very well to appear from nowhere to clear one off the line.

     

    In the 35th minute we finally had a reason to be cheerful, part 1. Taylor passed to Yang then continued down the left. Yang found Hatate and Reo’s first time pass to Taylor was perfect. Taylor’s low cross led to McGinn flicking the ball up for Idah to finish. A very good goal and very soon more was to come.

     

    This time we had possession out on the right. A cut back to Engels on the edge of the area, a backheel from Arne into Hatate and an early cross across the 6 yard box to the waiting Idah and it was, unbelievably 2-2.

     

    The second half continued much like the first. Celtic having some good passages of play but never looking as dangerous as Villa when they continued to create. With 60 minutes played and Celtic on the offence, Scales lost a duel high upfield leaving Celtic exposed to Villa’s breakaway. McGinn proved to be stronger than Engels and suddenly it was 2 on 1 against Trusty and the inevitable goal followed.

     

    5 minutes later and most of us felt it was all over after a rather harsh penalty decision went against Trusty. Watkins stepped up, lost his footing and then effectively played the ball twice – shot with his right foot against his left foot and the ball spun over the bar. Decision – a free kick to Celtic and relief that we were still in the game.

     

    91 minutes on the clock and still in with a chance of a draw but then we gift a goal away. Not the best defensive throw in towards substitute Murray but the young substitute could have taken the safe option to blooter it somewhere rather than be caught on the ball. Not that I’m sure the final goal really mattered as Celtic hadn’t really created any chances beyond Reo Hatate’s long range effort in the 72nd minute.

     

    So we finish the league stage, qualifying in 21st place with 12 points on the board. 4 teams finished on 11 points and 1 of those, Dinamo Zagreb, missed out by having the worst goal difference of -7. So we now know for sure that had we only drawn last week against Young Boys that wouldn’t have been enough.

     

    On Friday we will know whether we facing Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the play off round. I’m not sure it matters which one as both will be a huge ask.

     

    We have now played 36 games this season, winning 26, drawing 7 and losing 3. We have scored 96 and conceded 32 (domestically it’s 83-18 and in Europe it’s 13-14). Thank you so much to the 68 who voted this time around. The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.

     

     

    Schmeichel: 51

     

    Johnston: 7

     

    Trusty: 6

     

    Scales: 0

     

    Taylor: 0

     

    McGregor*: 13

     

    Engels: 15

     

    Hatate*: 43

     

    Kuhn: 3

     

    Idah*: 66

     

    Yang: 0

     

    Bernardo: 0

     

    Palma: 0

     

    Cummings: 0

     

    McCowan: 0

     

    Murray: 0

     

     

    And so, the players receiving POINTS for the game against Aston Villa are –

     

    Idah – 5 points

     

    Schmeichel – 4 points

     

    Hatate – 3 points

     

    Engels – 2 points

     

    McGregor – 1 point

     

     

    And the overall positions after 36 games played are –

     

    58 points – Kuhn

     

    45 points – Schmeichel

     

    44 points – Hatate, Maeda

     

    43 points – Engels, McGregor

     

    41 points – Bernardo, Scales

     

    31 points – Trusty

     

    24 points – Kyogo

     

    23 points – Carter-Vickers, Johnston A, McCowan

     

    19 points – Taylor, Valle

     

    10 points – Idah

     

    7 points – O’Riley

     

    4 points – Forrest, Yang

     

    3 points – Welsh

     

    0 points – Cummings, Holm, Johnston M., Kenny, Murray, Nawrocki, Palma, Ralston, Turley

     

     

    *PLAYER OF THE MONTH FOR JANUARY*

     

    The monthly award is based simply on the total votes received over that particular month. During January we had 8 games across 3 competitions. In the league we had 5 (home to St Mirren and Dundee United and away games against Sevco, Dundee and Ross County). We had our home Scottish Cup win against Kilmarnock. And we closed the month off with back to back Champions League ties, at home to Young Boys and away to Aston Villa.

     

    In third place with 165 votes is Kasper Schmeichel whilst the runner up on 170 was Calum McGregor. But the clear winner this month with 225 votes is Arne Engels.

     

    Monthly winners –

     

    August – Calum McGregor 184

     

    September – Paulo Bernardo 173

     

    October – Liam Scales 168

     

    November – Nicola Kuhn 298

     

    December – Kaspar Schmeichel 198

     

    January – Arne Engels 225

     

     

    It’s back to League action this weekend and an away trip to managerless Motherwell. The game is on Sunday with a 3.00pm kick off.

     

    Hail Hail!

  14. Our city rivals will not know whether to stick or twist.

     

     

    With much less money for direct top 8 qualification in EL they would be financially better off with a play offs game they could win and then last 8.

     

     

    That said they have done well against a reasonable bunch of teams. 2 midweeks off might appeal more.

  15. An Act of Confession: I stopped watching after the first 5 minutes. Ten minutes later I took a chance and resumed viewing. Celtic didn’t dominate any of the first half but they matched Villa for 40 minutes. Villa were in the driving seat for most of second half. But I think it was a mistake to sub Idah. It was 3-2 with a matter of minutes to go; we were only a goal behind; anything cam happen I’m that scenario

     

    Unlikely I know but a cornet or misplaced pass could have put an entirely different complexion on the result.

  16. Unlikely I know but a cornet or misplaced pass could have put an entirely different complexion on the result.

     

     

    A cornet ? You have some brass posting that !! 🤭

     

     

     

    AutoTypingErrors CSC

  17. I seem to remember Dane Murray playing for us at Pittodrie under Ange. Didn’t he play a couple of games at that time? However, I take Paul’s point that Brendan may have been telling the Board that he needs to strengthen the defence.

  18. Looks like a couple of free weeks for our Glasgow rivals. Credit to them given the resource they had to qualify never mind Top 8.

  19. At 3-2 down we get a throw in in our own half late in the game. You might think that the right choice would be to throw it forward, towards say McCowan, but no, AJ I thnk, throws it back towards Dane Murray, puts him on the back foot and before you know it it is 4-2. Poor decision making first by AJ and then by Murray. But not necessarily by Brendan Rodgers. Hope Dane doesn’t get too down about it, more experienced players than he have cost us goals recently. Still have high hopes for him and hope he does get some more game time through to the end of the season.

  20. Scottish Football Journal on

    ASTON VILLA 4 CELTIC 2: HOOPS LOST IN BLUNDERLAND

     

     

    29TH JANUARY 2025 – MATCH REPORT

     

    ASTON VILLA 4 CELTIC 2

     

     

    BLUNDERING Celtic flopped in a maze of mistakes at Villa Park this evening.

     

     

    Thankfully, the result meant nothing as far as reaching the Champions League play-offs is concerned, but this was a display laced with errors and howlers from Brendan Rodgers’ team.

     

     

    This was every bit as awful as the seven-goal drubbing in Dortmund and proved conclusively the worth of Cameron Carter-Vickers to this defence.

     

     

    Liam Scales struggled to the extent he was withdrawn to make way for Dane Murray who was on loan at Queen’s Park at the start of the season.

     

     

    Before the night was out the youngster, making his first appearance of the campaign, had presented Villa with their fourth goal to bring the curtain down on an x-certificate performance from the Parkhead men.

     

     

    And it got to the stage Daniel Cummings was also thrown on for his first-team debut as Celtic nosedived to defeat.

     

     

    This was not easy on the eye and the importance of bringing in a quality frontman for Kyogo Furuhashi was highlighted on a night to forget.

     

     

    It was all-square at the interval after a breathless opening period that saw the host go two goals ahead in quickfire fashion that provoked a similar response from Rodgers’ men in an encounter where the tempo rarely dropped below 100mph.

     

     

    The visitors were on the backfoot after losing two goals in five minutes as the fans of both teams could barely believe what they were witnessing.

     

     

    In just three minutes, Jacob Ramsey got clear to whip in a low left-wing cross and Morgan Rogers first-timed an effort past the helpless Kasper Schmeichel.

     

     

    Before the Celtic players had a chance to clear their heads and regroup, they conceded again two minutes later.

     

     

    Schmeichel was loose with a pass out of defence that was snapped up by the opposition in the middle of the park. It was worked forward where Rogers was presented with a shooting chance on the edge of the box.

     

     

    He didn’t hesitate as he fired it goal wards, the ball took a nick off Scales’ toe and that was enough to send it looping into the keeper’s top left-hand corner of the net.

     

     

    At that stage, Rodgers’ side were all over the place and it looked as though an embarrassing result was in the offing.

     

     

    However, two minutes after the second goal, Nicolas Kuhn was presented with an excellent chance to pull one back, but the German winger contrived to belt the ball well wide of Emilio Martinez’s right-hand post.

     

     

    That was followed by another appalling miss by Reo Hatate after he seized upon a sloppy passback from Luca Digne.

     

     

    The Japanese midfielder only had Martinez to beat with the goal gaping, but he miserably struck a shot straight into the grateful arms of the Argentinian international netminder.

     

     

    It was a truly wasteful finish from the playmaker and Villa were allowed to breathe a sigh of relief.

     

     

    In the 25th minute, it was the visitors’ turn to escape when a low drive from Ramsey flicked up off Schmeichel’s right-hand upright and was snatched by the thankful keeper.

     

     

    On the half-hour mark, John McGinn came on for the limping Matty Cash and only two minutes later Alistair Johnston managed to clear an Ollie Watkins shot off the line.

     

     

    However, the fightback started with a brilliant goal in the 36th minute when Yang Hyun-jun and Hatate combined to send Greg Taylor racing clear on the left and his cross was acrobatically hooked past Martinez by Adam Idah.

     

     

    Exactly two minutes and 25 seconds later, the Republic of Ireland international striker was celebrating again when he rammed in the equaliser.

     

     

    It was a wonderfully-constructed set-up from Celtic on the right with Kuhn and Callum McGregor involved before a neat flick from Arne Engels found Hatate clear in the box.

     

     

    He whipped it low to the back post and Idah was there to thunder the ball into the roof of the net.

     

     

    Unfortunately, on the hour mark, Villa were gifted a third goal when both Scales and Engels lost challenges and the ball was swept to Watkins who walloped it past the exposed Schmeichel.

     

     

    In the 65th minute, ropey French referee Clement Turpin awarded the hosts a penalty-kick after buying Watkins’ theatrical dive after a Trusty challenge.

     

     

    Alarmingly, VAR agreed with the onfield decision, but justice was done when Watkins skied the ball into the stand.

     

     

    Hatate came within inches of the equaliser in the 73rd minute when he accepted a pass from Kuhn and left Martinez stranded with a curling effort from outside the box.

     

     

    Alas, the ball carried wide of the far upright and moments later Rodgers introduced Paulo Bernardo and Luis Palma for the tiring Engels and the ineffective Yang.

     

     

    Seven minutes later, Cummings came on for Idah in a move that emphasised how bereft of strikers Celtic are at the moment.

     

     

    With Scales continuing to struggle, Murray replaced him in the 83rd minute along with Luke McCowan for Hatate.

     

     

    Celtic offered little by way of a genuine threat before Murray gifted possession to Watkins who rolled the ball in front of Rogers to complete his hat-trick.

     

     

    It was a fitting end to a woeful evening for Celtic.

     

     

    TEAM: Schmeichel; Johnston, Trusty, Scales (sub: Murray 83), Taylor; Engels (sub: Bernardo 73), McGregor, Hatate (sub: McCowan 83); Kuhn, Idah (sub: Cummings 80), Yang (sub: Palma 73).

     

     

    https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/aston-villa-4-celtic-2-hoops-lost-in-blunderland/

  21. Scottish Football Journal on

    BURNLEY78 @ 9:42 PM,

     

     

    Yes, well done Rangers, showing once again whose the premium European side in Scotland.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  22. I thought the commentator was very good last night.

     

    Once again it takes the English to bring up, whiich I reckon our second best result in Europe, the victory against Revie’s great Leeds side at Elland Road in 1970.

     

    It’s often said we’re not liked in England but tell that to the list of players who’ve invited us to do their testimonials, while I can’t think of any the huns have covered. Perhaps they’ve had as many riots down there (Manchester x 2, Newcastle, Spurs, Villa, Wolverhampton, Tranmere) as we’ve had said testimonials.

  23. lets all do the huddle on

    i thought the commentator was as dull as dishwater.

     

     

    nothing in his voice made it sound like he was commentating on a big atmosphere CL game between an english and scottish team.

     

     

    think he had been commentating on the bowls on bbc2 last week.

  24. Weebobbycollins on

    “…whose the premium European side in Scotland.”

     

    Whose?

     

    Not Who’s?

     

    Thicko! I blame the schools…

  25. Burnley 78 … credit to them my ARSE….who the feck is this guy ? ..Ps was thinking of changing my moniker to Neuchatel 91..,,🤔🤔

  26. Watched events @ hundrone tonight, got to hand it to them any player that they sign ,they are developed overnight into Nasty Pieces Of work

  27. Sevco are scotland’s premier European team if you exclude the only European tourney teams are actually interested in. Sevco supporters cling to their decent Europa league preformances as some kind of gold standard cause they have nothing else. The truth is they pick up victories in a secondary European tourney. When they go in with the big boys in the champions league they are shown up as muck, last time they secured their place as the worse performers of all time, delusional is a more apt description lol!!!

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