It is a measure of how far we have come during this Champions League campaign that a 2-1 defeat away to Benfica, leaving us favourites to qualify in second place for the Champions League knockout stage and assured of European football after Christmas, is a disappointment.
Unlike previous defeats in this competition, this one has not limited our ambitions.
Around this time of previous Champions League campaigns I’ve opined that Uefa Cup/Europa League qualification would be preferable to finishing second in the group stage, leading to inevitable elimination to a group winner. Teams who drop out of the Champions League have the prospect of a decent run in the Europa League, earning more coefficient points and potentially more cash, whereas Celtic never convinced me they could reach the last eight of the Champions League.
This time is different. We got it wrong last night and as a result lost the head-to-head against Benfica but this was not the case against Barcelona. Most of the current group leaders are better than Celtic, all would create more chances and have more possession against us, but here’s the rub, Celtic can score goals against anyone and can defend remarkably well.
Georgios Samaras has now scored in three consecutive group stage away games; he scored in all of Celtic’s five away games in Europe this season, surely a record. This is beyond a mere statistical oddity, it’s a result of a strategy which Benfica, Barcelona and Spartak have been unable to cope with (last night’s block-and-free-header routine was a thing of technical brilliance).
We’ve scored five goals in total in our three away group stage games. In the eight away games in the competition proper before this season, since losing in Copenhagen, we scored only once (remember against whom?)! In short, we can go anywhere and play effective counter-attacking football which even the best team in history had trouble dealing with.
That doesn’t mean we are champions-elect, of course. Benfica, who are a worthy team but are not tier-one material, got the better of us. They played to form last night and Celtic dipped. Scott Brown was clearly unfit, Charlie Mulgrew may-or-may-not have declared himself ill before kick-off but his condition did not help (stunning corner aside).
Neil also left out Kris Commons. Kris’s form has shaded since The Beating of Barca, so I was not surprised to see him on the bench, but did you notice we started to get balls into the Benfica box after he came on? More of this and I fancy Benfica would have yielded. In his post-match comments Neil Lennon reminded us his players are young and will learn from the experience.
It’s easy to overlook the fact that the manager is also young and learning as he goes along. His tactical decisions have been the real revelation of this group, even if he did leave Kris out and his gamble with Scott Brown didn’t work. His progress as a manager has been, as our old friend might say, astonishing.
Fraser Forster provided more evidence of his outstanding ability. Mikael Lustig and Kelvin Wilson looked perfectly at ease with under frenetic pressure but Efe Ambrose particularly impressed. I’ve watched Celtic defences for decades and we always seem to have a ‘junior partner’ but not now.
The defence made two mistakes last night but in all their games together they have yet to conjure up a Big Dan Moment.
My objectives for this Champions League campaign have already been surpassed but expectation levels are never level, so let’s take care of Spartak and see where the adventure goes next.
Orders are now open for the very first CQN Annual, get it here!
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ItaliaBhoy
22:11
That pretty much sums it up. It’s a sad day when amatuers are 10^6 better journalists than those intrusted to provide balanced and interesting articles.
We do owe them a great deal though, with their outstanding contribution to the death of oldco. :)
Books
HT
Fair Play
Paul67 et al
We haven’t really proved it yet but I think this Celtic team will prove to be a very good cup team over the next few years. So why not try and stay in the big one? If we beat Spartak Moscow, we will have played 10 games in Europe, won 7, lost two and drawn 1. And we will have over two months to prepare for the knockout stage. Think about the focus that would give us over the dark months. Can’t play Real, can’t play Barca, can’t play AC, reigning Champions out, please let us be in amongst the rest of them, strong as they all are.
Re the term “soup takers”, think about that for a moment. Isn’t right eh ?
Ivan Lentl is a souptaker
Celtic mac,
I think you are being too optimistic thinking this Celtic team will be together for the next few years
All the members of the space family The Clangers are Soup takers
The Spirit of Arthur Lee
haha:-))
bcw,
“A great institution” you think about it ?
Soup in a basket
….pfayr
21:32 on 21 November, 2012
As the old saying goes, “they don’t like it up thum”
Still great fun, we have the bragging rights from now until eternity.
They are deed, every time one brings them up in a positive light, just slip in, Oldclub or Newclub. No need for big debates.
What about Carl Mulligatawny (we were right in the soup in 1994)?
Are we really dealing with a bunch of consommé liars?
Was Jean Alain Soupsong one too?
Praecepta/Bookies
Brilliant!! ;-)
Speaking of Soups
On a night out on the bevy i always have a notion for
Cock-a-leekie
Celtic Mac
I think the can mhan is right.
I think we will be lucky if 3 or 4 of the team are not gone for the start of next season.
I just hope the replacements are up to scratch.
Soup In The Name Of Love
Soup taker? Is that kinda like a coke sooker?
canamalar
That is because I am optimistic! Not saying every player here now will be here three years down the road, but hope that most of them will be, supplemented by 4-5 of our younger players. Why not?
what about Broth-o ?
Canalmar.
Don’t disagree about former players who do the Judas act, sickens me.
Generally don’t drink the MSM poison.
It’s the term soup taker, which is pretty horrible, no ? People forced to choose between hunger and religion isn’t a nice parallel.
Took a look at the FTT, and… Goodness gracious me!
Oh well, funny stuff happens in the setting of legal hearings; almost every member of lawyerkind has a fund of horror stories where a sheriff known to get it right (usually)suddenly froths at the brain and screws up, apparently with incompetence aforethought. However, such events are usually fine examples of one bloke going doolally, and sane persons find themselves constrained to indulge in contempt of court privately in the bar afterwards. So it’s nice to see that in the case of this FTT, Dr. Poons does a remarkably thorough job of advertising the irrationale behind the majority decision ( some might muse that she also does fair job of setting out some nifty arguments for the appeal).
On reading Poons’ dissenting opinion, one can’t help but be struck by her evident exasperation; she lays out a mass of pertinent testimony that Mure and Rae elected to discount – evidence that would remain inaccessible to the public had she not made it available. As a consequence, we now know (for example) that 453 loans were requested and that 453 were granted; that the infamous side-letters were commonplace, but that such documentation was withheld (and its very existence dismissed as fantasy) until HMRC had access to material seized by the City of London Police; she provides an example of the standardised content of such side letters; she provides us with extensive extracts from of certain specific side letters, and demonstrates their contractual nature; she points out how the side letters prove a link between contributions made to the trust and matching loans made through sub-trusts; she stresses how players entering the trust scheme received two documents (both dated the same day), an employment contract and a side letter stating that sums x, y, and z would be paid into the player’s sub-trust on a set schedule… And I could make this paragraph a lot longer, but I suspect that you begin to catch my drift.
So if nothing else, Dr Poons has pretty much proved that the “side letters” had a contractual purpose, and that they were deliberately withheld from SFA, SPL, etc. Thanks to her, the entire world is now privy to the type of evidence which must be considered by the dual contracts enquiry; over to you, Nimmo Smith…
Heidi abu!
I bought the wife a Cuisinart Soup Taker for Chrimbo.
Oh wait a minute, it wis a soup maker. D’OH!
Sol CAMPBELL
Gabriele HEINZe
Celtic Mac
Group stages at least for the next two or three seasons, I think the
youth policy is starting to bloom, and the benefits are still to come.
Granny’s Arbroath won 2-1 tonight (courtesy of Francie & Josie).
Neil Lennon soup taker ?????
Dylan Mcgeoch soup taker ??????
Don’t think anyone would state the above however
I don’t think that Paddy Bonner ever allowed himself to be courted by the Huns with a view to signing for them or packed his bags to move across the city only to return when the writing on the wall was pointed out to him
2 things occur to me tonight.
We could conceivably go out of the CL with 10 points. Heartbreaking, but progress I suppose?
Tony Watt scared the life out of the Benfica keeper when he chased him down last night. The keper sliced the ba out the park, and the Benfica manager had what my old maw used to call ” a plural”.( Never understood why it was called that, but can recognise one when I see it). Wish he had got longer, hooper was lost last night. No fit.
Goodnight celtworld.
Down let the Huns euphoria grind you down
They are not innocent, they’re just not as guilty as they expected to be……tell them.
Talking about soup takers, the wife made a big pot of potato, onion and leek soup with added bacon bits tonight. It was so good I had two large bowls of it. It was the Dog’s boll€x.
Souptakerscsc
I mean its like a Palistinian telling us the Isrealis have a legitimate claim to the land he holds the title deed for.
Extreme analogy no IMO
Bombs and bullets sent to our manager, players, supporters and unrelated organisations by follow followers of that “great institution” while the rest of the country were complicit in keeping another shame, and Paky a man who owes everything he’s got to our club, wants us all to forget that, it’s a shame for them and we should sorry for this great institution who have been punished enough, no.
We have three CL qualifiers next season, I hope Lenny has them in a bit earlier to make sure we hit the ground running.
Goodnight timland
Away to pack the Cup a Soups for lunch the morraw
Night Night
Hamilton Tim
Good one that.
Ok off to bed now with my favourite QPR player and soup….. Granyero Tomato
Right – I’m off to bed before we start discussing tennis…………….
Andy Murray’s coach – Ivan Lentil :-)
Goodnight & H!H!
Ok taxi for me goodnight.
Hail Hail
THE EXILED TIM
I think he got them up and running quite well this season, and we`ll know how
to deal with them next season. The experience thing should have us in
pretty good stead for next year.
The future is green and white