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!
[calameo code=0003901717b03ef5e64cb lang=en page=100 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
833 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 22
- »
I thought that was a fair analysis of our progress Paul.
HH
Away to chase all those – witches and thingys fom under my bed then….
Off oot !
May God Bless Paul 67
and ‘Every’ Internet Bampot
Hail Hail
laters….
TBB & Gordon_J – thanks for your take on things. A bit clearer now (I think).
Quick question – has Minty had sight of this report for the last three weeks? I see the MSM were well prepped today to start the `fightback’. Just saying….
One consistent thing that I noticed today after reading the DR (in the shop) is that Alan Johnston, Dark Mingwall and Jabba all insisting that stripping of titles is off the agenda as the EBT’s were legal. NOT one mention of side contracts and how/if they breached SPL/SFA rules.
The Battered Bunnet
12:13 on
21 November, 2012
The light that shines twice as bright last half as long
and the huns shone so very very brightly
…on everbody else’s money.
So Celtic shone legitimately once which was the huns motivation to cheat…Why shouldnt all clubs do the same and cheat like the huns?
Whats to loose?
You’ll get to keep your stadium and everything.
I hear the min huns are in similar dire straits?
Why dont they do the same?
Or is this slight of hand to divert attention away from these shennanigans and prevent the SFA and SPL elimination and have the hun pension plan restored?
I mean Scotland is Celtic and Rangers after all right?
Broonie’s health comes first.
Get him sorted.
No more chances with his injury.
You know it makes sense.
Naturally disappointed with last night’s result, nevertheless Celtic are now in a win win situation with European football already secured after Christmas and now have to be favourites to make the knockout stage of the Champions Lge, a great achievement. The team has now played nine games in the Champions lge and has been magnificent, confounding the critics and tv pundits everywhere.
The Benfica central defender who had not played for two months amazed me with his match sharpness. How often have we seen tennis players on the verge of victory tighten up and lose important matches, Celtic’s nervous performance last night was a similar situation where a point would have seen the team into the last sixteen.
It will be interesting to see what sort of team Barcelona will field against Benfica in what is now a crucial match.
First time blogger, long time lurker…
We could have sneaked a draw last night, but can’t complain, better team won..
Like the look of big Ambrose, but dae find myself shouting at the telly when he goes oan a wander…. Heart in mouth…
Glad to hear that Scott Brown will get his hip sorted.
Long term health should be his first priority. Not sure what the issue is as its never been reported fully but hopefully two to three months out will sort him for the rest of his career.
RobinBhoy
Gene’s a Bhoys name – They’re totally different people. Clark Kent wears glasses!
BTW my theory is that everybody in Metropolis knows fine well that the son of Jor-El is posing as “Clark Kent”. In his day job he is surrounded by investigative reporters and even they are bound to be sober some of the time.
They play along with his “secret identity” shtick because of:
a) Genuine gratitude that they no longer have to kneel before Terence Stamp.
and
b) Fear that he might get drunk again and smash up an oil tanker and straighten the leaning tower of Pisa.
At this point the good citizens of Metropolis have been lying to Clark Kent / Superman for so long that they can’t back out of pretending not to know they are the same person.
For his part, Kent’s determination to defend the people of Earth is strengthened by his belief that they are a race of lovable semi-morons who are easily fooled by his spectacles and lame excuses about why he disappears every time Superman is around.
It’s sort of like that awkward stage when, as a wean, you knew Santa Claus wasn’t real, but had to pretend otherwise because you couldn’t bear to disappoint your parents when they took you to sit on some old codger’s knee at Goldbergs. (thumbsup)
We showed v Barca that we can cope without Broonie. A fit Scott Brown is an asset to the team, the current Scott Brown is a danger to himself.
Art of War,
Cheers. Yes, Murray and HMRC will have had the report for a couple of weeks or so before publication.
Excellent article, Paul67. Just the thing to pick me up. (The sun is shining brightly here for once.) Whatever happens, our team has far surpassed my expectations for the season. Here’s hoping our manager can keep our team together.
I saw the Dissenting Opinion of Dr Poon a few years back, at the oooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllle Burns Howff.
What a complete waste of time and emoluments that was.
Blindlemonchitlin – Philvis is Kick ass
Ha!
Kick Ass has a green and gold uniform and was invented by a guy from Coatbridge, whereas Philvis… (thumbsup)
philvis –
nae real?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh
Cyurl
Tell every crowing hun that you know ………….
There’s only one thing worse than dying, and that’s having died in vain. Put to the sword for a pound when they could have held off and still been alive.
The pure irony of that is immense.
It looks like we will have to refer the matter of “are Paul67 and Philvisreturns one and the same person” to an ole First Tier Tribunal.
Or maybe to an Edinburgh court?
Not Proven m’lud!
It will be interesting to see if Nimmo Smith resorts to using the law in order to allow some people to avoid the consequences of the law .
Thoughts return to ‘Slicker ‘ commiserating with Hector re the arduous task of interviewing all those recipients and then having to try to make sense of it all .. No smoke without fire but rightful suspicion is not allowable evidence etc /etc/.
Bus journey coming to an end — grilled sardines soon come .
Excellent as always Paul.
The thing that concerns me is the fact that we could finish up with 10 points, and STILL NOT qualify for the last 16 of the CL and be confined to the last 32 of the EL!
Surely no club has ever failed to make the last 16 after amassing 10 points?! I’m pretty sure that some clubs have finished 2nd in their group with as few as 5/6 points?!
If this is the case then UEFA need to seriously look at the CL format so as not to penalise clubs who gain more points than others, but still fail to make the knock-out stage!
HH!!
Tallyboy – Man City 2011/2012 = 10Pts – did not qualify.
Tallybhoy
12:52 on
21 November, 2012
Man City only last season had 10 points and finished 3rd, so not that uncommon
Good stuff, Paul.
Ever heard of Nate Silver?
I think his (‘astonishingly’ successful) take is that [when viewed over a reasonable length of time] Stats don’t lie …
On your assertion that Celtic defences always seem to have a ‘junior partner’ ‘but not now’, who would you say was the junior partner in what I think was easily our best (though sadly brief) centre back pairing in recent times: namely Alan Stubbs and Marc Rieper?
FF
early bookie odds for 2 weeks time
Celtic 4/5 Spartak 7/2
Barcelona 2/5 Benfica 11/2
Tallbhoy
Is the final 32 in Europa divided into groups or strait knockout?
Tallbhoy
A number of teams have finished with 10 points and went out:
Dynamo Kyiv, 10 points in 1999–2000 (second group stage) and 2004–05
Borussia Dortmund, 10 points in 2002–03 (second group stage)
PSV, 10 points in 2003–04
Olympiacos, 10 points in 2004–05
Werder Bremen, 10 points in 2006–07
Manchester City, 10 points in 2011–12
Some teams have even gone through with only 7 points
Legia Warsaw, 7 points in 1995–96
Dynamo Kyiv, 7 points in 1999–2000
Liverpool, 7 points in 2001–02 (second group stage)
Lokomotiv Moscow, 7 points in 2002–03
Werder Bremen, 7 points in 2005–06
Rangers, 7 points in 2005–06
Milan in 94/95 went through with 5 points but back then it was only 2 points for a win.
Either scenario could pan out in our group. We could go out with 10 and Benfica could go through with 7.
Mort
It’s possible -hypothetically-to get
It’s possible -hypothetically-to get TWELVE points,and not qualify.
Each of three teams win all their home games,plus the away game against the diddy team.
I can’t see this happening for quite a while,as Rangers are banned from Europe……….
The minimum number of points needed to go through is 4 if one team wins all their games and the other games in the group are all drawn. it’s also possible for 3 teams to end up on 12 points and one of them go out if there is a particularly weak team who lose all their games.
Mort
As regards qualification from the Group Stage, what counts first, goal difference or head to head results?
Celtic 1/2 to qualify; Benfica 6/4 ( William Hill).
JJ
Our expectations when the the draw was made was at best a crack at the Europa cup and these expectations have been met……
On to team selection if there has to be no starting slot for Charlie Mulgrew at either left back or centre half he should not be accommodated and shoe horned into a midfield role when there are more competent and able midfielders sitting on the bench as was the case last night and at pittodrie on Saturday. Also surely a 100% fit Tony watt is a better starting option than what appeared to be a 70% fit Gary Hooper who contributed nothing last night but is blameless in that respect. Fraser Forster in my opinion man of the match last night .
As to the remaining fixtures I am reminded of the words of Tito Vilanove prior to his teams match at Celtic park where he alluded to the fact that should they qualify that night he would be changing his team and resting his players in the last two remaining fixtures of the group. Now that his team has qualified I I believe that he will be true to his word and he will field a shadow team in his teams remaining fixture against Benfica and I don’t see Spartak being in a hurry to do us any favours either.
Anyway I have the Inverness game and two away fixtures to Hearts and Kilmarnock to attend before I am thinking about the champions league again
Ps here is one for all you conspiracy theorists out there……….I want to know the name of the member of Celtic staff who at the conclusion of the game last night colluded with the Lisbon polis in keeping us in the ground longer was necessary thus allowing the club directors a free run too and through the airport allowing them to to get back to Glasgow and back to their mansions and into their beds before everybody else. Until I get answers I will be bhoycotting any Champions League finals we get too
First time posting in a long time – busy bhoy?
Delighted with our position – every time we play I think we will cause chaos – I think we can beat anyone
On last night I am going to be a bit critical – away from home Champions League and we need a point – yet we play 2 up front ? Thought Samaras had a go – but thought Gary got lost a bit – put pressure on our midfield – Scott not 100% and we learn today Charlie was il?
Anyway no complaints from me we are in a great position Hail Hail
curly – If it’s any consolation my father later confessed that, while Santa Claus isn’t real, the demon clown living under my bed is all too real. (thumbsup)
JJ
Head to head always if its just 2 teams on same points. GD only comes into it if 3 teams are on same points.
Mort
Celts could go through on 8 pts if Barca beat Benfica
…and we draw with the Russians
Now that would be a loooooonggg 2nd half!
Medication at the ready :)
hankray
The final 32 in the EL is the first knock-out stage – made up of the first 2 teams in the 12 EL groups plus the 8 3rd placed teams in the CL groups.
Thanks to all those for the CL group points info.
Still think we will make the last 16 in the CL!
HH!!
Mort
Thanks……but Damn!
Gordon_J – thanks, wasn’t sure.
So does that mean that what we are seeing is the culmination of 3 weeks of devious plotting, hand wringing and whattaboutery to put Minty’s message to the masses?
No’ very impressive is it?
“It wiz HMRC an’ Wee Craigy Whyte’s fault that we got flushed doon the pan, so it wiz!”
I liked the quote that said SDM was `reasonably’ sure that he would win this case.
Just like I’m reasonably sure they are deid! hehehe
HH
Ps. Iet us know when you put a new blog up mate.
When BDO come calling for the loans to be repaid…
which one of the dEBTors will declare bankruptcy first?
P