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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Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire,
i think they just go over what has already been heard, no new
is allowed i think.
The internet bampots were`nt wrong , the only thing they got wrong was
the result. It could have went against them. Was trying to make sense
of Heidi Poons reasons , and its on two or three cases of law and
interpretation of they laws.. Seems to me the other Judges went with letter
of law- prescriptive-and Heidi says its not supposed to be interpreted
as prescriptive.
The whole scheme flys close to the wind legally many times. The guy that set
it up for rangers was struck off by a jersey court for running the exact same
scheme.
I think its a big can of worms HMRC will need to get to grips with.
This is just my take on FTTT
Marrakesh express
The word I heard was thatPacky was not the most popular senior player with the young apprentices .
I don´t think Celtic are favourites to go through Paul, such is the standard of teams we are up against. However, if we beat Spartak I think we will go through.
I´m not surprised this Rangers tax decision came on the back of a Celtic defeat. There was no indication when the decison was supposed or due to be made. I´m disappointed by the justice system in Scotland. Lack of professionalism.But ultimately I am not that bothered, to paraphrase the late Lex McLean, I´m only here to see the Celtic.
We need to keep this
TET
Fancy: B. Dortmund, Schalke and Man City/ R. Madrid (draw).
canamalar
DWP tribunals HMRC can request a set aside and appeal to the upper tribunal due to the first tier tribunal erring in law…
as I said earlier if my clients are described as being unreliable then the department wins the case..
this didn’t occur in this case, therefore appeal to the upper tribunal looks on.. imho
Paul 67,
“a Big Dan Moment”
but Big Dan used to have Bobo Baldie Moments
NEXT GEN: Sporting Lisbon 2 – Celtic (HT).
Chris Graham @ChrisGraham76
There is a whirlwind heading for those who have treated our club so badly over the past couple of years. Sit back and enjoy the show bears.
__________________________________________
hahaha, Comical Ally is alive and well
Just in from Vmhans dad’s funeral… Which was excellently presided (is that the right word) over by a lurker who managed to mention the blog… Well I think he is a lurker..
God Bless Jackie and his family…
Zbyszek
I suppose the attraction for the players will be the salaries on offer but nothing pays enough to go through that, as usual UEFA playing lipservice to their own respect and SRRC campaigns.
Ooops!
2-1 HT.
………..what is it with thicko huns an’ their whirlwinds an’ tsunamis………..????
GL2
I told ole vman to text me or ask if he needed anything..
I didn’t know if it was what he wanted but I didn’t post last week when I heard…
Has Packie Bonner now joined the soup takers club joining his pals Nicholas, McLeod, Walker?
With friends like him who needs enemies eh?
Muppet
blantyretim, thanks for clarity,its remarkable all the triumphant bell ringing going on.. The Orcs appealed as was their right, now its Hectors turn, as is his right..
In Cologne airport after a 2-0 defeat,we found ourselves in the Departure Lounge with the team and officials.Bhoy with me asked Bonner if we could pull the tie round at CP,Bonner who was out of the team at the time due to Gordon Marshall replied,”I don’t know why you’re asking me,cause I won’t be playing……”.Cue Peter Grant and Charlie Nicholas ushering Bonner away from a very irate Celtic supporter.
Like slugs after the rain they are all out today, Graham, Johnson, Mingwall, Leggatt, God it’s like a who’s who of the biggest scumbags in Scotland and as per usual out with the threats, we’re gonny dae this and we’re gonny dae that..
Whit did ye’s awe dae when yer club wis dying??
Whit’s that ye say nothing…
Aye nothing that’s whit ye’s did and that’s whit ye’ll continue tae dae!!
Clowns the lot of them..
blantyretim
19:24 on
21 November, 2012
BT he posted about Jackie last week… That was what the Priest spoke about during the service today with the out flowing of feelings from Brother Walfrid’s people on the blog
You don’t get a job with the MSM unless you’re prepared to criticise us and fullsome in your praise of them.
Welcome to their world Packie.
Benitez to Chelsea a done deal
praecepta
Aye, not bad, still think the in play, might get better value, expensive time this Christmas lark :>)
Danso..,
I’d have thought if, the next teir is in a court setting, then clearing up any ambiguities or obstructions under oath is required for clarity.
I understand no new evidence can be presented however, wherever obstruction is suspected there is a legal requirement to hear those witnesses evidence under oath to ensure they are not lying to pervert the course of justice ?
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
19:11 on 21 November, 2012
The appeal would be to the upper tier tribunal.
They deal with points of law, not with evidence. There will be no rehearing of evidence.
Mr.Z,
In at least half of the team pics there are (sometimes several) asian players who I believe you were referring to as ‘yellow’. This is where your ethnicity argument doesn’t stand up. Agreed, there are no black players in the pics, but it probably corresponds quite closely to the black population of St.Petersburg / Russia.
Some good news about a very talented young Celtic player:
Paul George: My road to recovery is almost complete
By: Laura Brannan on 21 Nov, 2012 11:55
ON the day Celtic´s first team were celebrating winning the league championship at Rugby Park last season, things were more subdued up the road at Rangers´ training ground.
The Under-19s won the Glasgow derby 3-0, but that wasn´t what the afternoon was going to be remembered for as one of their star players, Paul George, suffered a broken leg after a crude challenge.
However, just seven months after that dark day at Murray Park, the Irish winger is back in action and nearing a return to fitness ahead of schedule. He made his comeback a fortnight ago when the Under-20s took on Falkirk, and in scoring the only goal of the match, 10 minutes from the end, he marked his return in style.
Still in search of full fitness and match sharpness, George knows the coming weeks will require patience. But he´s just happy he gets to kick a ball again and with the NextGen clash tonight, (Wednesday), against Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, he´s hoping to continue his run of substitute appearances.
“I´ve been out for seven months but I´m ahead of schedule,” he exclusively told the Celtic View. “I still can´t train every day so I´ve been taking some time off, but I think I´ll be back properly around Christmas time.
“It´s still a difficult stage for me, I can´t be at 100 per cent all of the time just now so I´m just battling through it and hoping I can get back to the level I was at before.
“I returned a month ago – my first full week of training was about three weeks ago. I´ve pushed myself recently but I don’t want to do that too much.
“It was brilliant to be back but it was a bit weird. My legs weren’t the greatest so I know it´s going to still take a bit of time for them to recover.”
And while the physical rehab is almost complete, the Irish teenager admitted it will still take a bit more time to mentally recover.
“It´s hard to blank it out the moment it happened,” he said. “I still think about it – when I see tackles on the pitch I still cringe at them. I need to build a barrier to get over it, but it´s been alright so far.
“Going in for tackles is still a big worry. It´s scary, so I´m trying to keep my foot off the gas just now. I´ve had a few big challenges in training but not in a real game yet so I´m just waiting for it. Once I get that out of the way it will probably be a lot better.”
George has travelled to Portugal for this evening´s clash with Sporting Lisbon and he knows a win is vital if they are to keep their hopes alive of progressing to the next stage.
But with a 4-0 win against Dundee last week, the young Hoops were boosted by returning to the top of the league and take a lot of confidence into this match.
“It was a big result for us going into this game,” George admitted. “We really need the win and there´s a lot more pressure on us because it´s coming to the end of the group stages now.
“We only have two game lefts and we´re desperate to win them so we can qualify and go one better than last year.
“It´s been really frustrating watching the NextGen games. I played last year and we all did really well as a team, but this year I´ve had to watch from the sidelines. That´s been hard to take but hopefully now I´m back I can get involved in the last two games and help the boys get through.”
For the full interview with Paul George, see this week’s Celtic View, out NOW!
HH!!
dessybhoy 19:21
The only not white footballer who played for Zenit was Kim Dong-Jin from Korea. He was Dick Advocaat signing after WC in Korea.
How Zenit can wear shirts with “Respect” and “Show Racism Red Card” signs on them?
Barca 2/5 v Benfica 11/2
Celtic 4/5 v Spartak 7/2
How many poor bookies?
Raff the new boss of Chelsea
Packy was the unfortunate Patsy on tonight’s BBC Shortbread.
Not sure if he might have been chosen on purpose: as someone whose views may have been know and/or someone not likely to express a strong, dissenting or contradictory views against the confident, experienced Jabba or his sidekick, the pro-Rangers & anti-Celtic Kenny McIntyre (think back a couple of years to the shocking referee strike Shortbread programme hosted by McIntyre).
In any event, (although I shouldn’t have been), I found myself astonished that Jabba was given a free run of somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes to rant against anyone who had the temerity to have accused Murray’s Huns FC of being anything other than wholesome, boldly asserting all sorts of pash about how the FTT’s ruling vindicated and exonerated everything Murray did [except sell the club to Whyte].
Moreover, as I heard him make vague accusations against unnamed colleagues in the media, un-named SPL clubs and others (un-named), I couldn’t help think of Hitler and his usual style of rant against commies, Jews and foreigners … a ploy which has a history of going down extremely well with a public unable or unwilling to face the truth …
FF
Greenlion2
19:21 on
21 November, 2012
Just in from Vmhans dad’s funeral… Which was excellently presided (is that the right word) over by a lurker who managed to mention the blog… Well I think he is a lurker..
God Bless Jackie and his family…
—————–
From up that hill the view back towards the town was pretty lovely.
nice clear day, you wont see me type it often, but greenock and its people really are special.
god bless jackie and family indeed.
Zbyszek
Its a stunt the black players in England refused as they believe it is a stunt cue AF etc towing the party line must stick tobether to beat this, they will only beat it when on every occasion it happens it is highlighted and action taken by the football authorities to punish with bans
Folly-A patsy or compliant ex Celt looking for a media job?HH
bt,
I hope so but any delay in making the appeal only allows political pressure to be applied and as we know only too well HMRC have rolled over quite a few time to political pressure.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the oil slick offers to make up any shortfall from the Scottish taxpayers pockets if they make it go away.
Dubaibhoy at 19:30
“This is where your ethnicity argument doesn’t stand up.”
See my post at 19:31, one minuete after yours. There was no intention to cheat. I said the guy from Korea was the only not white player in Zenit squad ever. Could say more why they signed him. Not ordinary story.
Not sure what is your point?
Dubaibhoy
This is link to transfermarkt , Foreign players-History. All of them.
http://www.transfermarkt.de/en/zenit-st-petersburg/historische-gastarbeiter/verein_964.html
FF
Packy is a disgrace…..
he joins the clowns who have disgraced thenselves for a few dollars more…
Saint Stivs
19:36 on
21 November, 2012
I said to V i saw you but never saw you after it…Where did you go to?
‘Packie Bonner joins some other ex-Celts in the soup (taker) kitchen shocker!’
HH!!