On hearing the results from England’s vaulted competitors in the Champions League last night, against teams ten points off the pace in the Netherlands and seven adrift in Germany, my first thought was, I wonder how they’d get on against Barcelona? This is a guide to the magnitude of the challenge facing our manager and players this evening.
You can forget notions of stoical performances two weeks ago, that game counts for nothing, which we will find out within the opening minutes. If Celtic are going to earn anything substantial from their group-stage games against Barcelona, they will need to open better, retain possession higher up the field, and maintain energy and concentration levels until the final whistle.
Barca have had an incredible start to the season, winning nine and drawing one of their 10 domestic league games, while winning all three in the Champions League, but each well-oiled machine is susceptible to having a spanner thrown in.
Nine years ago the same team arrived at Celtic Park on the back of a nine game winning run, the best in their history at the time. The trip to Glasgow didn’t work out so well for them as Celtic punched a hole in their defences and used what, at the time, I assumed was voodoo to prevent the visitors from scoring. They travelled home blaming hex, bad finishing and the foreign conditions for their defeat, but the truth is we spooked some of the most experienced players in the game.
This is not a team of diminutive super-humans. They are enormously skilful and effective, clearly the best team in the world today, but they are vulnerable at the back, as Celtic proved two weeks ago, and struggle to vary the formula, if required, up front.
Celtic need to concentrate on winning possession on the wings inside the opposition half. Do this regularly enough and opportunities to fire high-balls into the box, directly or from free kicks, will follow. Neil Lennon will decide if this is a game for Kris Commons but even if it’s not, it is a game for a Commons-style intelligent use of body and ball.
If voodoo is your thing, knock yourself out. The rest of you wear your lucky socks/shirt/shoes/Hector mask and arrive ready to participate. Fortune favours the Celtic.
I attended the 125th Anniversary celebrations at St Mary’s and later the Kerrydale Suite last night. I’m not sure what I expected beforehand but it was not the funny, touching and unmistakably-Celtic occasion we experienced. Well done to the magnificent Celtic Graves Society for getting the tone absolutely right, and to Celtic for bringing the event together. If Messi and Co were in attendance they would be reluctant to leave the dressing room tonight. The Barcelona directors who were there will now where to aim for with their club.
420 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- »
BIGbones8867
Thats why in Ireland its called “An Gorta Mor (The Grat Hunger), it was in simple terms Genocide by the British Government.
Prof green,
Football has no special dispensation in Scotland, if the bbc can provide an example of any other business which has pheonixed with the history of a liquidated company then their argument has validity, until then they are pushing a fraudulent agenda, which is contrary to their guiding principals.
SouthofTunis
Had a small(ish) wager on 1X @ 7/2.
Also taken 5 homes –
– Bayern
– Benfica
– Chelsea
– Juventus
– Valencia
Buona fortuna a te!
HH!!
Hearts are always getting “winding up orders”.
They always seem to pay at the last moment.
greenjedi
16:46 on 7 November, 2012
BIGbones8867
Thats why in Ireland its called “An Gorta Mor (The Grat Hunger), it was in simple terms Genocide by the British Government.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ottoman aid
According to legend, in 1845, Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid declared his intention to send £10,000 to Irish farmers but Queen Victoria requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, because she herself had sent only £2,000. The Sultan sent the £1,000 sterling but also sent three ships full of food. According to Abdullah Aymaz in an article in The Fountain magazine, the British administration tried to block the ships, but the food arrived secretly at Drogheda harbour and was left there by Ottoman sailors.[73][74] Uncertainty remains regarding the story as shipping records relating to the port at this time appear not to have survived.
Does anyone see a resemblance between the wee fat noxious hun manager and the big fat noxious first minister?
C’MON THE MIGHTY GLASGOW CELTIC!!!!
Philbhoy-Guy who reported on Shortbread is a Jambo I think,he sounded a bit more worried than previous “wind ups”.
Are the BBC suggesting that it’s easier to say Newco have Oldco’s history as we are all too stupid to differentiate.
BIGbones8867
16:41 on 7 November, 2012
tusker
horrible reading indeed,its important that people understand that there was no famine
it was a potatoe blight and our people were starved to death
a thought has often crossed my mind,if it hadn’t happened would we have Celtic?
*both my patenal grandparents were born in 1881, one in a fishing village in Connemara and the other in a farming family in Fermanagh.
My granny made a crackin pot of Irish stew and you got it in a soup plate.
My da widnae peel potatoes he would scrub them with a brush so as not to waste any of them.
Italians have pasta with every meal, Indians have rice while we have totties.
My weans would come home fae school and ask what was for dinner, in their Canadian accents they would moan “no totties and mince again” yet they almost licked the plates clean.
Oh aye hate tae say it but no potato blight no Celtic.
Tonight, Barcelona are my enemy.
C’MON THE MIGHTY GLASGOW CELTIC!!!!!
to think if we’d held on in barca
and we win tonight,we’d be topping the group
dizzy heights indeed
bb
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby
16:30 on 7 November, 2012
Prof Green
You should write back and tell him you dont,like the majority of football fans in Scotland,have an agenda and that the bbc has a duty and responsibility to the truth and that he is a slinky hun bassa.
you will get skelves in your arse sittin on that fence.baith barrels pal thats how i like it.
Izzy no playin’ ? Jings hope they dont draught in Mark Ried………
Prof Green-Well done for pursuing the Establishment Media,as Allgreen is alluding to it sounds like “tough,just deal with it …” bs.
tictaewin
It’s ok Danny mcgrain is on the bench
All the best to the Bhoys tonight,will not be there,but will be sitting with a couple bottles of red,cheering on from the armchair.Lets hear you Bhoys.HH.
TBM
My most heartfelt condolonces to you and your family on the sad passing of your uncle.
HH!!
TONTINE TIM. wher do you come from
DONEGAL
hows yir totties
rare n small
how do you eat them
skin n all
do they choke ye
not atall.
For the most part…………and in general……. imo….Shortbread has been an important part of the ranjurs support network.
For the most part, staffed by fans of thems…….
……….They afforded thems real support and cover…..friendly supportive affinity……think of chic, Ally an’ Jim……….or…Pattersony, Doddsy and any other former player of the former team……..
The Good Ole Boys Klub……….
The number of thems games covered………the partial vox pop of the pantomime phone-ins and the vaudeville hunnery of the hosts…….
The reluctance to grasp the nettle, the reluctance to call out the culprit(s)……..
………..the recent revelations have come way, way after other citizen journalists broke the stories……….
Shortbread failed to break the story of thems, because for them that was hunthinkable.
Shameful.
HH.
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby
Prof Green
You should write back and tell him you dont,like the majority of football fans in Scotland,have an agenda and that the bbc has a duty and responsibility to the truth and that he is a slinky hun bassa.
Yours respectfully,
Prof Green
Bada Bing
Could be a green and white one two in old Alba next year.
Auld Reekie green and white, who would have thought it?
Celtic Mac-I could live with it mate :}
Posted this on the AICSC mailing lhist earlier. My thoughts on tonight.
I was a bit more confident for the away game funny enough. After the way we have played since then though, its hard to approach this one with any degree of confidence we can get anything out of it. The injuries to key players are particularly worrying.
This is Celtic however and when we are least expected to do anything, something miraculous takes place. The crowd will be fantastic tonight. The added spice of the 125th Anniversary and the Green Brigade display will mark the occasion as being something special. This Celtic team will be well up for this. This is what players join Celtic for.
If Sammy plays, with his record in Europe this year and the way Barca are at the back, you would have to say the 5-1 about him scoring at anytime is good value, or 16-1 to score first. Betting with your heart you’d also have to say 10-1 about us at home is worth a fiver. If we did win and you hadn’t a penny on it, you’d be mad at yourself. And sure if we’re beat, a fiver or tenner lost is not gonna kill us.
C’mon Celtic! Hope all youse lads over there tonight enjoy the experience and come home safe.
Marti
Prof green,
I’m thinking there is room to take this further, the bbc has strict rules and I’m sure fraudulent agenda can bring them into disrepute territory
Professor Green
“the item was a fair representation of the facts as they are understood by the majority of our audience.”
How would the majority of their audience know any facts at all, bbc sport wheels
on jabba to tell us the latest propaganda release from aybroke, not facts.
They probably meant to say “are understood by the majority of their target
audience” i.e huns.
It’s lashing – so it’ll look like this!
Hector to Vladamir,
” You’ll have had your FTT.”
“You always feel like you won’t have a quiet game against Celtic. They’re strong at the back, good at counter attack, set pieces.”
Tito Vilanova
Also, is it not the bbc’s responsibility to provide clarity, instead of further compounding misunderstanding of the audience.
Barack Obama…………………………………….”Remember and wait for the Green Brigade’s signal”
We know they are dead, and Sevco will probably die too, so I wouldn’t be getting too worried about it. Forget the bigots & enjoy the day, when millions of Celtic Fans all over the world stand united and proud.
Prof Green
EVERY football fan in Scotland should bombard the BBC with e-mails and letters until they mend their ways, and make a public statement that newco have a history dating from July, and have won absolutely NO trophies whatsoever!
HH!!
Buona sera,
Been working here in N.Italy this week. Got the name of the “Celtic Pub” in Verona as the nearest Cetic bar. Drove up there last night to make sure all was hunky dory. It was shut, but the nice people next door, asssured me they’d be open at 5 tonight. Finally got thru to them on the phone – They’re no showing the game !!!!!!
Now off on a mad dash around Rovigo to try and persuade a bar to not show the Juve game and put on ours (which considering I’ve a face like a tack welders bench and the lingusitic skills to suit) will be no mean feat.
Wish me luck !!!
PS. Always got the fall back of dodgy WiFi and C67 to rely on (I hope)
Mama Mia!!!!!!
The live updates article will be up ata 19:15. Could someone leave a note here?
Thanks.
FAVOURITE UNCLE
16:59 on 7 November, 2012
TONTINE TIM. wher do you come from
DONEGAL
*Naw Balloch which according tae ma Irish granny who lived in Dumbarton was some remote we place where we were all freezin, she used tae make an Irish mixed grill….baked potatoes, biled potatoes, mashed potatoes and chips.
hows yir totties
rare n small
how do you eat them
skin n all
do they choke ye
not atall.
No problem Paul, enjoy the game
Prof Green
Received verbatim response from BBC to complaint.
Do we have any agenda other than expecting BBC to report factually ?
Heading off to Paradise shortly – C’MON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN !
HH.
Celtic v Barca