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Frustration and promise in Seville

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

A game most of us expected to lose without fuss instead turned out to be a frustrating look into what could have been.  Again, we lost four goals in Europe, as we did on three occasions in our Europa League group last season.  Again, we allowed a two-goal lead to slip away.  Despite the superficial similarities to last season, there are reasons to believe we are on a different trajectory.

Celtic bossed Real Betis for the first 30 minutes; the home side could barely hold possession in the final third.  At 0-2, the game could have slipped away from them, but a couple of breaks of the ball 18 yards from the Celtic goal was enough to bring them back into contention and transform the night.  Celtic were too fragile to assert telling authority.

Tom Rogic was head and shoulders above everyone else on the field.  On nights like that, you wonder what he is doing in Scottish football.

After an uninspiring start against Ross County on Saturday, Jota showed us what all the fuss is about.  Forced to play on the right, his deliveries were a delight.  His chance to put Celtic three up may, or may not, have changed the outcome of the game; if you can lose four so readily, there are no guarantees.  The winger pulled up with cramp on Saturday and was visibly waning after 75 minutes last night, when his touch and composure deserted him, but we have a player straight from the ‘Bums on seats’ drawer.

Albian Ajeti’s movement inside the box set the game alight.  He got onto the end of Jota’s cross to score the opener, then tempted Claudio Bravo in the Betis goal into a challenge before nipping the ball away from the keeper.  Would Eduard have made either run?  Not recently, that’s for sure.  The penalty was of the stonewall variety.

After the game, when asked why we keep losing so many goals in Europe, I protested.  The central defenders only met last week, the left back has never played there before this month, and the right and left side pairings were completely new partnerships, “This is different”, I insisted.  Time will tell.

I have watched a lot of Celtic teams lose in Spain but do not recall going there with such an attacking strategy.  I suspect it would never occur to Ange Postecoglou to play any differently.

The game had the look of one of those all-star games we used to see in the 80s, “England v The Rest of the World”, type affairs.  Plenty of talent and lots of goals, as no one really knew each other or what the structure was.  Both Celtic and Betis will improve.  Going on my expectations before the game, there were reasons to be encouraged, despite all the goals against!

BT will be interested to hear that Uefa permit member clubs to veto broadcaster staff assigned to cover games.  I doubt it.  BT subscribers were denied the channels’s top team when Newco refused to allow Neil Lennon and Chris Sutton entrance to Ibrox on security grounds.  Where else outside of the Gangster Clubs will you see behaviour like this?  It is like a club being run by children.

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  2. Saint Stivs on

    Alternative route ‘more disruptive’

     

    Ronnie Convery, of the Archdiocese of Glasgow, said sectarianism was still a “cancer” in Scottish society, pointing to the “violent scenes” in Glasgow earlier this year.

     

     

    He said the Catholic Church acknowledged people had a legal right to march through the city. However, he asked that the parades were timed and go on a route that avoided causing “fear and alarm” in the Catholic community.

     

     

    Glasgow City Council has the power to alter a parade’s route or timing but has opted not to do so.

     

     

    A spokesman for the council said the parades would be “more disruptive to the life of the city” if they took an alternative route.

     

     

    This weekend, vigils will be held outside of three Catholic churches which the parades will pass.

     

     

    It emerged last summer that the Scottish government had commissioned a civic mediation company in an attempt to ease tensions over loyalist parades in Glasgow.

  3. Uncle Jimmy on

    New company secretary is already part of the set up?

     

    Will our stagnation, in a corporate sense, lead to a regression on the park?

     

    There’s a famous saying in business

     

    Q. What happens to the company which does not change?

     

    A. Nothing

  4. THE EXILED TIM on

    IMO only Ange really can’t win with many of the support.

     

    Some of the garbage that has been directed at him for going all gung ho when we were 2-0 up is a disgrace coming from Celtic supporters, maybes, just maybes he decided that the players we have are not good enough to defend against a team like Real Betis, Brendan was of the same opinion at times, I will wager now that if we had tried to defend the lead last night and lost, as we would have again IMO, he would have been slaughtered for it, play to our strengths and that is attack and hope to score more than the oppo.

     

    The coaching will get better by the day, our biggest problem is the quality we can afford.

     

    Also some of the players we have bought have been a total waste of good hard earned supporters money, not their fault I hasten to add.

     

    We will be fine when have a full team to choose from, trust me.

  5. An Tearmann on

    Friesdorfer

     

     

    Doing grand my friend,over in Donegal till tom back tomorrow.not to much vibrancy bout appointment but will see if anything else occurs.

     

    Hopefully catch ye at corner or on my walk round to leave.you and the family take care.

     

    :-)

     

     

    HH

  8. Turkeybhoy on

    So it looks as though,with the SM announcement,the suave,debonaire,Swiss fella,won’t be the new CEO.One chance to make Celtic our very own version of Camelot has been dashed.

     

    “There’ll be none of that bloody foreign rubbish here.Their fancy food and bloody hoity toity ways.Oh no.Celtic fans don’t want,and neither does T’Board.So there ye are.We say what we like,and we like what we bloody well say.Stick to eating Toblerones lad.

  9. Burnley78 on

    Turkeybhoy

     

     

    Ramon is a really interesting guy. He would be a very interesting appointment. The kind of interesting that would make it almost impossible to be a serious option. Sadly.

  11. TinyTim on

    Was Dom Mackay’s “ Big Mistake “,selling Hendry for peanuts .

     

    No decent sell on fee .

     

    Then Ostende sell him to Brugge for a large profit.

     

     

    ?

     

    TT

  12. JHB on

    Just a word on Ange. He appears to me, and I thought myself as a good reader of people in business life, to be slightly ill at ease, a bit frustrated and running out of things to say in his last couple of interviews.

     

     

    Let’s be honest, he came to Celtic to gain a foothold and prove himself in European football.

     

     

    Now I’m not being alarmist, but if he gets some kind of success over the coming months, e.g. close to Sevco in the table with a few of good EL wins; that coupled with his previous reputation will attract English Championship clubs at least, and maybe a top Greek club/national team.

     

     

    He has shown in the past that he is very much his own man and is not afraid to take the hard decisions.

     

     

    He can’t have identified all the new signings, he will expect to do so from now on.

     

     

    Our boardroom machinations are not ideal at present – let’s hope things settle, on and off, the park.

  15. JHB on

    Just watched brief highlights of last night’s game at Ibrox…..must say I was flabbergasted to see Stanley Tucci in the Lyon dugout!!!

  16. JHB on

    SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 17TH SEPTEMBER 2021 9:56 PM

     

    —–

     

    Just an interested observation – would any of us be surprised at any turn of events given what has happened since August 2020?

  21. JHB on

    SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 17TH SEPTEMBER 2021 10:41 PM

     

    ——-

     

    That is also an interesting observation, but with an agenda…..unlike mine!

  22. fourstonecoppi on

    Just in from a wee session in the dolphin…….now in the hoose and dancin to “nightfly’ Donald Fagan

     

     

    ooft

  27. Turkeybhoy on

    Still would have loved to see Ramon as the CEO.Very outspoken,and from what I can gather,great credentials.

     

    I was going to say,maybe would have woken up some of the regulars House Of Lords impersonators,but I can’t really believe it.

  29. Sionnaigh on

    THE EXILED TIM, I very much doubt AP instructed Ralston not to head the ball out of play and concede a corner instead of setting up Real Betis first goal. Likewise the killer fourth goal set up by Turnbull. As a Junior player I made that mistake only ever once. I dint need the telling off but I got it anyway. The embarrassment I felt made sure I was never so lazy ever again not to abandon concentration. “IF IN DOUBT HEAD THE FKN BALL OUT FOR A CORNER, STAUNIN IN YOUR OWN FKN SIX YARD BOX FFS! NEVER EVER EVER HEAD THE BALL STRAIGHT TO A FKN OPPONENT…. IN THE DANGER AREA FFS ….FOR HIM ON A A FKN PLATE TO SCORE YA FCUKIN EEJIT”.

     

    Ralston for the first and Turbull for the second. Would have the pair of them the next home game dragged down Paradise Way left tied to a stake as a warning to all not to be so fkn unprofessional ever again.

  32. Laxalt on

    Ffs… Here’s why we, Celtic fans, know/think we’ll win the league…

     

     

    1. We usually do

     

    2. Ange has a 50pc (?) win rate ahora.. That will become.. 55, 60, 65 and so on as HIS system starts working.

     

    3. Sevco will NOT carry the luck they got last year when they romped away with The Training Ground Cup.

     

    4. Goldson, Alfie and Roan Kent plus most of their over 25 players now know they’ve reached their earnings peak and that will bring problems.

     

     

    Imagine the Moscow ballet or something similar, came to Glasgow and their bus was vandalised..

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