For the first 20 minutes of the second half, AZ Alkmaar lay siege to the Celtic defence, which stood firm. They only looked vulnerable when; in a carbon copy of the move Celtic scored with, Poku stretched but was unable to make a good enough contact to put the ball on target.
Free kicks and corners came and went without fuss, the defensive line was straight and each player in at the back controlled and distributed the ball safely. Considering most of us believe the defence is the area of the team most in need of supplements, we are already in an elevated position compared to last season.
Yet again Anthony Ralston made a significant contribution, this time, sending Liel Abada clear to cross for our Irrepressible Icon, Kyogo Furuhashi, to do his thing. Greg Taylor was injured but struggled-on until 24 minutes when he was replaced by Adam Montgomery. This felt ominous as until then, AZ were most dangerous through their right back, Sugawara, who flooded forward effectively. Adam more than took care of the Japanese full back in what was one of the most crucial personal encounters of the game. He is a player.
Both central defenders almost had a flawless game. Almost. Stephen Welsh was caught in two minds; he did not head a long ball and he did not let it run through, as a consequence, it skimmed his chest to spark a night of anxiety.
Carl Starfelt’s own goal was a classic of the genre. The Swede started the season on the left side but after clearly struggling there, Ange Postecoglou switched him to the right. Evidence mounts that his left peg is largely for standing on. Carl swung at a cross that was going nowhere with his ‘standing foot’. He missed, the ball struck his right heel and squirmed into the net. The early weeks of his Celtic career, featuring so much good play, has been peppered by errors.
I am delighted Joe Hart is at Celtic and remain surprised at the improvement in our form he has provided. Still in the peak years for a keeper, there is a reason he’s no longer in the Lucre League (I believe they prefer “EPL”). At the point Stephen Welsh was caught in two minds, Joe’s decision-making capacity deserted him. This was not a footwork error, he just did not correctly judge the pace of the ball in relation to the man who was about to drift past him and score. The Joe Hart Anthology has another entry. Our memories should also record that he made two crucial saves during the game.
Yesterday’s blog was entitled “Game management when the roof falls in”. It is as though we have seen Celtic in Europe before; against the best team we have faced since 2019, there was always the potential for things to drift south rapidly. Recent Celtic teams crashed and burned after being pushed to the precipice in European qualification.
To the home fans, this must have thought this looked on the cards during the opening period of the second half, when Celtic could not get out of their defensive third. Possession was repeatedly surrendered while passing out from the back. AZ were permitted to mount relentless surges forward, we needed to change the game plan.
Odsonne Edouard arrived on the hour for the majestic but seldom mobile Tom Rogic. From that moment, Celtic had the engine to cover the pitch and could retain possession. For all of the criticisms that go his way, if we lose Odsonne next week*, we will have one less game-changing option.
If you are second seed in a European group, as Celtic are, the most important opponent is who you face from the third pot, given the assumption that the top seed is unlikely to drop two places below their expected finish. In this respect, we got a very difficult draw.
Bayer Leverkusen, sixth last season in Bundesliga, 8 points behind fifth place Eintracht. Difficult, of course, but a team we should compete against.
Real Betis also finished sixth last season, one place in La Liga above last season’s Europa League winner, Villarreal. They will be favourites to win the group and are everything we did not want. We have a bit of history here, of course, they got their first strips from us and we will both always have Seville.
Delighted to get Ferencvaros, they are a decent side but we owe them one. Bring it on.
*We’ll pick this up at the time, but I’ve been preaching asset management here for 17 years, so you know where I’m going on this subject.
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DRAMBOWIECELT on 27TH AUGUST 2021 10:43 PM
Any positive contribution to make apart from CQN ain’t what it used to be??
D’ohlt meant HK not KK(K)
” Or as veteran Scottish scribe Hugh Keevins observed just 25 days ago: “At the very least we now know what ‘Ange’ Postecoglou stands for. Absolutely. Not. Good. Enough.”
Poor Hugh. History, and it’s not even month-old history, hasn’t been kind to flippant opinion based on very little.”
Badger,
I didn’t realise he said that. I was going to say that’s unbelievable but…
BADGERHC on 27TH AUGUST 2021 11:38 PM
Keevins is not worth the time of day.
Neither him nor the rest of MSM
Ignore.
They rely on your outrage for their relevance.
Save your blood pressure.
Squire, easier just to skip past anything Wishaw posts. Life’s too short….
MAJESTIC HARTSON on 27TH AUGUST 2021 11:40 PM
Badge
I didn’t realise he said that. I was going to say that’s unbelievable but…
… … …
LoL, Im quoting Fox news, so it might not be true. lol
I dont actually watch telly in OZ and the last time I bought a newspaper was to put under some doors I was painting.
I follow the links from Scot’s Celtic news sits backwards .
;0)
HH
G Mak incoming
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNO
I just throw some stats in to show how stupid it is to use stats as sole reason why you thing someone will ot do a job for us and how stats can be manipulated.
The premis of your position is that he was not good earlier in his careers and that is why he did not get played, are you serious mate? That is a very simplistic position and ignores lots of possibilities.
It could be argued that dispute not being 1st pick he was the first trusted to come onto the pitch and to make an impact. Now I am ot saying that is true bust statistically the coaches do seem to want him on the pitch if he is on the bench. See what I mean!!!!
SAINT STIVS @ 7:07 PM
relax with a read of our history and be proud of our acheivments.
https://the-shamrock.net/2015/04/06/the-brother-walfrid-story/
————
Saint Stivs – thank you very much for posting this link.
Informative, inspirational, humbling.
Brilliant.
Respect.
big day for me today, nephews gettin hitched.
just killing time till tomorrow. :O)
wan mare big sleep
be well
hail hail
glasgow and wee bits doon under are Green and White
Squire.. Not degenerating CQN by any means…if that’s what your implying..
it’s the variety of music genre i was reflecting on…
Just my age i suppose….No offence inteded to CQN.
Ach i usually request ,Against the wind….when ive got the head fones on
cause iv’e never learned how to link…
SQUIRE DANAHER on 27TH AUGUST 2021 11:43 PM
BADGERHC on 27TH AUGUST 2021 11:38 PM
Keevins is not worth the time of day…
Nae botherr. giant big thumbs up thing
bloodpreesuresavedCsC
cheers
HAIRLIKESPAGHETTI on 27TH AUGUST 2021 11:51 PM
I thought it was just me
DRAMBOWIECELT on 28TH AUGUST 2021 12:09 AM
Fair enough 👍
BADGERHC on 28TH AUGUST 2021 12:14 AM
Ramipril CSC 🤣👍
I love the pessimism regards the signing of boys like Scales from the LOI, talk about snobbery. Agatha was a forward at hibs when we signed him aged about 24, he done alright for us, what was it 50k? Jackie McNamara whatever happened to that wee guy who played in the championship with dunfermline?
It’s TRUE to say the bigger the league the more costly the players from said league. However, it’s all about playing ability, the league and players price tag is irrelevant if the player has been scouted thoroughly.
@Squire reading your post again….eh?? positive posts??
How about ..i stand behind neil francis? check my posts..
how about i stand up for every celtic player that has ever pulled on the jersey?/
How about i stood in the frost and snow and watched my beloved tic get beat by killie huns
1959….how about i walked to notts 83 to see us draw wae cloughie..
how about i took my dad to his last game ..we gubbed dundee united 4..0
the last time we had 4 generations at celtic park”
#my dads ashes are in the north corner flag my sons in the the lisbon lions corner flag me?? feck knows but i will tell you what…..It will be positive
DRAMBOWIE CELT @12:13
Was this the track you wanted?
https://youtu.be/PmrkY-EZy74
Scotch meeja bellend: “Celtic havent won any of the last 6 derby matches…”
Ange has this great knowing smile – showing he knows the agenda.
To the scribe; we’ve recently won 4×3 top trophies and your mob won 1 and was bested 2×1 by St Johnstone.
I really do love a bit of the ole hun pain w my porridge.
BADGER; enjoy yr family celebration. Cant wait to see the beach at Busselton if we ever get out of lockdown HH
Just back from the west of Ireland, thought about this old song.
https://youtu.be/8FNzYk8lEvI
@Inquit..lo thank you me an my grandson harmonisin right now
catch NVD Kieran on you tube….
Good luck to Leo Hjelde.
Although I am obviously disappointed yet another promising youngster has moved on.
I have a feeling he’ll be a top player in 5 years time.
@MM if you see this post…
All at cqn hope you are coping with the Covid latest affecting families..
H.H
Stephbhoy
“It could be argued that dispute not being 1st pick he was the first trusted to come onto the pitch and to make an impact. Now I am ot saying that is true bust statistically the coaches do seem to want him on the pitch if he is on the bench. See what I mean!!!!”
—————————-
This is going round in circles.
Yes- the coaches at several clubs thought he was good enough to make the bench at times but most of them found him to be not ready to be trusted with more game time. When he did get on- he did not impress his coaches enough to earn more game time or even to be jept at that club on loan.
None of these observations mean he is going to be a success , a dud or average with Celtic. They merely show what his past record was and until he took a step down with Venlo, his career was not very far on the road.
What we need to see now is if he can step up from that level. Ange thinks he can and so did the caoch at Werder. Many of the coaches at other Dutch clubs, who had seen him up close, did not bite at the price being quoted. That does not mean that they were right and it does not mean that Ange and Markus Anfang were wrong.
All it means is that the proof lies in the future and nothing I said indicated that I thought he would be either a succcess or a failure- I was just answering the question as to why the Eeredivisie Top Scorer had such a low transfer fee- please do not put any other construction on it.
I do not write players off or guarantee that they will be successes at Celtic, until they have been here long enough to judge.
Even Ajeti, who looks a bad buy at present, could go to another club and have a good season like our new Greek guy, recover his confidence nad kick on to higher levels.
It happens all the time in football
DRAMBOWIE
Melbs is seeing about 60-80 cases per day but its not exactly rampantly fatal.
We’re in a 7th lockdown with 2hrs allowed out per-day and a night-time curfew. MICK’s gaff is away from the main city and so I’d guess he’d be going okay.
Obv cant speak for him but I suspect he has no time for some of the bile on here aimed at the club and, even, at some individuals. HH
SFTB:
I wanted to ask about bank IBAN numbers which are needed to do international transfers for your Superbru charity fundraiser ??
gallagher on 27th August 2021 11:13 am
I laid Mama Gallagher to rest yesterday, tucked my scarf in beside her.
I knew we’d pull through last night 💚☘️💚
RIP Mary Gallagher, Iniscaoroc & Burtonport roots 💚
…………………………………………………………………………………..
Deepest condolences Gallagher, may yer Mama Rest in Peace.
God Bless Bro,
Yer comments on CQN have always been resonating with me for years and years. It’s not easy to figure things out, we probably urnae able to.
Yer Amazing Mum is with our Lord now with another Celtic scarf.
3 Green and White teams in the Europa Group stage / Seville staging the final.
Ma heads exploding!!!!
I would not be surprised if Leverkusen were 4th in the group.
Irs a mad world.
Respect to Celtic for excellent prices for the Europa games.
Well that’s my Saturday sorted! In U.S. EST, I’ll have Man City – Arsenal at 7:30, Augsburg – Leverkusen at 9:30, Liverpool – Chelski at 12:30, and Real Betis – Madrid Galacticos at 4:00.
Which brings me to Sunday – there’s another game I wanted to see – cannae mind it right now, but it’ll come tae me presently.
IniquitousIV,
The Hun cannae lose the first new derby home game when going for the £40M jackpot.
Go on Ange and the Bhoys.
I thought Adam was top drawer on Thursday – no issue putting him in, in that hate factory. The Young Man was Outstanding.
Hopefully we are getting the mistakes out of our system.
Honest Gerrard knows he can get away with Anything in Scotland when Manager of Rangers – he proved it straight away up @ Aiberdeen.
I expect assaults aplenty Sunday.
His Imaginary Management career is on the line Sunday.
He is done.
Ange is a Big Strong Man.
BOGNORBHOY
PHILBHOY
AN TEARMANN
JACKIEMAC
SEAN THORNTON
LYNOTT67
BADA BING
QUADROPHENIAN
TONY ROME
CORKCELT
PETEC
Thanks much appreciated, HH☘️
Timmy7 Noted
May your da RIP
Thanks HH☘️
Our 1-0 League Cup Final win versus the huns was indeed
“daylight robbery” on us
It should have been 2-0 what a sitter Mikey Johnson missed
in the second half when clean through on the hun goalie
Any win against that mob is ALWAYS great win
It’s not just the choice of words. It’s the context. PLB said Celtic hadn’t beaten Rangers in their last 6 derbies and the previos win was “daylight robbery”. In other words, it doesn’t count.
I would expect a Rangers fan to use those words. I might have expected a Celtic supporter to say “we got lucky” or perhaps “we got out of jail”.
In the end, we won the cup with 10 men because our goalkeeper played a blinder – his job as it happens – and Rangers couldn’t put the ball i the net.
If that sticks in a particular Celtic supporter’s gullet, then good.
Bring on the Rangers.
GALLAGHER/TIMMY7 NOTED
Condolences on your recent losses 🙏💚
Tom,,
I agree.Just how many times did poor old Tommy Burns team,outplay that mob,and get beat 1-0.The Hun support actually loved this happening.Apart from the heroics of Foster,many forget the fantastic performance of Jullien.The amount of headers,and blocks that day.His best game for us.
Same type of performance and result would do me on Sunday.They were in anguish after that game.Made it sweeter for me.
And still the great Covid mystery drags on.The most sleekit,obnoxious team ever to play the game.
Good morning cqn from a beautiful sunny morning in the Garngad
Well we will find out soon enough if our new look team are up for a challenge because the biggest cheats in world football will try every dirty trick in the book manana.
This game might be a wee bit soon with new recruits still coming in.
We all know who’s fault that is, the filthy, stinking board….Eddie Who feckin joke.
Anyway I have 4 – 1 manana to the famous Glasgow Celtic
D :)