So much about modern football is skewed away from those who strategically plan and develop teams. It wasn’t always this way. It isn’t this way everywhere. Tonight upwards of 50,000 people will pack into Celtic Park to live every kick of the ball. They will be there to see the champions of Scotland face the champions of Sweden, two clubs who bookended the 1970s by losing the first and last European Cup final of that decade respectively.
For the Celtic and Malmo, this is the modern equivalent of the European Cup final. The meritocracy, which European football enjoyed in the 70s, has been replaced by Rule of the Rich, but these two clubs go head-to-head in what is an all-encompassing battle. For each club, winning will be their biggest trophy of the season.
Both teams fancy their chances. Malmo manager, Age Hareide, is enjoying a welcome midseason form hiatus. When asked about Celtic before leaving Sweden, he dammed with difficult to find praise.
The challenge for visitors to Celtic Park, it appears, lies in standing firm to the distractions of a boisterous stadium. Celtic’s players don’t worry Hareide so much, “At Celtic, the pressure will not come from the opponents but from the stands”, apparently. Take that.
Hareide’s Helsingborgs lost to Celtic at this stage of Champions League qualifying three years ago, but after losing the first leg 0-2 in Sweden, he dismissed Celtic’s achievement by saying “we were better than Celtic at everything; in possession, we ran more than the Celtic players, and we actually played really well”. Celtic won both ties by two goals to nil. Hareide, no doubt mystified at just how his superior team were denied.
On-loan striker, Nikola Durdic, was also at Helsingborgs when they lost to Celtic. Former Aberdeen defender, Kari Arnason, lost on his only visit to Celtic Park. Jo Inge Berget made two starting appearances at Celtic Park, scoring twice in a 6-1 win over Dundee United, before losing to Maribor and slipping out of contention. All three will start tonight for Malmo if fit.
These people think we’re a one-dimensional shouty football club, who can be undone by sophisticated Scandinavian guile. Which has annoyed me, who do these people think they are? Abba, were artistically unremarkable. Take that, yourself.
Didn’t think I’d that anger in me. Hareide is in for a surprise tonight.
You can win a Celtic European shirt (the bumblebee one), courtesy of club sponsor, Magners, who have kindly donated the shirt to help with our Mary’s Meals appeal. The competition closes as kick off takes place TONIGHT, so you don’t have much time to enter. To win the shirt, email me at celticquicknews@gmail.com with the answer to the following question IN THE SUBJECT line:
How many goals have Celtic conceded to Swedish opposition in history?
When you are entering, if you can give a £1 or so to help build what would be our fifth school kitchen in Malawi for Mary’s Meals, you can do so here, it will only take a minute. I’ll give you a clue, the answer is not as hard as you may think.
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!!Bada Bing!!
I think he is a good player with the skills to do something unusual, let’s see what he can do now he is fit, Ronny seems to like him:))
Ah’m like a cat on a hot brick canny wait for the kick off, Mrs is away oot wi’ the wean she canny watch me pace the hoose:))
Commons has to play for me tonight, get Forrest and GMS on later to run at tired legs
Not sure if i can watch the game tonight so just praying we get a decent result
by that i mean a win with no goals against
HH
Afternoon Timland from a very hot hun free mountain valley,
Not long now…….
KK, great to see you posting,
Zlatan, Oh how we can dream, he is a multi squillionair, so why not.
HH
Rumour No 2-LG and Forrest took part in final team training session,McGregor not in squad.
Countdown to game …been forced to go to Fox Soccer 2Go for coverage here in the US one years sub for $99 which means I get all CL and Europa games this season.
Saw from the Celtic FC site that we will be sporting the Celtic FC Foundation emblem/crest on our shirts tonight and at all European ties this season home and away. Courtesy of Magners and Uefa apparently.
Excellent stuff.
http://www.celticfc.net/news/8871
COYBIG
Brill word mollicate,
Agree ” lets mollicate them”
HH.
Patrick27
I’d start Commons too, with instructions to stay as close to big Nadir as possible and shoot on sight.
HH
meanwhile in the Kista Stockholm CSC, a nervous big zlatan is willing the bhoys on , so he can fulfil his bhoyhood dreams.
Spare ticket for tonight. Face value.
First reply gets it and we can meet at the ground.
About to drive home, I’ll pick up any replies in half hour.
Be smart tonight Celts………keep 11 men on the pitch. Hareide and some of his team are at the wind up with some of the crap, disrespectful guff they’ve been coming out with. A couple of hefty tackles from them on top of the guff and they’ll be hoping for a reaction. They must be worried.
Let’s prove their worries to be well founded.
old interactive seating plan, says its a near sell out, with only 1 section on top tier not yet opened.
i predict the offical attendance will be ………… 57,486
WITH only a matter of hours to go until kick-off at 7.45pm, there’s still time for fans to get their hands on last-minute tickets for tonight’s first leg UEFA Champions League play-off match v Malmo.
The Swedish side took their first run out on the hallowed turf last night to train under the floodlights, however, a packed out Paradise tonight will be a very different proposition for the Swedish side with tens of thousands of Celtic fans in the stadium roaring for Ronny and the Bhoys to secure a first leg victory.
Tickets have been in high-demand for this crucial fixture and any remaining seats are available now for you to buy and better still, you can buy online now and print at home which means you won’t need to queue to collect at the Ticket Office tonight.
It’s not too late to back the Bhoys in Paradise tonight!
Tickets are available to buy now, priced from £27 for adults, £19 for concessions and £12 for under-13s.
Season Ticket holders who have not purchased their ticket yet can still buy at the discounted price (£22 for adults, £12 for concessions or £7 for under-13s) but can only do so at the Ticket Office or by calling our customer service line on 0141 230 1967.
Ticket Office: Open until kick-off at 7.45pm for fans looking to buy or collect tickets for the match.
In-store: A limited number of tickets for tonight’s match are available from the following Celtic Stores: Argyle Street, Clydebank, Coatbridge, East Kilbride, Greenock.
Online: Visit http://www.eticketing.com/celtic to secure your seats now and choose the convenience of our ‘print-at-home’ facility.
To print at home, simply select your seats and add your tickets to the shopping basket, then select the Ticketfast option at the checkout to complete your purchase.
You’ll be sent a confirmation email which has your tickets attached as a PDF file for you to print out. Once printed, bring the ticket along tonight and scan it at the turnstile for entry to the stadium.
Roar the Bhoys to the Champions League. Buy your tickets now
*Calls cost 13p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge. Booking fees apply online and via booking line.
So we are gonna sign Zlatan are we?
More likely Zoltan fae BIG to send James Forrest into adult hood.
MWD said AYE
Mr. Pastry: You don’t half talk some mince and turkey mince at that. I speak to Bobby Lennox every week at the golf and I can assure he has never burnt his slippers although had he been wearing them in his heyday he might have scorched the soles!:) CM to start? He has a bigger turning circle than VP’s taxi and anyone who has perfected the ‘ hand up to apologise for a bad pass movement’ the way he has has had too much practice! Granted he takes a good free kick,but, his corners are not very good. However , if he is picked by RD he will get my full support.Hh COYBIG, BTW I have been to hootenanny , the corner,Ayrshire Tim soirées etc and the date,time and place are known to all,so, why not try one out?
North men South men coming in on the M73 M74 leave early traffic horrendous……just drove in from Dunblane
St Stivs…,if that section has not yet been opened for sale, the crowd will be closer to 55,000.
I’ll go for 54,899.
Torrential rain here in Beal Feirste.
Árd Macha
Cant wait any longer, need to get on the go to deal with nerves ,
Even though I’m highly confident it would just not be Celtic if they didn’t put us through the wringer :))))
Sing loud & sing proud tonight bhoys & Ghirls
Lets make some noise for the Champions.
Till later all
Just watch the Mikael Lustig interview on Celtic TV, the questions have to be the worst in world football, whit is it with Scottish sports journalists, haud oan let me guess:))
Looks like the waterproof jacket will be required tonight , i suppose the wet surface should suit our passing game.
Really looking forward to tonight , an early goal and the place should be rocking.
Think Zlatan only played against us in the extremely nervy 1-0 defeat by Ajax in 2001.
The crowd only came alive in the last couple of minutes when we finally looked as if we might get there after all.
I think Lubo came on and steadied the ship in the closing stages.
Glad to see the Kilbowie Kelt posting today….we’ve miss ye auld yin.
Finished early today …..erse making buttons,had 2 beers(no enough)
gone to get ready for vogue/train/Paradise….canny wait!
HAIL HAIL ALL TIMS
Zlatan is on record as saying, allegedly, that he would like to finish his career at Celtic.
The Henrik influence possibly, although he has played at CP and said that the atmosphere was incredible.
However, a few weeks ago he stated that he intends to honour the last year of his contract with PSG.
Then a couple of days ago the Milan CEO said that he had given the club a verbal undertaking that if he were to leave PSG he would join them.
Take yer pick!
HH!!
Grumphy Auld Kilbowie Kelt’s welcome return augurs well surely!
Was missing you Fhriend. Don’t be a stranger!
Had to pure chank it up the last bit of Leith Walk to make my train!
Wasn’t nervous till I got on here. Sheer, unadulterated Timmish anticipation.
Zlatan is so mentol (in a good way) that he’s the kind who would go and play for a team he admired for a pittance compared to his present salary. IMHO of course.
HH jamesgang
PS mollicate is indeed a great word. Especially for tonight!
Teuchter alert…………,.
I will be in attendance tonight along with Canadians, Mrs Teuchter, Grandson and Granddaughter T – Who was kitted out yesterday with her new tap (Olivia 8) – actually her third tap, but the first one that has actually fitted her :-) Say HH if you’re near 101 -DD. We’re easily noticed as when everyone has finished Roll of honour, we immediately burst into the mingulay boat song.
Heading off to Glasgow soon.
2-0 ‘tic Johansen.
C’mon the Celts
“Even though I’m highly confident it would just not be Celtic if they didn’t put us through the wringer ”
Lefty,
How so very true :)
HH
Anyone think a lot of swedes will turnip?
Rumour has it that there are loads of rumours flying about.
Duck!!! there’s one there.
Now is that the rumour or one of the rumours though?
Difficult to tell.
MWD said AYE
The Live Updates article will be up at 19:15, could someone leave a note here? Thanks.
GM
Fair play Neeps, you’re a funny mhan!
HH jamesgang
Not having lived here for over 20 years, I look on my mothers bunker and see a loaf of Warburtons bread. The baker man jokes now sinking in………………
Jamesgang
If you keep calling him ” neeps “, he’ll turnip at yer door.
I have been fighting a major battle with a large swarm of butterflies for about 2 hours, I regret to report that at the moment the butterflies are in the ascendancy and have taken total control of my stomach. I need a few reassuring posts from a few wise CQN’ers to assist me to regain control. The “we will mollicate” them bit helped for a while. I really envy all of ye entrenched in the Blane Valley and various establishments around the Barras. NoisefortheBhoysCSC.
Sounds to me that King Herod is a bit of a windup merchant and would like to see Celtic drawn into an all-out attacking game judging by some of the things he’s coming out with. So it’s only the crowd his team have to worry about, that suits the Celts just fine . Perhaps he will change his mind at the end of the ninety minutes. The big problem for Ronny may be if he decides to play Griffiths and Forrest from the start. Come on the Hoops.
Jamesgang
Whereurye?
The queen of CQN just walked in!
TAL
;-)
I dice with danger & the threat of getting mashed up on a daily basis!
HH jamesgang
PS love how you were WTF-ing all the bread jokes!!!
Beeling, will miss the game tonight due to work commitments. Up in the Broch overnight, will try to find a tim friendly zone with a license to watch (thru my fingers) the match. Good luck to all attending, sing a song for me!
2-0 to the white hats tonight. A very nervous Frantic07.