If you caught Leigh Griffiths’ post-match Radio Scotland interview you’ll have noticed the profuse support offered to Brendan Rodgers. We’ll discuss that in more detail tomorrow, but what was clear to Leigh and the rest of us last night, was the Celtic dug out an excellent result from a position which would likely have seen them eliminated a year earlier.
We were well on top early on against Legia, Maribor and Malmo but crumbled when the going got tough. Not anymore.
It’s hard to know what’s gotten into James Forrest, one of six Scots in the starting lineup, but I suspect the arrival of Scott Sinclair has had as big an impact on him than that of Brendan. Wide players are always subject to fluctuations in effectiveness levels, but in James and Scott we’ve a standard which is clearly higher than we’ve had for years.
There was a moment late in the game when James was easily robbed attempting a take-on in the final third, but this was a symptom of having run himself into the ground over the previous 80-odd minutes. He played a big part in the result and left nothing on the field.
One of James’ more important contributions was the dinked cross for Leigh’s header which made it 2-0. The goal was technically difficult, but was eclipsed by Leigh’s second. That free kick was in a perfect position to whip at the far post, allowing players to attack the ball, with the keeper not knowing if he should stay on his line to defend the shot, or come out to block a header.
That was the play we all expected, including the Hapoel keeper. Instead, Leigh played an incredibly difficult free kick into the top near post. Brendan Rodgers must have had no idea the player was capable of work like this when he arrived in June.
Scott Brown has been transformed from the player we watched end last season, quite probably because he’s now fully fit. His goal was a worthy acknowledgement of his best game in a year.
Brendan was right to express concern after the game that we let a halftime winning position slip so easily. There were mistakes throughout the team leading to the first Hapoel goal, but I suspect experience will tighten things up.
Kolo Toure was immense. His rampaging run setup the second goal, but when he was caught ahead of the ball on the 55th minute, the defence behind him didn’t have the organisation to prevent a goal. We’ll not see this happen often from now on.
The second half arrivals of Nir Bitton and Moussa Dembele proved decisive. Nir brought a calmness to central midfield as Callum McGregor tired, while Moussa outjumped defence and keeper to score what was a priceless goal.
Craig Gordon’s been under pressure in recent weeks. There was little he could do about Hapoel’ second, a fabulous shot which nicked between Brown and Toure, but he’ll be annoyed their first nipped in at his near post.
This tie, however, turned the moment he made a point-blank save to stop the score going to 4-3. We’ll be able to look back later this season and say that was the moment we secured our Champions League adventure.
Feeling good about last night, but if only we’d a player like Patrick Roberts, or Erik Sviatchenko to come in and take things up a notch……
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Go away & search the hashtag & see if your opinion changes. If you’re not prepared to have a look then your opinion on the matter is invalid.
HH
VFR800A8 on18TH AUGUST 2016 3:06 PM
kevinlasvegas on 18th August 2016 2:08 pm
Yeah, an opportunity to bask in a good performance, fight-back (mini) and result, so what do we do? We decide to saw of our own foot with a rusty pen-knife!
Are you spying on me?
Apologies KidPyramid – I’ve just done an almost identical post to yours. Oops.
An Teach Solais,
Sadly that’s the problem for me with the game as currently administered.
UEFA make the rules. If we play in their competitions we are subject to their rules. Hopefully UEFA are as keen to the adherence to rules when it comes to corruption within their own organisation.
Does the game belong to the supporters and fee paying customers/viewers or the PLCs?
UEFA don’t like politics at their events when it suits them.
Rules are rules apart from when they get in the way of making money hence the flexibility around rules when it comes to Sevco, Res 12 etc, in Scotland.
Paradoxically Celtic supporters appear to have hit a nerve with a large number of people internationally with this issue, I’ve read loads of thank-you messages from supporters groups all over the world.
No problem Chavez – great minds think alike & fools seldom differ
HH
Very good Phil up as well.
Seems across the Tim ternet only some on cqn care more about the fine than the people.
BSR,
You aren’t a very good imposter with all these duff Rhebel lyrics. You can’t pull the wool over our eyes:)))
Your probably posting from the 20 Club? :))
Couple of articles for y’all today :)
Last night was a sweat, but it was one of the best games I’ve seen in years.
This team is starting to motor.
First, The Record is having a go at a guy who defended himself after being attacked by some neds in Sevco tops. If the perpetrator wears blue, blame the victim …
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/08/blogs/the-daily-record-slams-sectarian-attack-victim-for-defending-himself/
And then there’s “Warbo” who demands respect for himself and his club but went in front of the media today and tried to pass off the most disrespectful and unprofessional comments I’ve ever heard from a player about a fellow pro as “a joke.”
Naaaa mate … the joke is that Warburton is too weak to get a grip on this prat.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/08/blogs/bartons-brendan-comments-werent-a-joke-warburtons-weakness-over-this-is/
I was falling down on the side of keeping any protest/flag waving outside the ground but so far we have Parkheadcumsalford with his Exclusion Zone inside the stadium(not sure if he has planning permission for that) and Mickbhoy1888 with his advanced facial recognition technology/time machine, currently reviewing attendees at all previous demos in Glasgow.
And all the while the motivation of the Green Brigade continues to be disected, the motivation of Uefa(£££) is all well and good, because who doesn’t want more money???
HH
INSANITY on 18TH AUGUST 2016 3:36 PM
Yeah I saw you in Saw.
Leave you with a wee fun quote.
‘Freedom is nothing but a vain phantom when one class of men can starve another with impunity…’
Answers on a CQN postcard
I shall return:)
HH
UEFA. The SFA and the Celtic PLC and their collective lickspittles can all FUCK off. All four groups will do fucking anything for money. Why should I give a fuck if they start fucking one another for even more money ?
CLOGHERCELT @3.37 pm
Thank you for your, as always, considered and reasoned response.
Protesting unless one is prepared to accept individual consequence is fairly easy. Putting yourself, perhaps in some contexts your future well-being is considerably more difficult and, consequently, more worthy of praise.
The effects of a protest may garner some world wide publicity which may, or more likely will not, affect Netanyahu and his cronies in seeking to destroy the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Wonder how many are actually prepared to get involved in a long, sometimes draining and dispiriting campaign outwith the confines of Celtic Park. How many are actually in it for the long haul on wet, cold winter nights? Good luck to them if they are.
I genuinely wish them well but also wish that they were not using our club as a shield. If that makes sense.
Enjoy your break. HH
Saw was terrible Bhoys,
KLV
P8DDY on 18TH AUGUST 2016 12:42 PM
Auldheid…
..do the right thing, examine motives
Maybe the people displaying flags simply aren’t as myopic as some other Celtic fans, and recognise a need to have a world view beyond “how much money can Celtic hoover up”. Maybe there is a greater good that some fans regard as being an imperative to a club that spouts empty rhetoric in regard to equality, charity and being “more than just a club”.
( Yer lecturing the wrong fella here Paddy on world view. I’m not talking sacrifice as in blood, I’m talking sacrifice as in time and effort to engage the wider support to buy into the aim, which should not be a problem, but how to achieve it. How do we know these demos work? How is their effectiveness measured?)
This ‘think of the good name of Celtic’ is precisely the same one that allowed the club to fail children spectacularly with Jim Torbett. That ruined the lives of Alan Brazil and several other vulnerable children entrusted into Celtic’s care. The ‘good name’ of Celtic isn’t served by hiding from injustice, it’s failed by it. And we have a board of directors that daily fail the club in this regard.
(How do we judge what is in the best interests of Celtic? How much discussion and debate went into deciding? Who decided?
The folk covering up abuse told themselves it was the right thing to do and covering up was the prevelant culture. They were still wrong of course but what changed attitudes and how long did it take?)
Celtic doesn’t have to be a mono culture, but if it is to be open to culture it must also provide room for dissent, for opposing viewpoints and ultimately, freedom of expression.
(Why room for dissent? Why not room for dialogue? The two way process where each party is prepared to listen to each other and might through the power of reason be persuaded of the right course to take to reach the agreed objective. The core problem is the lack of a mechanism to do so and that mechanism requires an environment where agreement is the objective not the right to dissent when a collective agreement has been reached.
It takes two to tango but it appears to me anyway that both sides prefer a fan dance.)
Just before their first goal when Toure was in their box for a corner, he made a poor decision to try win the ball back in midfield rather than scamper back to his defensive position. As a result we were pulled out of shape and it resulted in a goal. Not sure why he would be up for a corner at 3-0, especially when we did not have an organized defence in his absence. However, an easy problem to fix so hopefully we won’t see this again.
Great performance all round and hats off to James Forrest who is now working hard for 90 mins.
Jacque Roux.
Ahhhhh Lou Ferrigno
as long as I’m offending the usual suspects who cares
Sorry, Jacques.
Good Afternoon.
New blog about flags and folk trying to get Celtic into trouble… https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/08/18/grassing-up-celtic/
mncelt
Based on posts over last night and today, it seems that every single Celtic player (including the bench and some of the flag wavers in the stand) were at fault for the HBS first goal.
Generally, a poor goal to lose as a team.
Before I disappear for the night may I have the indulgence of repeating a question which I posed earlier but attracted no responses:-
If you despise EUFA and object to its rules, including those forbidding prescribed banners and flags do you think that Celtic FC should withdraw/ refuse to enter EUFA competitions?
I shall be very interested in any replies. HH
mncelt on 18th August 2016 3:56 pm
Young O’Connell was clearly inspired by big Toures surges out of defence and tried it himself later in the 2nd half and got into trouble, inexperience shining through but all in all a great night and signs of tangible progress we haven’t seen for years.
HH
Davidopolous – Yes, poor goal to lose. Wasn’t intending to be over critical of Toure, point was it is an easy problem to fix for Brendan.
I haven’t read back comments because I saw very little with any relevance to Celtic or the game last night.
Do Barcelona get fined everytime they fly the Catalonian flag? Doesn’t get much more political than that.
mncelt
Lol yes, you need a keen eye to spot posts about the match.
Wasn’t being critical of your criticism, just find it funny how we all see the fault for the first goal lying in various places. You’re right an easy one to fix.
JAMES FORREST
20 or 30 year’s from now two old guy’s in a
pub(if they sill exist).
1st old guy…used tae love that Joey Barton
on twitter back in the day.
2nd old guy…aye me too,he was a pro footballer
and not a bad one at that.
1st old guy…didn’t know that, footballer eh!!!
AN TEACH SOLAIS on 18TH AUGUST 2016 4:02 PM
Before I disappear for the night may I have the indulgence of repeating a question which I posed earlier but attracted no responses:-
If you despise EUFA and object to its rules, including those forbidding prescribed banners and flags do you think that Celtic FC should withdraw/ refuse to enter EUFA competitions?
##
Or, to put it another way, ‘The famine is over, why don’t you go home?
There was a basque flag next the the Palestine one.
Someone got the wrong orders.
kidpyramid
Thrice times have Barcelona been fined for displaying the Estelada. Last fine was €150k (€50k suspended).
TRADITIONALIST88 – Yes, Young O’Connell needs to figure out the things he needs to learn from Kolo and ignore the stuff that get’s him into trouble. Not an easy task.
Agree on the progress. I haven’t been blown away yet by the quality of our football, but the discipline and organization is light years from where it has been for several years. Very excited about this season.
traditional
Just for the avoidance of doubt the flags were not flown exclusively by the group that like to be known as the green brigade. That group are allocated the front rows of the standing area so as the big people dont obstruct their view if they were standing further back from the playing field
ERNIE LYNCH
Thank you for your intellectual comment which I have filed appropriately. Have a good evening.
HH
AWE_NAW_NO_ANNONI_OAN_ANAW_NOO on 18TH AUGUST 2016 3:52 PM
UEFA. The SFA and the Celtic PLC and their collective lickspittles can all FUCK off. All four groups will do fucking anything for money. Why should I give a fuck if they start fucking one another for even more money ?
——
When I was young Celtic were truly rotten, finishing 4th in the league, beaten by the Huns every time. Humiliated by Dundee United, Raith Rovers. 6 years without a trophy.
So that Celtic plc, it’s what gave us a 60k seater stadium, bankrupt the Huns, brought Brendan Rodgers, that performance last night, and likely a £25m windfall next week. Sure it could be a damsite better but be careful what you wish for.
Davidopolous – should they stop then???
I wish we had the thumbs up/down thing on this blog as it’s getting nastier by the day. I’d love to know what the overall readership think about some of these posts.
Appeasement doesn’t work, give in to them at your peril, but reading many of the hun like posts here today, it seems that there are many more huns posters here than I thought.
UEFA don’t have the balls to close our stadium, our suits don’t have the balls to contest any fine they get, yet so called Celtic supporters are backing both of them all the way, how feckin sad is that.
Our forefathers will be turning in their graves at the pathetic excuses for Celtic supporters.
Davidpolous,
At least zonal marking got a night off from abuse. :)
HH