Here is a prediction for you, Wednesday’s Champions League game at Celtic Park will not end with 22 players on the field. Spartak and Celtic are both enduring awful form at the moment but with different characteristics. The accusation against Celtic (valid or otherwise) is that they have failed to apply themselves sufficiently to overcome opponents. Spartak, on the other hand, stand accused of indiscipline.
Zenit drove the proverbial horse and cart through their midfield on Friday night. Two goals were conceded to players who carried the ball to the edge of the area and shot unchallenged, but Spartak went down running, kicking, heading, kicking and kicking. Their failure is clearly not a lack of desire. Celtic can use this indiscipline to their advantage. Know to expect late or illegal challenges but don’t rise to the bait.
An hour into the corresponding game in Moscow Spartak were 2-1 ahead having lost 3-2 to two late goals in the Camp Nou in the previous game. At that point Spartak were in the box seat to qualify for the knockout stage. A professional foul on Gary Hooper destroyed that position as they were reduced to 10 men and Celtic thundered back to win the game. One momentary lapse in discipline on Wednesday night could cost either team.
The CQN Annual, the perfect Christmas present, is available here
The loss of two goals through the middle on Friday will hopefully give interim coach, Valery Karpin, cause for confusion. Celtic destroyed Spartak on the wings in Moscow, something we would expect them to tactically adjust for on Wednesday, but this recent loss might have them pondering which defensive frailty to concentrate on.
Aiden McGeady made his first team return as a second half substitute after a six week injury lay off. He is a player who will be as much at home as any of the rest of us on Wednesday so I’d prefer he missed out on this occasion.
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‘The SPL would invite clubs to enter the league, determined by their league positions prior to the start of any re-organised season.’
No room for Sevco and Chuckles at the top table. Explains his rant this morning…
104,262…
HENR1K
He disappoints me,if that’s the case.
However,he may well have signed them in good faith,and genuinely forgotten the details when asked.
I’m sure that is the case.
As it rests,m’lud…..
What does Campbell Ogilvie need to do to get sacked murder some c*** :)
Gonna be a mighty fine bun fight if this reconstruction malarkey goes ahead in time for next season as the top brass in the Game attempt to rank the top 24 clubs.
All the more so if the tail end 18 is increased to a 20, and split into 2 regional leagues of 10.
First 12 – existing 12 SPL clubs minus 1 demoted club plus one promoted club.
Second 12 – remaining 9 Div 1 clubs plus 1 demoted from SPL, plus either 2 promoted from Div 2, or 3 promoted and a Div 1 club relegated, or play offs thereby.
Bottom tier – everyone else.
praecepta – There was a lot of what psychologists call “projection” in Jabba’s final flounce.
He used words like “bigoted”, “narrow minded”, “rabid”, “eye-popping rage”, “hatred”, “grotesque”, “despicable”, “pathetic”, “infantile drivel”.
Now, we know that these things exist in Scottish football. In recent years we’ve seen the riots in Manchester, death threats against people linked to Celtic, the Celtic manager being assaulted in the street, and arson threats against Stark’s Park, to name but a few examples.
Celtic supporters and supporters of other clubs are not all living saints and angels either, but Jabba would have us believe this despicable, eye-popping hatred is mainly aimed at poor, innocent Rangers/ The Rangers / I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rangers.
Of course, this is the same man who ended an article on “The Famine Song” by, in effect, suggesting anybody who doesn’t like it should heed the advice of the song and “go home”, so we can see where he’s coming from.
He’s also desperate to maintain the fiction that Rangers didn’t go out of existence:
Was it always there, a dormant fury against Rangers and their fans, who deserve enormous credit for having saved their club
This is the painful scab they can’t help but pick.
What did Rangers supporters do to save their club? Their club was liquidated while most of them stood idly by waiting for a mythical saviour and/or claiming that rumours of Rangers’ upcoming financial cliff were lies made up by Timmy and the mhedia.
It hurts them to know that their club died, so the smarter ones among them take refuge in arguments so logically contorted they would make Sir Bedevere from Monty Python and the Holy Grail proud.
The less cerebral Sevconians simply chant the incantation of “Rangers then, Rangers now, Rangers forever”, as if saying the words will in itself change reality, like shouting “klaatu barada nikto” or clapping your hands if you believe in fairies, to revive poor Tinkerbell. (thumbsup)
hen1rik – that would be suicide.
Time maybe for Strathclyde’s Finest to get involved, with those who concealed any evidence.
Kayal33
Can anyone explain the motivation behind the SPL proposals to create yet another league structure. I appreciate that no organisation has ever willingly wrote itself out of history, are we witnessing yet another “civil war”, between the SFL and the SPL. Hope the SPL voting structure is still 11-1. The SPL should invite the top six of the SFL to join the SPL, with a no relegation for three year policy to allow the lower teams time to adapt.
A quote from Jabba today:
“The journalism needed by the country, never mind sport, no longer exists in enough of the other media outlets.”
You’ve got to agree actually, but what HE doesn’t get is that he is a major part of the decline. Remember last season when he actually wrote something along the lines of “… journalism without integrity is nothing!”
And the really funny thing is that he meant it, he really believed it.
Jabbas don’t do irony!!
bournesouprecipe – His Holiness is on Twitter?
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(thumbsup)
Any day now Jim Traynor will take off the mask and reveal himself as Leggo :)
Jabba does walking away
Celtic Mac – Maybe it will turn out that the real Jabba was locked a chest and replaced by a Death Eater impostor several years ago. (thumbsup)
Green Lantern (((((0))))) – philvis. I don’t think The Hutt has promised that he ” wiw return”, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see him at some point coming back in a dramatic Ming the Merciless/ Blofeld type way.
He does look a bit like Dr. Evil. (thumbsup)
HENRIK 1526
Naw,just clipe on whodunnit.
He knows too much to be let loose,IMO.
Yet another Irish Celtic player on the end of death threats following a Daily Record story.
Surely time to extend Keevins’ ban to every employee of the rag?
For all you egg chasers
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015
Pool B: South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Asia 1, Americas 2.
philvisreturns @ 15:31 ‘His Holiness’ seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Homer Simpson.
Are they, by any chance, related … ?
FF
There is no truth in the rumour that wee chico seen running through the corridors of radio shortbread greetin and singing the Gladys Knight classic..”it should have been me!!”
philvisreturns
Jabba does seem to have taken Rangers downfall rather personally. Wasn’t it
the Administrators themselves who factored the likelihood of the FTT upholding the original decision regarding tax liabilities into their calculations?
The current Moderator of the General Assembly has 289 followers on Twitter.
I can’t help but think John Knox would have been as unimpressed with this Twitter lark as he was with potpourri. (thumbsup)
Ok going state an obvious yet ‘unnoticed by many’ possibility here…
Celtic are doing really well in Europe because their domestic efforts have been low.
I think it’s called focus. If the team were to spread their focus equally across European and domestic games Euro performances would have been poorer.
I expect to pump them on Wednesday because the players involved have been rested and focused on the task at hand.
philvis
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TBB
That means that if Sevco win promotion from the fourth tier to the third tier this season, all the efforts to shoe-horn in a speedy reconstruction with maximum zombie benefit in mind will see them in … the third tier (possibly regionalised).
CO doing his ole Shakin Stevens impression on SSN.
Guilty as charged m’lurd….
HH
ASonOfDan
A new world record?
Overseasbhoy
I know what you are saying but he actually rolled away….
Will thon deid team’s current avatar no be deid tae by February?
Folly Folly – Are they, by any chance, related … ?
In hoc Simpsons vinces. (thumbsup)
Celtic Mac – If only they had listened to the tax expert Jabba. (thumbsup)
Swivel-Eyed Davie Leggit seems to be better connected than the real Leggo:
http://swivel-eyeddavieleggat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/strathclyde-police-duncan-pius-watson.html?m=1
Ten Men Won The League @ 14 12 .
The Superga striscione was relatively tame comment for the Turin derby .
Si — The Ultras run Italian football .. I occasionally go to games in Catania and Palermo . Not having a season ticket means I take pot luck with who I get to sit beside –Antifa Ultras / Black Block Ultras / Hard Left Ultras / English style casual Ultras / Fascist Ultras or bog standard We love the Club more than You Ultras . Never a dull moment . No shortage of Offensive Behavior .
“The Celtic fans deserve to be in Europe,they have been amazing in both games we have played against them recently.”
“We knew what they were going to be like in Glasgow,” he continued. “But the way they were in Barcelona after they had just lost in the way they did was amazing. I have never seen anything like that before.”
Lionel Messi
bournesouprecipe
God
@TheTweetOfGod has double that. with Him being the boss you would expect that.
Thing is the only person God follows is Justin Bieber @justinbieber
Just loving this Blue Order/Union Bears self-righteous guff about boycotting the grounds of so-called enemies of the club formerly known as Rangers.
Can you imagine their clamour to boycott Celtic Park, should they ever get drawn against us?
Nah: me neither …
FF
Have Dundee Utd been got at? Looks like they’re playing Rangers on their official site rather than The Rangers.
Or had the draw been re-done?
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Zorba The Greek on Deedco banned list see – Georgios Samaras
After Saturday I’m glad we got an away draw (if we go through!). I have fond and distant memories of Stark Park in the late 60’s when Wispy scored two. Happy days. HH.