It will be off to Latvia to face Riga or, assuming they do not unexpectedly lose at home in the second round to Tre Fiori from San Marino. Riga lost their first round Champions League match away to Maccabi Tel-Aviv and went out at the same stage a year ago to Dundalk on penalties, before losing their Europa League play-off tie 3-2 on aggregate to Copenhagen, who went on to eliminate Celtic by a greater margin.
It is a tie we will win if we get everything right and will lose if there is anything remotely half-arsed going on. Riga are 17 games into their domestic season; be prepared, Celtic.
Watching the goals this morning from the 0-2 win at Ibrox a year ago today brought a reminder of where we were the morning of that game. Facing the perennial Summer Cup Champions [no, it’s not wartime] at their own place, having been turfed out of the Champions League by Cluj, we faced the longest odds for a league win in seven years.
That setup what may be become a fourth consecutive treble. Cluj hurt the bank balance but European credentials were restored with wins over Lazio and Rennes. We could do with a big game, a bit win, now.
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TURKEYBHOY on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 2:31 PM
EMBRAMIKE,
Think they will switch the league games to the Sunday.Its going to be hectic.
Don’t think the SFA / Steve Clark will be happy as Scotland are away in Israel for match on 8th and all Premiership players selected will be required to be available before the 5th (assuming games moved to 4th).. All Premiership teams are playing Friday evening so the movement will lily be the other way i.e. playing the eEL games earlier ?
BB @ 5:25 pm
I quite agree.
JAMES FORREST,
I am with you on that.Only problem is,when you look at the supposed Labour SMPs,sitting on the benches in Edinburgh,it does not fill me with much hope.Lackeys for their leaders in Westminster.Not one I could think,well he would be a good leader.The leader now is a joke.
Very depressing from a party I once loved,and worked hard for.
EMBRAMIKE
Ah,I see the problem now.Cheers mate.
WESTCRAIGS on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 5:20 PM
How do you see the future of the uk? Are you aware quite how awful and undemocratic the current gov are? It is no exaggeration to say that they are a 100 time worse than Thatcher – they want to (and are in the process of) destroying democracy in the uk.
A no deal brexit will cause utter mayhem and sentence many to lives of poverty and despair (say goodbye to the NHS and hello to chlorinated chicken).
I am no fan of the SNP and fully accept the many problems that an indy scotland will face – but the UK is done.
Oh, if you’ve not already read it. Democracy For Sale by Peter Geoghegan is an excellent summation of where we are and the threat that Johnson/Cummings pose.
Amazing to think that Charlie ( You Need Hands) Green has manged to put both the Lord Advocate and Police Scotland in the Dock.
Or in the immortal words of the late, great Charlie Endell Esq.
“Stuff me a Flamingo”
Embramike
You are doing a good job highlighting likely fixture problems.
I realise there will be problems for all teams but, as we are still in last year`s Cup,still in Europe (!) and two games behind in the League, I would imagine our situation is worse.
Also, of course, we provide more players for the Internationals than any other team.
TURKEYBHOY:
Agreed mate. It was the worst thing about the aftermath of the indyreferendum, realising that Labour had actually swung it in the unionist direction, because it was obvious what had to happen next; for the next one to succeed the left in Scotland had act strategically and annihilate Scottish Labour as an electoral force.
That job, as you can probably gather, has been done with aplomb. But it pained me just the same.
ROCK TREE BHOY,
Dont confuse “The people of Scotland” with the scum across the City and their Klan.For years they have heaped hate and vitriol,on the SNP,their Lodges openly castigated them at their walks.Has not made a blind bit of difference.The same thing happened when I was younger.Dont vote Labour,they are the Catholic party.Again,Scotland was a Labour stronghold.
James is right in his thinking that in an Idependent Scotland,with Labour and SNP,they would be struggling badly.Education has left them sadly behind.
My thoughts.
embramike
Do not think we will playing Israel away any time soon.
TurkeyBhoy – appreciate your thoughts on that, thanks mate👍
Must go now.Because I have not left Turkey in 6 months,my UK licence has run out.Used to be able nip across to Greece,get a stamp on passport.Not now.So,at 4 in the morning,7 of us will be going to the airport,flight to Istanbul,then hired bus to the Bulgarian border,through,and back,hopefully stamped,then repeat the journey back.
And many think I have it easy.LOL.
Now applied for a Turkish license, but it can take up to 9 months for Swansea to reply.
FOOTBALL INSIDER
If there has ever been a more speculative wide of the mark football blog than this then I’ve yet to find it,
their sensational exclusive the other day – players who want to play in the Champions League wont come to Celtic now – because Celtic have been knocked out of the Champions League !!!
to be avoided at all costs 😕
beyonce
CELTIC MAC on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 5:44 PM
embramike
Do not think we will playing Israel away any time soon.
I hope not. I see all Scotland games just as opportunities for our players to get injured. Would be happy to see all these manufactured International tournaments binned.
We’re losing 6 weeks to Scotland games – that’s about 12 game slots and therefore no fixture backlog.
I hope we keep signing players as we will need them toward the end of the season when other teams will be blowing out their collective asses.
Phil Mac G seems quite confident that James McCarthy is a likely addition. Eight million pounds , apparently.
Twice Ice baby. 1:31.
Brooony is holding us Harald. Crucial but.
Its a conundrum.
Wae the Chapels and Churchez emptie what can I aay?
Hot Smoked
Seems like a lot of money for someone struggling to get game time at some pretty average clubs. If he joined, I would expect him to have a similar impact to Davis or Arfield joining the huns – useful addition but not £8 million worth of difference.
It is an interesting debate on our CEO.
To put things in some context when he arrived in the job, we had recently been in a European competition final. Had a turnover of £70M.
After 17 years of record football inflation our turnover has increased by a measley 20% and we are the laughing stock of Europe.
Hardly a great indictment of his tenure nor a justification for his record breaking renumeration package, which would be in line with the most successful football CEOs and not the biggest under-achievers.
In his arrival…
We had a blue-print for a first rate football academy
We had a first class website and on-line offering
We had a fast expanding retail division
All of these things have faded to mediocrity or worse
We had a strong Board with top class executives and high fiducuary standards.
That’s long gone by the wayside.
So what possible reasons could you give for Big Pedro’s tenure being a success?
Hail Hail
Hot Smoked,
Thankfully Phil’s a fantasist. £8m for a guy with a shocking track record in injuries. Hope not.
However, worried we are spending the money we will collect on the likes of Ntcham and Ajer sales on the black book from a decade ago…
Vasilis Barkas , Albian Ajeti , David Turnbull , Shane Duffy would represent very good business if we hang on to what we got , but a long long way to go in this window yet .
Welcome aboard Shane Duffy.
Get James McCarthy and Paddy Robert’s.
Latest scottish governments partial lockdown are a shambles.
So I cannot invite my mates in to watch football but I can go to the pub with them..
Feck off
D :)
Its a windae Window, don’t ya know
Dinnae get me started on Melinda.
Nor, xor.
Indiana Jones knows about the BamPot.
Time is Short.
Actually it is Time.
Lenny ye can Dae this
Big Wavy …
“On Crochet Quick News today..
Back to basic stitches before knitting falls apart completely”
——
Lol. Back to basics in stitches.
Just finished reading the puff pieces around Arsenal’s new centre back from Lille.
Impressive.
The reports reference everything except his cape and the letter “S” on his chest.
JAMES FORREST on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 5:05 PM
Aye, right enough.
The SNP will just fade away.
Same as the fiscal deficit.
David 66
Stop the virus close the pubs.
Most outbreaks in my local area are related to pubs
GENE on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 7:00 PM
David 66
Stop the virus close the pubs.
###
It was a moronic decision to open them in the first place.
Tontine Tim…thanks for that. Shows my memory is bad but not completely destroyed………….yet.
Tim Horton from hours ago. You also were at Tannadice 4-5 game. Can you remember if Utd played in black and white big hoops? And a Doug? Smith who played centre-half?
Garry 01:30 last thread. Thank You for the Tune, yer 1 in a Billion.
ERNIE LYNCH on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 7:00 PM
JAMES FORREST on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 5:05 PM
Aye, right enough.
The SNP will just fade away.
Same as the fiscal deficit.
=====================
made my night my unionist friend
No not the unionism
or the socialism that may or may not be needed.
it’s the very fact that your lot are truly at one with minty in that no memory exists of the damage the 11 fingered son of the manse done.truly a hun parallell
and anyway as has been historically proven is there any country who wanted to leave the empire that did not…have a deficit to the UK govt? well.accordong to UK counters all that good civilizing influence didn’t pay for itself you know.
hh
With the addition of David Turnbull, and evening with the likelihood of TG and Ollie moving on, our midfield will have to be rotated week in and week out to keep everybody happy.
Same up front with AA, PK, OE and ME vying for two places. I don’t expect to see the same team playing two games in a row for the rest of the season
evening=even
MADMITCH on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2020 1:13 PM
If we lose against Riga — will PL be sacked?
Just asking for a friend of a friend.
======%=======================
shall I start saving up the ” back of fag packets” so we can help you when you take over?
or is your friend a football manager?
something to think bout mm,
dreamteamcsc:-)
i think the fact that so many folk are looking on the sale of ntcham as a positive is a sad endictment on what fans want on a football park in this country
he is 20 times the player than the undroppable scottish 4 put together and will go on to much higher levels than they can ever dream of
no wonder scottish football is laughed at from all quarters
embramike
Thought you had suggested that we were indeed due to play in Israel, no matter.
I agree with you re the neverending growth of UEFA tourneys eg Scotland playing Israel this week in some kind of Euro Nations group even though we are due to play them next week as part of the last one. What we need is less football not more at this time, but the SFA are hardly likely to object, it is their only source of income apart from the Scottish Cup. Gonna need a big squad to get through this season, or would if we knew how to get the best out of it, which we don’t.