Football is often about the margins. Virgil van Dijk’s header, when Celtic were 0-1 up away to Maribor, beat the keeper and defence, but struck Stefan Johansen on the line. A year later, with Celtic 2-0 and rocking Malmo to their core, Stefan came close to putting us 3-0 and clear, but both Champions League playoff ties turned and a chapter in our history changed.
Trailing 1-0, yesterday’s tie against Astana could have tipped out of control but sublime play by both Patrick Roberts and Leigh Griffiths turned the game on its head. It was a ballsy play. Patrick wouldn’t give up, Leigh used all of his experience to despatch the ball into the net from the edge of the box. It went exactly as I predicted in yesterday’s blog, “A great deal of responsibility will lie with Leigh Griffiths. He’ll have space to receive the ball from Roberts”. Astana were stunned.
Not so stunned they think they’re out of it, in fact, after the game their manager and players were talking about winning at Celtic Park. See Maribor, above, if you think that’s not credible. They reckon the tie is “50/50”. None of them were impressed by Celtic, the sentiment it they let us off the hook. We will have work to do next week.
Kolo, is there anything you can do to sort us out at corner kicks? Eoghan O’Connell lost his man, but we lose too many goals from corners inside the six yard box, or on the line, for me to ask no questions of Craig Gordon. Is his starting position right? Maybe if he started a pace off his line he’d get a fist on a corner before the striker. It feels like there’s more going wrong than just the defenders losing their men. If a goalkeeper comes for a ball in his six yard box but doesn’t get it, he’s responsible.
Irony is finished.
Care to guess which club issued this statement after the Scottish Cup final two months ago?
“Any attempts to attach blame to our supporters for the disgraceful and violent behaviour will not be accepted or tolerated by this club”.
Yesterday, the same club, Newco, not only accepted and tolerated those same supporters being blamed, they led the charge by banning them indefinitely and telling them they would lose their season ticket for the coming season without a refund!
“Any club’s supporters would have done the same”
Here’s the thing, after the cup final, Newco’s statement not only tolerated fans’ behaviour they made unprecedented attempts to justify it:
“We acknowledge that a tiny minority of Rangers fans also encroached on the pitch but only after having been faced with prolonged and severe provocation and in order to protect our players and officials who were being visibly attacked in front of them. Any club’s supporters would have done the same”.
If Celtic did this we would be mocked on every front page for a week. Unfortunately, Scotland does not have appropriate oversight in any walk of life, or the post-final reporting and political reaction would have been entirely different.
Thanks to all who are involved in the eBay auction for this incredible prize:
Courtesy of Celtic sponsor, Intelligent Car Leasing, we have an outstanding auction prize, as the centrepiece of our summer good causes. For the Kilmarnock game at Celtic Park, on 24 September 2016, you can win:
2 seats in the directors’ box
Champagne reception
5 course meal in the Walfrid Suite
Fully expenses bar (pre and post-match)
Half time snacks and refreshments
Car Parking
And a match programme.
The auction is open for only ONE MORE DAY. This is a fabulous opportunity to indulge yourself in some high living while watching Celtic and contributing towards the construction of a school kitchen in Malawi for Mary’s Meals. You can get involved here.
Thanks again to Intelligent Car Leasing.
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In both our away European games we have lost one goal and on both occasions Craig Gordon was not to clever but not a lot has been said Efe got most of the blame in Gibraltar while last night the young Centre Back was blamed.Craig needs to cut out these daft goals. H.H.
I also think Celtic should put in an official complaint to UEFA over the performance of that referee yesterday. Roberts was kicked from start to finish by more than one of them. An early yellow card would have dissuaded others from joining in. As well as a swathe of other bizarre decisions the penalty incident, 5 mysterious minutes added at the end. Incompetent or corrupt?
Someone has posted a spoof Evening Times news update on facebook showing Robin van Persie giving the thumbs up and the legend: Van Persie confirms he is on his way to Ibrox.
Click on the story and it takes you to a bona fide Evening Times headline: 140 years of history wiped out in 8 minutes, above the story of oldco’s liquidation.
Brilliant. How many hun flies will that web catch?
Brendan’s shipped Up To Boston surely – Dropkick Murphys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw
HH
Sandman,
On the money neebs.
HH
Bawsman I mean. Sorry.
Imaging getting yer baws and yer sand muddled.
Ouch csc
Celtic were playing in the Champions League, away from home.
That means Astana were the home team. Yet people appear to be annoyed and disappointed that the HOME team had a few attacks, scored a goal and had one or two chances.
So they had a few chances. That’s what the home team is expected to do, especially in Europe.
Glad BR took the multiple CQN posters advice and left Leigh out, oh no!, wait a minute, lol. Decent overall performance 6hrs flying from home. Too many midfielders playing poorly for it to be any more than that. Regardless of who lost their man, what was Gordon doing at their goal?, as he was behind the scorer, did he think it was coming from the other corner?. Great result I don’t think we would have got under Ronnie
Barney –
You want Celtic to launch an official appeal to UEFA against yesterday’s referee?
You are having a laugh aren’t you?
Please tell me you’re joking.
I think the flight there would have taken longer under Ronny.
Auld Tam,
I know they won’t, but you have to admit, it was bizarre.
Geordie Munro
:-)))
Hello CQNers
Anybody know anything ?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/police-helicopter-mountain-bike-search-8511478#ICID=sharebar_facebook#fzacxYeidDGUFmwG.97
All in all it was a great away result. As noted we need to work on defending set pieces, the corner was bad enough but the defending at the free kick in injury time was criminal and nearly threw away all our hard work. To leave two attackers unmarked at the 6 yard line is appalling, luckily the guys finish was just as poor. Hopefully Toure and Sviatchenko will be in for the 2nd leg.
Few accusations getting thrown at Griffiths by Astana, it was clear at the end of the game that they were trying to get him sent off so he would miss the return tie….I’d expect a few more stories in the press over the next few days
Gordon has always been suspect with cross balls even way back to his Hearts days. Not sure if he’s a bit frightened or genuinely has difficulty judging the flight of the ball? Whatever the problem is issue its not good enough.
Before we signed him I was not happy at the prospect but his shot stopping prowess won me over. However his failures from cross balls + too many times he pushes the ball back outwards instead of wide or around the post are major flaws. Other areas are bigger priorities but if there’s a good replacement available then we should be looking at him seriously,
Randolph or Hennessy if either are available or affordable would in my view be better options.
HH.
Barney67,
Thanks for posting that link of Leigh throwing the guy that was holding him out of the way. I didn’t see what was happening on the link I had.
Astana were as dirty a mob as you’ll see, especially when it came to Paddy, full credit to him for getting on with things after all the abuse he took. The big defender looked a real knob when he lost the ball to Paddy at the goal. The ref as most agreed should have intervened earlier when they were swinging the boots, they’ll be trying to get a man sent off when the come to Paradise.
James Forrest although not my favourite was put on to take the ball down the line and try to hang on to it, he made a few errors but for the most part did his job. They cannot attack when they are defending.
HH
gsu
The play acting from them every time we went would make you boak
In the dying minutes yesterday, Michael Stewart was so hell-bent on crucifying Efe, he and his co-commentator failed to notice that the referee had blown for offside as the free-kick came in.
OUR qualifications for the Champions League are about fine margins as we make it so.
Brendan Rodgers has not stated we needed a centre back but we signed one so I can only infer that he thought one was needed. I know there has been the argument that we have enough centre backs but for an injury crisis.
Brendan Rodgers may well agree that we have the numbers but the signing of Toure and his comments regarding historical issues with defending cross balls lead me to conclude that he doesn’t rate the quality of centre backs that we have. Is anyone prepared to disagree with Brendan Rodgers?
Now the margins we create going into these ties is a direct result of the quality of the playing staff. The quality of Johansen has been highlighted in this article as being poor. However, you could say that the serial gaffes in last seasons qualifiers and subsequent Europa league campaign would lead you to conclude that you might want to nullify the chances of those gaffes happening again. No, we contrive to go with the same guys who made the same mistakes.
Yes, the manager can improve the shape of the team and the individual performances but he cannot turn water into wine.
Davidopoulos on 28th July 2016 1:14 pm
traditionalist88
My little theory is that football has become such a “thinking” sport that the number of players with the brain to operate at the highest level with the required fitness and skill is relatively small. These players end up at the top European clubs.
Surely the objective for the rest the clubs is to devise a system that requires less thinking, less attention to detail, requiring nothing more than players carrying out a simple task well in a robotic manner. In other words finding players who are limited in skill but very good at certain repetitive tasks, and piecing them together into a team, i.e. what Moneyball was actually about.
Why do we associate Moneyball with Celtic again?
We can’t replicate what the Barcelona’s, the Real Madrid’s and the Bayern Munich’s do. I commend any team that tries but I don’t think it will be a success
==========
Yes – in days gone all we’d have known about the game yesterday was the result, and if we were lucky, the views of a guy on a radio somewhere.
Now, we can scrutinise every move, and clubs do so themselves. Yet too often, we see the same mistakes repeated. Hopefully, thats not a complaint we’ll have under Rodgers.
You’re right, there is no point over complicating the game. I thought that yesterday a couple of times when O’Connell and Ambrose both tried long, raking passes forward(O’Connell near the start of the game) which inevitably saw the ball run way beyond its indended target. Both players seemed to realise that wasn’t a good tactic to be fair and kept it simple and gave it midfielders from then on.
I think we associate Moneyball with Celtic because of Paul67 ;)
HH
It looked to me that the ref booked Scott Brown as he was the captain for the pushing and shoving at the end because I assume he couldn’t pick out anyone else .
Didn’t see the whole game so could be wrong.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of watching the Celtictv replay of last night’s game , was the performance of Kris Commons on the commentary team. If you haven’t caught it yet, do yourself a favour and have a listen.
Huge improvement on CTv from recent offerings.
Good result last night. Paddy, Griff, Efe, Eoghan, Kieran, Mikel all did very well and introduction of Nir was timely. It’s worth mentioning each of these guys made a mistake at some point in the match but didn’t allow that to phase them. Guts!! Baws!!
Astana created some worrying moments but our bhoys didn’t panic. Kept the heid and kept us in the tie, with a clear advantage to take home.
We were causing them all sorts of problems on the right and if I was supporting them last night I would be worried about the trip to Glasgow.
Ref was a homer and there is no doubt his leniency on Astana players, when attacking Paddy in particular, was dodgy , at best!!
As Kris mentioned in his comments… If he was on the pitch he would be having a word with Broony to sort out one or two of these lads for their attentions on Paddy. Good to know there is a ‘go to’ guy, because it will be needed.
Brendan- well done on the selection and variations. Positive early signs, but a way to go to make any impact at CL group stages.
Sort out their sleekit players at CP early on, then beat them at the fitba!
Feeling much more confident now.
HH
Lennon 18,
I agree in respect of ‘stories in the press’.
The MSM Celtic expected Celtic to lose yesterday and that combined with ‘the story’ about RVP signing for Sevco was designed to put the boot into Celtic…imo.
It didn’t quite work out that way…
Celtic didn’t lose. Let’s see if the Season Book money or Club 1872 funds are spent on RVP?
I believe the vast majority of cqn posters would have been happy with 1-1 before the kick off.
Does anyone else think that the ott overly negative reaction from the Scottish media was because the game was 3pm on ppv and possibly 90% of smsm readers wouldn’t have seen the game?
In other words they knew they could paint a result that most were happy about in a bad light simply cos they could.
HH
SnS @ 2.04
The problem at the moment is that SB is the go to guy in these situations.
And the even bigger problem is that KC thinks SB is the go to guy.
First up SB is not physical enough.
He has a comic book level of physicality — caricature in fact.
The bigger issue is that KC has to work through SB.
Why doesn’t he do it himself?
Why doesn’t the team react to what they see in front of them?
I think this shows up a gang mentality that is holding us back.
We need to be more physical as a team.
They had a go at ML and PR last night and we all stood back.
The stream ash at the end was slow motion handbags.
EO’C put the boot in early doors and that was that.
Not sure if that is his game, he was wound up or he was acting to orders.
However we were powderpuff for too much of last night.
NB was the only player they were physically wary off.
That is 10 too few.
Good afternoon friends.
The excitement and anticipation ahead of tomorow’s CQN Open got the better of me and I had to do the honourable thing and take a half day from work.
mindwasntonitCSC
GEORDIE MUNRO on 28TH JULY 2016 2:20 PM
I believe the vast majority of cqn posters would have been happy with 1-1 before the kick off.
Does anyone else think that the ott overly negative reaction from the Scottish media was because the game was 3pm on ppv and possibly 90% of smsm readers wouldn’t have seen the game?
In other words they knew they could paint a result that most were happy about in a bad light simply cos they could.
———————————————————————————————————————–
It’s a reasonable thesis mate. I’m more inclined to think it’s because they’re a shower of huns who can’t help themselves… :-)
Geordie M
Yes. Who is going to contadict their nonsense?
Tell a lie often enough…
HH
RVP
I would have thought
RIP
More appropriate for shirts
Firstly and most importantly I am delighted by the result yesterday. I’m underwhelmed by our performance ( I don’t think Astana are any great shakes but they are solid) and I’m dismayed that we continue to ignore any sustainable so,union to the long identified central defensive deficit.
P67 by all means question Craig Grodon as he is surely to blame for goals like yesterday’s that are scored in 6 yard box. However question our CEO for his repeated failure in not addressing recruitment to key positions in the team identified by every manager … Even the puppet he appointed?
to paraphrase a humorous tweet to Keith Jackson
The only person that will make £100,000 per week at Ibrox (presumably what RVP would be getting) will be the roofer
Every team loses goals at set plays.
We unfortunately lose more than most.
The absence of a genuine defensive leader the last few seasons has been a factor.
Tony Adams at Arsenal was brilliant at it.
He controlled the line and designated assignment’s.
This made them strong collectively.
Was noticeable that at times we were to deep defensively and this stretched the field to their advantage.
Hopefully Toure will be given leadership role and make the defense collectively better.
We also need a midfield general to.
This should be this transfer windows priority.
Madmitch –
Aye you’re right. Much better to go down to 9 men and lose 3 or 4 nil than just play the game and try and beat them at football.
And when Brown and Bitton did come to the defence of Tierney when the ball was kicked at him, it was according to you “handbags”. What do you want, blood?
You just haven’t got a clue.
Madmitch
I agree we need more guys who can win their personal battles and assert themselves.
Not all 11 will have that about them, and Kris is probably not the type of guy to get involved.
When he said Broonie ( he actually says browny :-) was the guy he would ‘go to’ I believed he was telling the truth, I expect he was basing that on ‘previous’.
No need to doubt the guy was being truthful, unless you can provide some evidence to the contrary?
As I say, agree with your overall point that we need more leader types on the pitch now.
BORGO67,
The ref booked Broonie’s because he’s the captain, the referee pointed at his armband as if to say you’re the captain, you should know better and in this case he probably got it right.
HH
gsu
“We unfortunately lose more than most.”
Fan a tic,
Is this factually correct or does it just bliddy feel like that?
HH
A bit of speculation on Twitter that the RVP story was the squirrel sent out to distract from them not being able to shell out for Hemmings who would have cost £400,000 plus wages.
I think there may be some truth in that.
Natknow,
Another fair point neebs :D
HH