Pivotal moment

67

Leipzig are at a pivot.  Narrow defeats to Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool, leave them needing a win at Celtic Park tonight to maintain their chances of qualifying for the next stage of the Champions League.  Defeat would realistically end their chances and see them prioritise the Bundesliga over the winter months.

They have the best defensive record in the Bundesliga, conceding only five goals this season, but only two of the top 10 sides have scored fewer than them, which is unusual for a side sitting second.  Their strength lies in keeping opponents well away from their goal, which may suit Celtic.

We have one of the faster counterattacking players in the business.  Daizen Maeda was the only Celtic player who left Dortmund with any credit.  If we play as we did against Atalanta, he can exploit the space in front of him to test Leipzig’s back line.

Brendan was right in what he said yesterday.  Leipzig “is one of the top teams in European football”.  They operate in a stratospheric environment compared to us.  To leave with a point tonight, we need everything to go our way.  Even then it will be a challenge.  But as Brendan also said, “That’s why we’re in this competition, to take on these challenges.”

My expectations for tonight are low, but a point would be pivotal for us too.

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  1. Won’t see game or live updates tonight as at my home group meeting.

     

    So

     

    Cmon Celtic Let the people sing.

     

    Any win will do.

  2. gerrit kuhn.

     

     

    a product of leipzig youths.

     

     

    ——————

     

     

    Nicolas-Gerrit Kühn (born 1 January 2000) is a German professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for Scottish Premiership club Celtic.

     

     

    Club career

     

    Early years

     

    Born in Wunstorf, Hanover Region,[2] Kühn began playing football at TSV Klein Heidorn and 1. FC Wunstorf,[3] before joining the youth academy of FC St. Pauli, where he played for two years.[1][4] In 2011, Kühn moved to Hannover 96, where he joined the U13 team. In the 2014–15 season, at the age of 15, he had already made two appearances for their U17 team in the Under 17 Bundesliga.[5] For the 2015–16 season, Kühn moved to the U17 team of RB Leipzig,[6] for whom he scored 18 goals in 22 appearances in the Under 17 Bundesliga. In the 2016–17 season, the striker scored 6 goals in 13 matches in the Under 17 Bundesliga, but fell out with a high ankle sprain. Upon his return for the second half of the season, he was already a part of the team competing in the Under 19 Bundesliga.[1] In the 2017–18 season he was permanently moved up to the U19-team, for whom he also competed in the UEFA Youth League, and regularly trained with the first team.[7]

  3. The facile nature of Saturday’s victory although positive will have little bearing on tonight’s encounter and will be equally as difficult as Dortmund however our attitude will be less cocky on this occasion. Celtic will be underdogs which suits us and we will have the backing of a capacity crowd, just like the yellow cauldron we faced in Germany.

     

     

    Interesting who the central defensive paring will be both Scalsey and Trusty vied with each other for the MOM in Bergamo and and reading some interesting stats today the Wicklowman had the better chart than the American. It wasn’t all backs to the wall stuff in Dortmund and some our counter attacks failed due to unforced errors which could have produced scores. Celktic have pace and skill in abundance and can trouble any side so hopefully we get those final passes right.

     

     

    Kasper could have sipped a bottle of stout and read the evening newspaper to pass the time on Saturday but I reckon he’s in for a busy time tonight. Hoping for a result tonight HH.

  4. bigrailroadblues on

    I’ll be celebrating no matter the result. It is my raison d’etre. Anaw that.

     

    Braw.

  5. Tom McLaughlin on

    DENIABHOY

     

    If the stars align and we take 1-2 early chances we might spring a major CL surprise.

     

    A Celtic victory tonight would be a long way from a major CL surprise. We are at home and Leipzig are without a point from their 3 CL games to date.

     

     

    Paddy Power have Celtic at 13/8 and Leipzig slight favourites at 6/4 which is one eighth of a point difference.

     

     

    COYBIG 🟩⬜🟧

  6. Tom McLaughlin on 5th November 2024 5:13 pm

     

     

    Those odds have changed quite a bit over the last 48 hours. Obviously, many are putting money on Celtic. I hope those punters are very happy at 10 o’clock this evening!

  7. We are up a capable side tonight,

     

    We will have our work cut out

     

    Never have We been afraid of that.

     

    Tonight Celtic,work hard for each other and for us

     

    Do your best Celts,put in a shift

     

    Go to work Celtic

     

    God bless Celtic and all who sail in that good ship.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  8. CELTIC SUPPORT

     

    South Lower J1 – Adult £50*

     

    South Lower I – Adult £45

     

    South Lower I – Concession £27

     

    South Upper H – Adult £45

     

    South Upper H – Concession £27

     

    North D – Adult £45

     

    North D – Concession £27

     

    East F-G – Adult £40

     

    East F-G – Concession £23

     

     

    Accessible

     

    North – Wheelchair Adult £25

     

    North – Wheelchair Concession £15

     

    South – Wheelchair Adult £20

     

    South – Wheelchair Concession £12

     

    East – Wheelchair Adult £15

     

    East – Wheelchair Concession £12

     

    South I – Ambulant Adult £25

     

    South I – Ambulant Concession £

  9. and we will have the backing of a capacity crowd,

     

     

    no we wont, there will be a few thousand unoccupied seats.

  10. Superbru Round11 update

     

     

    Apologies for the late update but it’s been a busy week and I still need to get out to CP tonight, so this will be quick.

     

     

    In a weekend where only 4 matches were played, all the scores were concentrated near each other and overall positions are little changed.

     

     

    Our top performers this week were:-

     

     

    1= BC Milan, pannysbhoy, kelvinbhoy & mckenna_88- all on 6 points

     

    5= Big Jimmy, Greenpinata, One Malloy, Hutchybhoy, 18 Yard Man, Hopeful Hoops, sannabhoy, Bateen Bhoy Billy Bhoy, McCaff, Jonny the Tim & Garry Postecoglou- all 4.5 pts

     

     

    The vindictive computer did not award mckenna_88 a yellow cap but he should consider himself awarded.

     

     

    Finishing in 52nd equal place with a Null points tally, we have 18 players- far too many to mention individually- just go to the site and point & laugh at them individually. The 5 at the bottom have the excuse that they failed to get any picks in on time but the other 13 have no excuse.

     

     

    The overall picture is :-

     

     

    The Token Tim- 74 pts (Julie & Corinne have had their lead cut but are still managing to save face for Davie who paid the entry money)

     

    Gaz- 72.5 pts

     

    3= Cosy Corner Bhoy & Hopeful Hoops- 70.5 pts

     

     

    Meanwhile, down amongst the purple coralline algae, we have:-

     

     

    68th- An Tearmann- 41 pts

     

    69th- Jonny The Tim- 40.5 pts

     

    70th- BelmontBrian63- 40 pts

     

     

    It’s a tight race amongst the Idiocracy.

     

     

    Our next deadline is Sat 9th with five kick offs at 3 pm including Celtic at Rugby Park before we get our Sunday Hunnies v mini-Hunnies show down at Ibrox at 3 pm- There should be a forecast option where both can lose.

     

     

    See you all then- hopefully with, at least, another Champions League point in the bag.

  11. Emdy fancy a great night out? We got this from our good friend,Frank,who many of you will already know either in person or as VFR.

     

    

     

    Not sure if you know, but my wife Jacky came out of retirement a couple of years ago to run St Margaret’s adoption agency, the only Catholic adoption agency left in the UK. She now has it back on its feet after some significant issues.

     

    

     

    I have been roped in as an Ambassador for the charity and one area I am looking at is fundraising. My big ticket item at the moment is a dinner dance we are running in the Kerrydale Suite on Friday 22nd November at 7:30. This is the first of what we intend to be an annual event to coincide with the Feast Day of St Margaret of Scotland, our Patron Saint (November 16th).

     

    So as you can imagine, I have the begging bowl out! I am contacting like-minded people to see if they are willing to take a table for the event (or just some tickets). Individual tickets are £50 with the tables at £500. We are also looking for sponsorship for the event, ranging from £5k for the event sponsor down to advertising in the programme and on-screen on the night – ranging from £250 to £1000 depending on size and placement/regularity of the ads.

     

    There will be a raffle and charity auction on the night, so we are looking for prizes and auction items for both of those. We may also look at naming tables and allowing some advertising on tables if there is an appetite for that.

     

    

     

    Tickets are selling very well,but there are still a few available.

     

     

    HH

  12. ” Steve Clarke confirmed that Celtic winger James Forrest, who withdrew from the last camp due to an injury, had not been selected”

     

     

    I think Jamsie will now call time on his Scotland career. He won’t announce immediately lest it is construed as a reaction to the above, but I’d imagine that he will let it be known before the turn of the year. Why he didn’t get any minutes in Germany is beyond me.

     

     

    He has thirty-nine caps – should have had at least fifty plus, but is good company with those who also have a barrel-full of Celtic honours but were overlooked on numerous occasions when it came to international recognition – big Billy and wee Bobby

     

     

    We probably won’t see the likes of James and Callum – almost one thousand Celtic appearances and over one hundred caps between them…. and they’re still doing ‘it’.

     

     

    We leave in 10 minutes with a female chauffeur – first time this season HH

  13. Been a good day for me.

     

     

    Unable to drive for 4 months due to cataracts in both eyes, I had my first eye op a month ago.

     

     

    Optician this morning says my new eye is good enough for driving .

     

     

    I’ll be back on taxi duty in no time!

     

     

    C’MON THE CELTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. Leipzig must surely have drawn one of the toughest group of teams:

     

    Athletico Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool, Celtic, Inter Milan, Aston Villa, Sporting Lisbon and Sturm Graz. A must win for them tonight. A point would be excellent. They’ll have a lot of the ball and the fans need to be patient. No moaning alowed😁

  15. McGregor (c), Engels, Hatate, Maeda, Kuhn, Kyogo

     

     

    SUBS: Sinisalo, Scales, Palma, Idah, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh

  16. CELTIC: Schmeichel, Taylor, Trusty, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Johnston, McGregor (c), Engels, Hatate, Maeda, Kuhn, Kyogo

     

     

    SUBS: Sinisalo, Scales, Palma, Idah, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh

  17. CELTIC: Schmeichel, Taylor, Trusty, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Johnston, McGregor (c), Engels, Hatate, Maeda, Kuhn, Kyogo

     

     

    SUBS: Sinisalo, Scales, Palma, Idah, Valle, Yang, McCowan, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh

  18. Oops, sorry. It seems Bognor Meantime is a few minutes ahead Yorkshire Independent Time. (And I failed to scan back before posting!)

     

     

    #LazyJournalism

  19. Also, mon the trump for president……\

     

     

    #runs off and leaves the last 10 mins of this blog to self destruct

  20. AuroraBorealis79 on

    Anyone else watching Dinamo Zagreb against bratislava? They will certainly cause us a lot of problems.

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