It was a strange game. Celtic were so far ahead in the opening 20 minutes it was hard to comprehend how Shakhtar Donetsk managed to win so impressively in Leipzig last week. Our ‘hosts’ soon edged their way into proceedings, scored, and for the remainder of the first half, made Celtic look second best.
At halftime I suspect both teams would have settled for a point. The second half was significantly less open than the first. Shakhtar seldom threw men forward and Celtic cut down opportunities for a counterattack.
Had Shakhtar won, our chances of progressing in the competition would have been effectively wiped out. A draw means we remain very much in control of our own destiny. The disappointing aspect is, that a win, which should have been achieved, would have almost certainly guaranteed European football of one type after Christmas.
There is also the dirty little subject. A win was worth £1.5m more than the draw; our potential income pot shrank a little in the Warsaw air.
It is remarkable how Greg Taylor has grown this season. Repeatedly last night he dragged his body up and down the field, often accepting possession in tight spaces, before mining a way out. The courage he showed in possession is enormously encouraging.
Sead Haksabanovic was thrown in for his first start; a brave decision by Ange Postecoglou. The manager will feel justified as Sead played an important part in Celtic’s goal. Still, Celtic steadied when Daizen Maeda replaced Sead at halftime. He mitigated the risk from Shakhtar’s left flank; had he started, with Haksabanovic making a late cameo, Shakhtar would have found it more difficult to exploit the space they scored from.
Celtic improved again when Liel Abada replaced the exhausted Jota near the end. Perhaps bringing Abada on 10 minutes earlier would have made a difference.
Shakhtar’s goal was a consequence of the gameplan, not just a misjudgement in midfield. Callum McGregor tried to nick an opposition pass 40 yards from goal and missed. He was out of position and the orange and black shirts snapped up a gear. Celtic’s play is all about trying to nick a pass in midfield. It works domestically, (remarkably) worked for a period against Real Madrid and was very effective during the opening 20 minutes last night.
This plan is also energy sapping. At 25 minutes, the tank needed filled and we suffered until the break. We need to manage our tempo more carefully.
Later, there was concern until Real opened the scoring on the 80th minute in Madrid. That win may be just as important as Celtic’s point, come the end of the group.
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BORGO67 on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 8:48 AM
“Just tell UEFA it was the tv programme the GB was referring to.”
No way they’ll believe that, a fine piece of TV art! :)) por cierto
Jobo’s POTY:
https://celticpools.co.uk/poty
por cierto
BLAKEY on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 7:32 AM
The GB are at times seriously misguided and mixed up, not least styling themselves after European Ultra fan groups. Ultras are almost without fail unsavoury bullies who occasionally style themselves as faux justice warriors. They are rooted in right wing extremism. If you ever have the misfortune to be their victim, as I was, you will not be romantic about them or want to associate yourself with them. It baffles me that any alleged leftist or left leaning group would want to use their name and symbols. To associate Celtic with Ultras is completely ignorant. It’s like associating us with the BNP (Oh, but they’ve changed, honest.)
The hand of god:
Fagan broke into a woman’s bedroom. Regardless of his intentions, put yourself in the victims position at the time and what was going through her mind. If he done that to anyone else’s mother on here, he certainly wouldn’t have been celebrated as a martyr
An T
I wish I really thought it was a small minority who were at play here. On evidence of the Warsaw visit there was a lot in support of the banners and singing accordingly.
I know many of us including myself are not pro monarchy and left of Centre politically but I don’t see a consensus in our support (we can see this on here daily/ hourly) which allows any definitive political messages to be put out there as representing our club and support as a whole.
Even in this blog this past day on this specific issue we had some liking the Fagan bit, some the crown some both and some neither.
Regardless of our view on individual banners it is what the world seeing it interprets it as. We can be pedantic over Crown vs Queen vs Monarchy on a blog but to anyone in the world seeing it then it looks like a disrespectful message from folks at an inappropriate time. Personally I will argue my view and put my views across in the right way as my views as an individual. I don’t expect and would not have the arrogance to expect Celtics name to associate with them or amplify them as these clowns think they should for theirs.
We do have a common love and for most on here it is near the top of the list and that is Celtic. At a time when we are playing great football and really could be on the cusp of something really special we are dragged into this shit whilst our rivals deflect from their shit on field status and are perceived throughout the world as decent.
Keeping quiet on this would have spoke volumes on this for us for this period at least.
Re football
I would not fancy being Dundee utd at the next production at Ibrox tomorrow. The energy in the back of such a positive 3-0 defeat and the period of mourning will come cascading down from the rafters. Hoping Charlie aMulgrew et al can burst the bubble but fearing a 5 or 6 or more.
THE HAND OF GOD @ 8:39 AM,
Good morning, hope all’s good.
Now, having a bit of rascality in your young days is regarded as fairly typical and I can understand that.
Also, I don’t expect the GB to be ambassadors for our Club and our “open to all” ethos. Yet promoting blatant bigotry takes it to another level.
To the backdrop; we are playing in Warsaw in a country that was ravaged by war in the last Century – we are playing a team from Ukraine whose Country is being ravaged by war as we speak, invaded by an Imperial Power.
So that’s the main reason I have pointed out the GB’s self indulgent bigotry.
If you can’t see how that banner is bigotted then I’m going to struggle but I’ll give it a go.
Firstly, is FTP and FTQ bigotted?
Next the gratuitous and lazy nature of the slogan, it wasn’t making a political point, made no attempt to make people think
Also this is not a group of political activists and state dissidents working hard and making sacrifices for regime change
Next as most Celtic supporters know this slogan comes from an “add on”, these are controversial within our own community, many unionists would see the “Fields of Athenry” as a sectarian song, it is not, however the add ons make it so.
If you make a banner with an add on thirty foot long with six foot high bright lettering you are making a statement.
Not about independence, not about Republicianism, not about Socialism – it’s about bigotry.
I’m sure the Green Brigade have their followers, the question is, who would be happier to see that display, the GB followers or the Union Bears!?
Hail Hail
Burnley78 @ 9:15
Excellent post, sir. Measured and courteous
Away Support / GB Brains Trust …
Is there in this august group a guy called Dave who is a great help.
He will have short hair / a van / good admin skills / tearful back story / money for gear.
Never has any ideas himself but always happy to support firebrands who have.
Just asking for a friend.
The away support / GB are being played like a fiddle.
People who do not have the best interests of the club at heart are playing games.
Not sure if it is to do us down or provide cover / excuses for others.
If the GB / Away Support zoomers have a point to make they why don’t they do it on their own instead of using us as a human shield?
Auld Reekie was a lot closer / a lot more credible than Warsaw.
says the guy from the daily mail
SIONNAIGH @ 1:21 AM
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL
The misguided, ignorant, young men have been so….for too long now.
——
Sionnaigh – thank you for response.
Genuinely appreciate it.
Can I share a secret with you (but you have to promise not to tell anyone) ?
Once upon a time …. I was an ignorant, misguided young man.
IMHO.. collective, collaborative solution lies within us all.
(the “how” is more complex than the simple statement above of course).
Stx2 @ 9.39
Spill the beans.
Who do we have on the site from the Forger’s Gazette?
Name names …
CHAIRBHOY on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 7:02 AM
‘The time for bigotry is over, the establishment introduced it to divide and rule the Celtic parts of the British Isles’
###
Anti catholic ‘bigotry’ in Scotland, predates the Union, and wasn’t imposed by the establishment.
Scotland isn’t Ireland any more than Ireland is Scotland.
It’s facile, lazy and disingenuous to lump the two together.
There was a Barrister in London who was concerned about the nature of the successiin of our head of state.
He was arrested for having a blank piece of paper and pens.
The GB are allowed to show a six foot by thirty foot banner on European TV, Why’s tjat
B2B @ 9.40
The bigger question is what drives this ignorance in the young through the ages?
Why as parents / carers / mentors / educators does Scottish society through the ages develop ignorant / misguided youth?
Is it peer pressure / desire to fit in / group dynamics taking a lead in personal development over listening to older generations / engaging with education / any form of structured useful meaningful maturity?
The GB in their 2005 chrysalis phase were not poorly educated — they were straight out the 6th year common room at St Als — so why do they have such a hold over our plooky youth?
Is it a case that West Central Scottish society — through an over indulged early childhood? — breeds generation after generation of Peter Pans who do not want to grow up / deal with reality / face future responsibilities and who will go to extremes to advertise this lack of engagement with real life?
The GB and their hodge podge groups of imitators / hingers on are just another incarnation of this age old trend that hobbles our society.
llllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
0____1___2____3____4____5____6___7____8____9___10
llllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Measured post CSC
ERNIE LYNCH @ 9:49 AM,
No it isn’t.
My point was nothing to do with who invented bigotry, we’d have to go pretty far back to suss that one, wouldn’t we?
My point was the way it was utilised, it was utilised in Scotland as it was in Ireland, on Scots and Irish.
The divide and rule, the wearing of tartan, the wearing of the green, the plantations, the land clearances.
The ethnic cleansing of the Gaels effects both Countries.
Hail Hail
I had to Google who Michael Fagan was when I seen the banner. He broke into the queens bedroom in 1982 ! Anyone under 50 wouldn’t have a clue who he was so I don’t think these banners are all the work of ‘kids’.
I honestly don’t think much thought went into these banners. A poor effort. They could have been done in a much more articulate and historically justified manner. By that I mean any quote from republicans all over the world in past struggle against monarchs.
The use of the F word allows yourself to be portrayed as an uneducated hood.
Ernie
Yes, the old reformationist’s were very clever in how they permanently defended ‘the faith’ through law, in the act of settlement. It’s only Protestants that get worked up about excluding Catholics and they managed to do it legally, with in effect a legalised form of racism .
Not allowing a Catholic monarchy is one thing, so much more could and should be done, for ecumenism and the promotion of Christian faiths. It may be a protestant country “ I protest “ but it doesn’t give them the right to devalue Catholicism when a monarch dies.
The Catholic Church openly promotes and encourages all brands of Christianity.
I too fear for Dundee Utd, they had Craig Levein a manager on record having said in reference to IBrokes and their Rangerees “ what’s the point in turning up”
What a backlash they face against , how dare a UEFA ref out penalty them, on their own turf.
Consternation CSC
CHAIRBHOY on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 9:57 AM
Please stop lumping Scotland and Ireland together as similar entities.
They’re not, and it’s nonsensical to suggest that they are.
The reaction of Sevco players, management and fans to the laws of the game applying to them was farcical. Infact they got of light, Fat boy should have seen red too.
The TV coverage aided them in their unjustified fury so VAR in Scotland will be fun as pundits tell us that black is white and what we actually saw happen, didn’t happen. Penalty to rangers !
CONEYBHOY
If you’re looking in, I’m thinking about you this morning
AN DÚN on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 10:02 AM
Michael Fagan’s exploits have been immortalised in song by Celtic fans for decades.
The youngsters will know who he is.
A narrative repeated over the reporting of the goal the other night was “give the goal as an own goal”, small comforts to the mouring peoples, as in celtic cant even score it is an og.
another was if Kyogo touches it it would be offside, at no point is he offside what so ever,
i wish now he had tapped it in,
https://twitter.com/i/status/1570094814124994561
ERNIE LYNCH @ 10:23 AM,
My Ancestors are Gaels who built castles on the bank of Loch Foyle.
A thousand years ago some of the Clan moved across an expanse of water and built castles on the banks of Loch Fyne – same name, different spelling.
Both clans fought in the Jacobite rebellions, the Irish famously Battle of Aughrim, the Scots at the Battle of Culloden.
It may suit a Unionist agenda to re-write history, however the facts remain.
Hail Hail
CB @ 10.41
I think you are defeating your own argument.
Travel east to west across the North Channel = invasion which is bad.
Travel west to east across the North Channel = expansion which is seemingly good.
Gaelic is the language of the invader.
Welsh is the language of North Britain / Caledonia plus South Britain and Wales.
AN DUN
So anyone who was born AFTER a big news event, by definition knows nothing about that event?
CHAIRBHOY on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 10:41 AM
An ethno nationalist approach to history and politics?
Not for me, sorry.
here we ago again.
pull up a chair bhoys, for the tri-weekly lecture …………..
or not,
Madmitch @ 09:40.
Hmm. Lots to ponder. Not sure I’m intelligent enough or qualified enough.
But it is only a blog so some snippets if I may ….
This “current crop”?
I suspect (but have no evidence) that some participants / influencers have been treated very badly by OBFA …
… and are genuinely pure ragin and defiant as a result.
Education? Huge can if worms.
Lady Bracknell (Oscar Wilde) nailed it just a few years after Celtic was founded.
“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a very delicate exotic fruit. Touch it and the bloom is gone.
The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately, in England at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.
If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square”
CHAIRBHOY
You can’t take anything Ernie Lynch says about Scots and Scotland because he despises both.
If we had a time machine…
Who’d win a fight between a 1970s alco-fortified diehard and a 2020’s snow-stormed brigadier?
Were the auldies’ antisocial habits (and consequences) that much better than the newbies faults & foibles?
Or just less pointedly political?
Opinions are like erseholes…the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt, it’s been said.
One thing I do know for sure is I’m not convinced about that, and more.
DC Parking at P/head today — £20 on the day / £15 if you pre-book.
Somebody somewhere has a growth agenda.
We need to get our erses into gear.
We cannot expect AP to manage every aspect of our business model.
Although if he could knock up some plans for the new main stand that would be useful.
Q @ 10.50
At some point we have to grow up.
The world is changing around us but we must learn nothing.
ERNIE LYNCH @ 10:47 AM,
Nor me but those are the facts, Countried and Governments and Laws are the creation of people, often people who wish to control and profit from that countries subjects.
The geography, tribes and peoples of lands are the true history, not the whole story for sure but certainly truer than the man made constructs that are modern politics and laws.
The Native American way of life and history tells you a lot more about the geography and history of the continent than the abomination created by the European “enlightenment”.
Hail Hail
TOM MCLAUGHLIN @ 10:49 AM,
Yes, I often like Ernie’s observations and insights but he is totally blindsided by his dogmatic Political agendas.
The rich fabric of life is multifaceted.
Hail Hail
https://twitter.com/ibroxchat/status/1570694449197633538?s=46&t=BnFuwTzKtGpzDpskfzSMFQ
Things we didn’t know……
QUADROPHENIAN on 16TH SEPTEMBER 2022 10:50 AM
If we had a time machine…
Who’d win a fight between a 1970s alco-fortified diehard
—————–
watchin any of the 70s, 80s videos of celtic games, even I am drawing a bot of breath at the non-stop republican and anti-monarchy songbook, even more so when i think to myself, i was there, i was in that crowd, i definately sang that at that time.
However that was against a backdrop of the peak of the troubles, the hunger strikes, thatcher, internment, an phoblacht getting sold outside the ground and collection tins for the cause and the prisoners, bloody sunday. Death on tv most weeks, hardline attitudes across all sides. That was the context.
If we had 18,000 average support, i would suggest at least half were sympathetic to the struggles. The Greenock shamrock, 3 busses most game, 150 ish people, everybody, and i mean everybody joined in the rebels, and discussed what was going on, many young men with very radical views, and justifications.
It was very educational, i cant deny that. Many older men with family connections to Ireland, and real memories of sectarian violence against them.
One bus member moved to derry after meeting a girl at one of the bands marches he became a staunch SF representative. Another, a former soldier, some years later was convicted for an IRA bombing at a barracks in germany.
I found it amusing some that the leader of the council down here was in the telegraph other day with his condolensces to the queens family. His much missed big brothers name adornes a tri-colour held up at Celtic games home and away, I shared many a walk up the clune brae after games with the bold Terry, fiercely republican, articulate, educated, proud of his roots, a passion to fight back, do whats right, or we will be next.
Bring it up to date, I cannot condemn what the youths want to sing, and how they want to portray their politics, its been ever thus since Sergeant Maley let Pat Walsh escape Ireland.
Our 60,000 now, easily 50,000 of them are Post fergus, a new demogtraphic came on board, football supporters with more wealth and less interest in anything other than getting themselves to the games.
I like that we have a section of support who are rebellious, remind us of the past , get people asking who was Paddy Kelly, who was Michael Fagin (dearie me moment by the way that you wouldnt know who he is),
Celtic PLC is a football club.
Celtic FC Supporters are more than just a Celtic supporters group.