Let’s get the negatives out of the way. Lou Macari is one of the greatest human beings to pull on a football jersey, but for a while he carried a heavy load. He was left on the end of a wall for a free kick in Argentina 1978. Cubillas struck, ex-Celt Luigi winced, and future-Celt Alan Rough didn’t get across his goal. Lou was blamed, relentlessly.
Martin O’Neill’s halftime analysis of the Feyenoord opening goal was correct. It was the Macari incident all over again. The wall was wrongly setup, with Kyogo on the end that the kicker was bound to aim for. Kyogo turned his back. Go watch some primary school football and you will hear the chorus “Don’t turn your back” when inevitably a kid does likewise. Honestly, Kyogo!
The kick was fully 30 yards. Even without a wall it should have taken an exceptional effort to beat Joe Hart. It was not an exceptional effort. The ball bounced before reaching the goal, which made it difficult for Joe to read, but he was slow to get across.
Gustaf Lagerbielke put his arm across an attacker inside the box. The attacker fell ‘wounded by a sniper style’, resulting in a second yellow for Gus and a penalty, saved by Hart. Sure, it was harsh, but it was an unnecessary risk. Learn from it, Gus.
There is plenty to admire in Odin Holm, a 20-year-old with talent and without fear of consequence. Consequences of his actions finished Celtic last night as a correct straight red reduced us to nine men.
With the game still there to be won, I was frustrated at the number of misplaced passes in the middle of the park. Misplaced passes should happen in the final third, when you take risks to create a goalscoring opportunity. If they regularly happen during the transition phase, they drain momentum. We could have been more patient in the build-up.
Short of that, across the spectrum of Champions League defeats, this one was different. There is a clear feeling that points were left on the table. Celtic were a match for Feyenoord for 46 minutes.
Alongside Maik Nawrocki at Kilmarnock, then partnering Liam Scales at Ibrox, Lagerbielke looked like the junior partner. This was not the case last night. Until his dismissal, he was comfortable at this level, perhaps our best defender. Liam Scales again grew in stature. It is difficult to imagine he is the same player who struggled against St Johnstone last month.
Reo Hatate’s return to the starting line-up had a lot to do with how comfortable Celtic were on the ball in the opening period. He took possession, always with at least one defender, often with two and on occasion, with three, in close proximity. This allowed space to open for Celtic to build out of defence and was crucial to our play.
The same player made the wrong decision at Celtic’s best chance. Kyogo had space and was flying towards goal on his right, when Reo hit a shot against the defender in front of him. Our other great chance saw Daizen Maeda withstand a last-defender-assault to force a good save from the keeper. A Feyenoord striker would have collapsed instead, and perhaps Celtic would have had a man advantage.
Opportunities to pick up points in this group will be rare, so that was definitely one we let slip. Still, I expect Celtic to win the return game on Match Day 6.
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That was as poor an opposition as I have seen in CL
Game last night was there to be won, but we were let down by poor recruitment over the last 18 months. I am OK with the strategy, but execution is poor.
The manager did well to get the level of performance from a weak squad.
Except for Alisdair Johnson none of the signings in last 3 windows are up to playing even a very average CL opponent.
A year down the line, I would be optimistic 2 or 3 from Oh, Palma, Holm, Tillio, Yang will be up to it, but by then O Riley & CCV may be off & it’s groundhog.
Others like Kobiyashi, Iwata, Bernabei will never be up to CL.
Lagerbielke is 2 seasons away and has a big mistake in him every game which is where Scales was 2 years – get him out on loan at Xmas.
Sad to say, but ” The Writing was on the Wall” last night when young GUSTAF was sent aff.
Credit to the NINE Men after HOLM was also sent aff,
I also hope that the Celtic support can give it back to the Feneyoord support Big Time….by singing ” Always look on the Bright Side” WHEN we GUB them at Celtic Park !
LOL
HH
Quad
Agree totally. Beer fan clearly isn’t happy / wants away. All that supportive guff. Losing away to Dutch champions who put 16 goals past their last 3 opponents……sack the board / blame Lawwell.
Back from Rotterdam earlier and now watched game again. Fans over there seemed pretty aligned with BR comments imo and felt a bit cheered by weak official….. frustrated with Hatate and the inexperienced players who were only in the team due to injuries and those recovering from injury who could not last 90.
Garngad to Croy …. Spot on Re Reo. I was wrongly critical on the night. Watching it again I totally agree with you. He always buys a ticket to the lottery and often wins at home. Give me his type in the hoops anytime.
Rab Hawe
Spot on Re team being raw and not having enough game time so far due in part to huge injury issues.
A wee word Re support last night. Awesome. Really kept at it for 100 mins. Also patient for the 45 mins trying to get out of the ground.
Quad
Beer fan = Brendan lol
Feynoord were poor , we were woeful apart from a patch we managed to string some passes together.
We have regressed as a team since last year with Starfelt, Mooy and Jota all gone.
We didn’t strengthen the areas areas required before we lost these players. So circa 7 players were need to build on last year.
With close to £100M in bank we went for 7 punts. I don’t think any of them will make it (includes feedback from those in the football biz).
Would we entrust Mark Lawwell with another £15M + in the January transfer window ??? Possibly one guy would.
Celtics lack of ambition is coming back to haunt them — but do they care ??
I can imagine Leti & Lazio with pick up full points with something to spare , so Game 6 will see Celtic needing to win by 2 clear goals to have any chance of progress.
It was predicted that we had failed miserably in transfer window and CL would be humbling. its not a surprise to many Celtic supporters.
Board will carry on regardless happy to wallow in mediocrity.
Referee Mr Peljto from Bosnia was a homer from the start
Last season, gave a penalty for Union SG v Sevco, who then submitted a negative report. Bosnian ref seemed intent on taking it out on another team from Glasgow.
Obvious from the start.
Lucky Cody
In the run up to the Sevco game at Ibrox, you promised to come back on here after the game to give us our character.
Did something happen to prevent this?
We could have bought five £10m players and still have £22m in the bank.
The first comment I wrote on this site many years ago was that chartered accountants and bankers don’t make good business leaders. Paul67 immediately agreed with me. The accountancy doctrine of conservatism which advocates caution in financial terms. In layman’s terms-be careful, be cautious, don’t take chances, stick the money in the bank, keep it for a rainy day, speculate to accumulate-no way. Why spend when you can save.
It’s all about the bank balance and profits and dividends and share price at our football club.
No more accountants making football decisions. Please.
A little harsh on Palma to write him off after 120 minutes in a Celtic shirt, a little early for unfavorable comparisons but to my untrained eye he’s a different player to Haksa. Quicker and more of a winger than Haksa who didn’t really seem to have specialist position
He was up against a Netherlands right back last night who was moving to Leipzig for €30m in the summer before it fell through. I don’t remember Haksa ever being up against that quality
Very much in agreement with with Paul’s leader. As my Dad said last night, a missed opportunity.
Clashcitybhoy
Weaker than the Ukrainians ?
Weaker than Borrusia MG ?
Not great but not the weakest. A very good coach. In a pretty hostile arena also.
Loving all the £10m players we should have bought. Nameless of course …..
The pen and second yellow to Lagerbielke was incredibly harsh. In real time my reaction was that Feyenoord were at it.
You see it in almost every game where a forward knows he’s not getting on the end of a ball so looks for a reason to hit the deck.
No way VAR brings that to the attention of the ref if he doesn’t give it first time around. We had a stronger pen shout for the late tackle on Maeda in the first half.
Injuries aside, in the wide areas and up front, our squad is notably weaker than last season.
Heard a lot of Celtic bloggers say the match last night came too soon for us. Where the dates moved forward ?
A game coming too soon = not being adequately prepared.
Celtic40me,
“A little harsh on Palma to write him off after 120 minutes in a Celtic shirt”
– I didn’t write him off but the eye test can tell me he lacks pace and a trick to go past a player. His signature move is turning inside on his right foot and shooting, a la Haksa. Instead of the analogy of 2 bald men fighting over a comb between them both, let’s just say that in the difficult job of replacing an elite player like Jota, we appear to have fallen way short with our stable of options, now numbering 8 players for wide berths.
I hope to eff that Tillio is the great white hope manifest.
HH
BURNLEY78 on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:45 PM
Loving all the £10m players we should have bought. Nameless of course …..
—
You should see all the 800k-4.5m ones we did buy….
:)
HH
With a pretty battered / injured team we took on a Dutch champion who got to a euro final and quarter final in past 2 seasons playing 27 European games vs our 14 in a similar period.
We played in their hostile arena with a weak ref and a 5th and 6th choose CB pairing.
We competed and at times played brave football and could easily have scored the first goal.
But hey it’s all Peter Lawwell’s fault. LoL.
Burnley78
Did you think the hostile atmosphere influenced the referee’s decision making.?
Sounded a bit like the Bigot Dome on TV
Burnley78,
As Tontine Tim said last night, they are coming out of the red brick building ……… Strange how they have been so quiet since the game at that red brick building. Good to hear those who made it to the Cowp (that’s how it’s pronounced) did the Hoops proud.
Big Wavy
Very funny.
You mean the kinda budget for kyogo or Hatate or O Riley or Johnston ?
Ha Ha
BURNLEY78 on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:45 PM
Loving all the £10m players we should have bought. Nameless of course …..
Here we go again…..the ultimate Suits defender….
BIG WAVY on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:48 PM
“– I didn’t write him off but the eye test can tell me he lacks pace and a trick to go past a player”
I know you didn’t but you just went and did it anyway.
You must be some judge of a player if your eye test tells you that after 90 minutes against a €30m Dutch international right back
RECRUITMENT
We have been saying this for a few years…..players not to blame they were brought to Celtic.
https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2023/rb-leipzig-agree-personal-terms-with-feyenoords-lutsharel-geertruida/
biggest failings are not replacing both our goalkeeper and left back during the transfer window
BIGSHUGGY on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:27 PM
Referee Mr Peljto from Bosnia was a homer from the start
Last season, gave a penalty for Union SG v Sevco, who then submitted a negative report. Bosnian ref seemed intent on taking it out on another team from Glasgow.
Obvious from the start.
———-
Bigshuggy – we were all saying same thing.
Ref was at it.
D :)
I wish some of The Greatest Fans in the World would post on CQN.
Cheerio for now.
The games a bogey when in the scramble to be proved right about recruitment we’re writing off players after one start against a quality player.
Albeit against an average team I thought our first half performance showed real signs of improvement. Away from home in the champions league and we looked the match of Feyenoord, more pragmatic, and given we had four center backs who would have played out injured we never looked like conceding.
Even with 9 players we kept the score down to 2 which was important if it comes down to head to head.
Lagerbielke is fourth or fifth in line for a start last night. Someone please tell me how spending €3m on a 5th choice center back is a breakdown in a recruitment strategy
I see “Mr no names on who to sign” is at it again.
Very condescending.
D :)
Why give a new contract to James Forrest and then play Palma instead of him? Why bring on Holm instead of Turnbull? BR seems to like the board’s strategy of signing lots of projects.
We have to accept that this board has zero ambition as far as Europe is concerned. But we must be near the top of the European cash reserves league.
I’ll be very surprised if we get more than 2 points from this CL group.
Thought Joe Hart was excellent over the piece, distribution under severe Eredivsie high press was excellent and the penalty save superb. He also nearly made the free kick save, that was never on, given the way the wall collapsed and failed to block three quarters of the target.
Don’t think a keeper was a priority, if it had been BR would have signed one, given he signed ahem Dorus De Vries and ahem Scott Bain.
CELTIC40ME on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 3:05 PM
BIG WAVY on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 2:48 PM
“– I didn’t write him off but the eye test can tell me he lacks pace and a trick to go past a player”
I know you didn’t but you just went and did it anyway.
You must be some judge of a player if your eye test tells you that after 90 minutes against a €30m Dutch international right back.
—
Well, here’s wee Cammy Kerr of Dundee, and he’s worth 30k on the open market. He couldn’t get past him either. But an honest fella our Cammy, he does talk previously about Jota here. Doesn’t seem to have done the same with Luis. :)
https://www.thenational.scot/sport/19702074.like-face-jota-celtics-relentless-front-three-dazzled-dundee-defender-cammy-kerr/
HH
What’s the law/rule regarding an opposition player lining up in the defensive wall ?
BSR
Same goes for a left back. Last night was only one game but GT’s part in a good defensive performance seems to have proved BR correct
So far anyway
HOT SMOKED on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 3:27 PM
I wish some of The Greatest Fans in the World would post on CQN.
—
Knock yourself out fella. You’ve self-appointed yourself that title for years now.
Let’s be hearing from you. Do you have an opinion ?
HH
Having read back over hundreds of posts, the large majority negative, I’m left as always with a look at the bigger picture.
We came up short in Europe once again. Feyenoord looked a pot 4 team but still beat us with a physical presence and a less blunt cutting edge.
Watching our most reliable player McGregor toiling at this level was a repeat warning from last year.
Our passing game is sub standard especially in forward areas. We are a bit lightweight.
The experiment continues at home but it says everything about Sevco and the rest of Scottish football, that even during this ‘transition’ we’ll still reach next season’s Land of Gold, and repeat.
That well used truism on every Celtic blog about keeping ourselves just ahead of Sevco has become evident again. It seems odd to me that the very club we dominate in almost every department, came within a Frankfurt centre half’s knee cap of winning a trophy in the very arena we have an inferiority complex in.
However the difference this time is, we have a bank balance like at no other time in our history, and a manager with ambition to take us to the next level,
(which is another story)
Yes, we were victims of poor refereeing. and yes we’ve been hammered by injuries, but the big picture remains the same.
I lived through the glory years of 66 to 74 when our name was forged on many great European nights. It hurts more and more every time I see that reputation being eroded yearly, and more so because of holding back from going that extra mile.
A mistake from a free kick and a goal at the end of the game. Thirty minutes with 9 men. All is not lost.
Our two first choices at centre backs absent.
Yes it was a bad night, but I reckon there is a lot to come from this team yet.
BIG WAVY on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2023 3:37 PM
Kerr played as centre half in a 5-4-1 in that game
31 minutes against Dundee is long enough for an in depth analysis now
Little wonder we’re signing duds if that’s what we’re doing to judge players these days