In eight days Brendan Rodgers takes Celtic into the Camp Nou to face Barcelona. While Barca are not current European champions, there is little doubt they are the best team in the world at the moment, and no doubt whatsoever that they are the greatest team of the era. A gargantuan task lies ahead. This week we’ll have a look at that challenge and how we might best prepare.
While Brendan has carried all before him in domestic football, and at home in Europe, his Celtic lost in Gibraltar and Israel, while taking a creditable draw in Kazakhstan. Playing in the Camp Nou is another world entirely, however.
Neil Lennon did very well top inhibit Barcelona on three of the four occasions he managed Celtic against them (the fourth was a dead rubber for Celtic, who conceded six, but was a must-win for Barcelona).
On the three meaningful Celtic games, we won once, lost once with 10 men, and conceded a last minute winner in the Camp Nou. A remarkable return against one of the best teams in the history of the game.
Neil’s team defended his 18-yard-box with remarkable endeavour, even with Efe Ambrose and Kelvin Wilson in central defence – and Adam Matthews at left back. Not exactly a legendary defensive line-up, but what Neil proved more than anything, football is about the system, not the individuals.
In some respects, defending against Barcelona will be more straightforward than against St Johnstone. There will be no reluctance to clear the ball long, instead of trying to thread a pass in the middle of our own half. There should be no complacency, and at all times defenders should be aware that their defensive partners are not far away.
In defending the 18-yard-box, Neil’s Celtic conceded space near the corner flag, an area we would normally contest, as this is where dangerous cross balls can emanate from. What that Celtic team had was no only a comfortable height advantage over Barcelona, but this advantage combined with a natural ability in the air, which say Celtic score regularly and defend successfully.
I expect Mikael Lustig, Erik Sviatchenko and Kolo Toure all to play along the back line (will be amazed and concerned if Mikael plays a conventional right back role), with Nir Bitton dropping deep from midfield. So we will not be short of height, but gelling them into a cohesive unit will be one of Brendan’s major tasks when players return from international duty.
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SOT
Believe ive read both.
Would also mention…’The Pursuit of History’ by John Tosh
‘In Defence of History’ by Richard Evans.
The mechanics of the history trade.
HH
“Rangers are a fantastic club with a great history. They will, in not too long a time, be back in the SPL. I have no doubt about that.
“And they’re needed for Scottish football because of their following, the size of the club and especially their history. We certainly would like to contest with them every week. We believe we have a better team and management structure.
“For us, it’s disappointing that they are not there but that’s decisions by the various clubs and leagues and we accept those.
“Rangers are one of the great clubs in Britain and we have to acknowledge that.
“They are a motivation for us to go along and beat them in every Old Firm match, so we miss that opportunity.”
VFR800A8 on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:07 PM
A club is a legal entity.
The Old Firm is a concept, a notion, an idea.
And a very profitable one.
CANAMALAR IT LOOKS LIKE OCD OBSESSION on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:05 PM
I discussed this with somebody else last week. It’s just a name of a new company. Now I don’t think they should have been allowed to use a name so close to the original companies but that’s outwith the scope of Celtic to act upon.
So we have The Rangers Football Club Ltd.
We could I suppose have the club refer to them by there full name, but then nobody calls us Celtic PLC.
So “The Rangers” vs “Rangers”.
As to the £50. For me that’s a disgrace for any team, and any competition. Perhaps the club have simply applied the laws of supply and demand. In that respect do we blame those clamouring for tickets for the high price? Not really, but it’ll still sell out, and you have to ask yourself why? Who is it that really want’s to see this game above all others?
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:07 PM
No historian can be completely objective. It’s just not possible. The best you can hope for is that you are aware of their ideological standpoint and can appraise their work accordingly.
Should be Sevco every day or Sevco 5088
No excuses!
MWD
It will take a further death in the Ibrox family of clubs before the “Same Club” myth is officially debunked.
Heading to Lisbon tomorrow
Any tips or info on going to the estadio stadium ?
Also bar to watch the game on Saturday , any ideas .. ?
JFH,
That’s completely up to you, you are obviously very easily satisfied, I fully expect Celtic to hammer them and anything else will be an embarrassment. I do not respect them or their manager they have done nothing and are made up of waifs and strays that we should be hammering every time, not 9/10.
Babbling shit about respect is only preparing excuses, give them respect and you validate their claims that they can deserve win, you validate the cheating that will be used to help them and used to further claim we are no much better than them. If we’re no much better than them then we’re shite pure and simple.
Ernie Lynch on 5th September 2016 2:15 pm
_____________________________________
The Rangers Football Club died in 2012 and with that the notion of the Old Firm.
Nowhere within the news items on the Official Celtic FC site do they mention the Old Firm in relation to the club they have officially referred to as Rangers Newco, irrespective of what Dermott Desmond was quoted to have said in a Daily Record article.
KTF
Long time ago , I lived in San Francisco . Near where I lived – this slogan was written on a wall .
IMAGINE THEY HELD A WAR AND NOBODY TURNED UP FOR IT ..
Made sense then , makes sense now .
Ernie Lynch
Yes i agree.
But..as a historian, you cannot simply bury things, just because they do not suit your personal political purposes, although many do.
Sometimes….its not clever in the historical environment, to tell it like it is.
Ive been whipped with that very same rope.
It doesnt pay:)
However, id rather do my best to expose a reality, than obscure it.
HH
Ernie
Good try Ernie, but like I said not in from ‘Celtic media’ a throw away remark from a major shareholder, like a lot of a lot of throw away remarks you get from other Celtic Directors Like a lot of pro’s and Celtic supporters who ‘slip up’ and say old firm via habit, mainly before we cottoned on fully to the extent of the cheating.
Like I said ‘dropped’ by the club in officially produced content.
Anyway, I preferred Peter Lawwell’s throw away Rory Bremner line.
CANAMALAR IT LOOKS LIKE OCD OBSESSION on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:05 PM
Weeminger,
then there should be no problem welcoming the newco in the same terms in the Celtic View or should that be different ? this is not 2012 and the Plc were not trying to charge Celtic supporters £50 a pop to watch the newco at the time, they are now.
No,it was 40 quid then.4 years on,50 seem about right.
bournesouprecipe
With all these throw away remarks Celtic will never get their ISO14001 accreditation…
Sadly the OF is radioactive waste that we are struggling to dispose of.
By which i mean, “…of which we are struggling to dispose”.
TURKEYBHOY on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:27 PM
Did we charge the equivalent of £50 to see Gretna when they were newly arrived in the top division? No.
This pricing does suggest a link to dead Rangers but ultimately it will be the fans themselves that justify it.
This is the first time Celtic PLC have been in a position to charge this new club a penny.
No. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I’m trying to remember, really hard when we would last have charged a team we have never played at home £40?
Must be just me being dopey.
MWD
VFR800A8 on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:07 PM
Ernie Eynch on 5th September 2016 1:42 pm
Ernie, you can’t have your cake and eat it! If you believe they are a new club (which I, and the majority of Celtic fans do) then there is no Old Firm; unless it suits your agenda to have a go at the Celtic Board.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
How sure can anyone be that the vast majority of our fans believe that Sevco are a new club? I personally have no idea but will monitor events leading up to Saturday’s match with some interest.
From what I see and hear, there is at least a sizeable minority of our support who buy into then big lie and accept that the Old Firm still exists and makes a league return at the week-end. Perhaps that’s not that surprising the way the MSM has re-written history since 2012 and also our club’s failure to challenge it. Yes, we no longer use the term old firm but the very least we could do is publicly state our reasons for this and demand that the MSM desist from using a term which we as a club find offensive and misleading. We have had countless opportunities to do this over the past four years and did nothing. This suggests to me that the club is quite content to be the green half of the old firm to rake in the bigot pound.
I will not watch the match on Saturday just like I did not watch the previous two matches against the new club. I am prepared to make the sacrifice of not watching the team I have followed for over fifty years because I think it is far more important to me not to condone one of the biggest lies in British sporting history. I accept that I will probably be in a minority amongst our support which is a shame. An even bigger shame is that I can’t see it changing. I fear the cheats have won and the game in Scotland will be as rigged tomorrow as it was yesterday.
CANALAMAR. I dont think I mentioned respect in any of my posts ? I am however a realist and have seen over the years to many shock results to take any football match for granted while at the same time wanting my team Celtic to win it doesnt always work out the way I want it. So the bookies make Celtic faveroute and as there to my knowledge no poor bookies I hope they are right.H.H.
Ernie,
like it when you go all unionisty establishmenty and all controversial.
Makes for good cqn:-)
The old fraud dont ‘tupe’ over wi me
Suprised a wee socialist like you lets any shareholder define your love of Celtic, never mind him wi 44%.
Keep oxygenating ol fraud little wonder your a sucker for marketing, Tony Blair proved rhat
:-)
Its a bad day when a Celtic PLC shaft their own supporters by lying.
Charging 40 and 50 quid for a con.
Imo they should be chased.
Doing deals with the Huns, to shaft Celtic fans….Sick.
Cant respect people like that….The PLC are behaving like Huns, and worse, doing their dirty work for them.
HH
S/be that.
HH
BT Sport 2 at 3pm are showing highlights of the night we beat Man It’s. What a game that was, I was fortunate enough to be in Celtic Park that night. Nakamura’s great free kick and the usual heroics from Boruc.
Just a heads up.
davido
Too right
M6BHOY
Prepare for the wrath of the Celtic uber supporter.
Look at the firepower we have available to us for Saturday. The manager has one of the nicest problems in all of football here; who do you put in, and who do you leave out to do the maximum damage over the 90 minutes?
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/09/blogs/brendans-attacking-options-leave-us-spoiled-for-choice-on-saturday/
M6Bhoy
Good post, im with you 100%.
That match on Saturday, is a bent farce.
Makes me want to shout at the top of my voice…’RANGERS ARE DEID’
HH
proudbhoy
Sketchy memories but think its the Cascais train line – ground likely to be locked up. Once you arrive at the main gate as you look to your left, many of the gates behind that goal are left unlocked.
Bit of an inline to get up there through some rough terrain but turns out there is a path which we followed down:)
HH
cuchulainn
I watched it with in a pub in an Irish pub in Nantes with a Man City fan and a Bayern Munich fan, surrounded by Man Utd fans. What a night!!
Modern bent farces are rubbish.
Wastin your time Paul trying to talk about the Barca game.All the “I wont be attending,I won be watching,”one even does not care what the result will be,are far too busy talking about a game they have no interest in,and wish was not taking place to be bothered with all that Barca nonsense.
This blog has just become conduit for a load of them to spout their anti,anything Celtic does,guff.They will take any chance to revert to the same old”Heated driveway”crap.
Militant little soldiers that they are.
Proudbhoy,
Re. Lisbon.
I was in Lisbon for a stag do in February. There is a good write up about how to get there on trip advisor by a Celtic fan. It is dead easy to get to the stadium.
Basically get to the main train station Cais do Sodre. You catch the train along the coast to a station called Cruz Quebrada, which is just after Belem. Takes about 10 mins in total. Once off the train you will see the floodlights. It is easy enough to get up to the stadium as you go through a large park with the stadium always in sight on the left hand side. (More detailed instructions on the trip advisor page).
When I got there it was all locked up, but when you look on Google Earth there is a building complex just to right of stadium, above the main entrance. I walked round there and asked the security guards if I could go in, told them I was a Celtic fan and they looked like they had had the same conversation a million times before :-) Told me I could go in. I was able to walk all round the stadium, it was immense. Took some pictures, but just being in the place was unreal. Enjoy!!
BSR
‘That game on Saturday, is a bent farce’
Cmon Celtic:)
HH
How do you bend a fart?
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:42 PM
M6Bhoy
Good post, im with you 100%.
That match on Saturday, is a bent farce.
What,like Kenneth Williams,saying,”Oohh Matron”to Hattie Jaques.
Turkeybhoy
Watch closely on Saturday.
If you see a 7ft Redhead swinging a placard that reads….’Its a bent farce, down with this sort of thing’
You know who it is :)
HH
Turkeybhoy
You only want to see the Rangers:)
HH
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:39 PM
I’m sorry the club aren’t shafting anybody by lying.
They’ve set a price for non-ST holders. In order to be shafted you have to actively go and buy the ticket, you’re not forced. In doing so, you’ve either accepted they’re a new team but for some reason are happy to pay an high ticket price (this mentality I don’t understand). Or you don’t believe they’re a new team and think this is a reasonable cost in relation to previous home ticket prices that the club used to charge for Rangers(this I can understand, I just disagree with).
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 2:44 PM
Modern bent farces are rubbish.
But it gives the proselytisers something to fulminate about.
They think endless repetition leads to conversion. Or they just love to berate the “unbelievers”.