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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CANAMALAR IT LOOKS LIKE OCD OBSESSION on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:07 PM
Reggie,
If the money was going into the club fair enough but it’s no it’s going into a Plc’s bank account.
You don’t honestly believe every penny raised is going back into the team do you ?
===========
The accounts are a matter of public record. If you can find evidence of any impropriety then I’m sure the entire support will rally behind you.
AULD TAM on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:20 PM
Canamalar –
The Truth
_______________________
AULD TAM, that’s the 3rd time the same link has been posted. The last comment on that was it was insufficient because it was only a “statement” and not “said” by Peter Lawwell.
KTF
WINNING CAPTAINS on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 3:29 PM
Why we’re not playing Rangers…
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/?p=27504
____________________________
Brilliant piece! Nothing like the facts to concentrate the mind on what actually DID happen!
KTF
Afternoon Timland from a seriously hot hun free mountain valley.
It is what it is, it’s too late now for the club or the media to change or tell the truth, it’s only and has always only been about the money.
Another sad thing is I reckon the majority of the support still see them as the same club, I was speaking to a mate in America yesterday, as smart as eggs he is and he said they were relegated, couldn’t get his head around their death, I know for a fact that things like Res 12 are not known to anything like the majority whom still get their info from the smsm.
Pump them full of the OF and they will believe it, sadly.
Canamalar –
I don’t get Rangets ads when I visit the Celtic website, but then again, unlike you, I don’t visit Rangers websites.
Vfr,
Uncredited statements from Celtic are only made by Big Pedro if they are rubbidge.
A bit like the transfers.
HH
CQN sabbatical coming up for me I think.
Did Celtic increase the price of a season ticket this season because there was a new team in the league?
Geordie Munro
Yeah, i do go on about it.
Because there is a huge principle at stake.
Tell the truth and be damned.
Ignoring the con, wont make it go away.
I wont be buying into the cheating.
A smokescreen wont cover the reality.
Its a Lie.
We cannot possibly be playing Rangers on Saturday.
They have ceased to function, or in other words, Rangers are no more.
So…who is lying here, is it me?
No, not at all….I speak the truth, and have no problem doing so.
I dont expect you to agree:)
HH
The prospect of playing the Newco on Saturday at Celtic Park with the SMSM in full OF mode all week is stomach churning enough without the arguments.
TET –
You can’t use a conversation with one American as proof that the majority of the Celtic support think they are the same club. That is just ridiculous.
I go to every home game and have never met one solitary Celtic supporter, before, during or after the game, who thinks they are the same club. Not very scientific but a damn site more scientific than a conversation with one person, especially one living overseas.
Especially for Davidopolous:
I’ve decided I don’t knead any more debate with dough-balls on Saturday’s game. I’m going to use my loaf and go and bake some bread!
KTF
Tgm,
You say that but the way you go about them I’d say you think they are the same club.
You appear to dislike them as much as you did the old mob ;p
HH
DAVIDOPOLOUS –
I predicted exactly this on Friday evening.
EUROCHAMP67 –
No.
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD
Mate you’re one of the biggest perps of the myth on here…
Geordie Munro
Where could you possibly get the idea that i think they are the same club?
Thats nonsense.
Its simple…I hated Rangers, but Rangers are no more.
I also hate the ‘new club’ Sevco
I have no difficulty with it whatsoever.
Sevco…are NOT Rangers.
HH
vfr800a8
Should we just let this rest for a while? What do we have to prove? Roll on next week…
Starry Plough.
How do you come to that conclusion?
Who ever said, different shite, same flies, nailed it for me.
Back to lurking.
I notice many on here saying they won’t be buying a ticket for Saturday which suggests they are not regular season ticket holders anyway……
If any SB holders has any spare then I do hope they pass them on as there are few things better than playing your part as a supporter in beating the team which will bring the largest away following to our stadium…. Whatever they are called.
Judging from the ticket requests I have had from Celtic supporters from all over the UK there are plenty of folk who want to be there to support their team in attempting to win a match against the last team to beat Celtic domestically.
I agree with Tiny Tim earlier that this game is no foregone conclusion. Just as it never was against the previous company / club from Ibrox. These games are never straightforward. Any win will do for me but 4 or 5 goals for the hoops would be welcome.
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD
You’re never done talking about them mate, yer obsessed:))
Yer shouting and bawling about everybody else saying they’re the same club but deep down it’s you who has difficulty accepting yer hated rivals died and deep down you’d give anything to be there on Saturday shouting the odds and losing the nut but yer front of a principled stand has waited ye into a corner…
Methinks the lady doth protest too much:))
Auld Tam,
Again with the drivel, I don’t visit Hun sites but don’t let that making up shite about people you don’t know or have any evidence to make/back up such claims. Unlike you I prefer to base my opinions on knowledge and actions.
Unlike you I’m no a sad sack looking for a victim to vilify.
Up like you Kitalba didn’t prove me to be a dishonourable liar.
Auld Tam
To be honest, it’s not surprising that there are arguments. The topic of the Newco is truly terrible. People are angry and disillusioned. Some of those people see the Celtic board as complicit in the whole sham (to be fair I can easily understand why they see it that way). Others don’t. I hold the Celtic board culpable in being weak in the position they took. I don’t believe they were complicit in all that has gone on but I think they have let us and the Club down at various times with being slow to make their position clear and in a firm manner, and have been remarkably stupid with the pricing for this game – I would have made it £100 per ticket to make sure nobody went ;)
AT
He is scottish not american for starters.
The fact you obviously know smart intelligent supporters means feck all, the majority still get their Celtic news from the smsm, most don’t have a clue about Res 12.
No matter what I posted you would have had a dig at me, you just can’t help yourself.
Auld Tam,
I know, that’s why I asked.
One more time.
The new club is new, started in 2012.
The sectarian, racist filthy support that follow followed the old Rangers, (died 2012), have adopted the new club, it would appear.
That does not make them the same.
Only you can make them the same by accepting their wishes by engaging them as the same, ignoring all factual evidence to the contrary.
Eurochamps67
MygrannyusedtoliveinthathooseCSC
Tgm,
The logic is if Celtic charge a high amount for a sevco ticket they are trying to pass them off as same club because they charged a higher amount for oldco ticket.
Imo this is bollox.
So by applying the same logic, if a poster (or blogger) goes on about the two entities in a similar fashion with similar ‘passion’ then surely they too are claiming they are the same club!!??
HH
Starry Plough
I am obsessed, and cannot for the life of me, see why the Celtic PLC cant tell the truth.
Maybe if they would tell it like it is, i wouldnt be obsessed.
I dont get your reasoning…..I shout and ball about the fact that they are a new club, and really, i just want to be there on Saturday.
That doesnt make sense.
I could have had a ticket for Saturday, I refused it happily.
Ive no interest in seeing those cheating bigots at Celtic Park…Ever.
As for protesting too much, id say thats better than not protesting at all, imo of course.
Its all about opinions, nobody has to agree.
HH
Starry plough,
Exactly. Couldn’t agree more.
Tgm loves a wee literary or film reference.
For me he comes across like the navy seal/ marine guy in American Beauty.
By the end of the movie he’s more into Arthur than Martha. :)
A quid says Tgm is sitting with his hawf and hawf scarf on come high noon on Saturday ;))
HH
Geordie Munro
The PLC are trying to pass them off as the same club…are they not?
If thats not the case….Why charge top dollar?
TET –
Absolute self-indulgent garbage. You started your post claiming the “majority of supporters” think they are the same club. You then demonstrated that by describing a conversation with ONE CELTIC MAN BASED IN THE USA.
I challenged that absurd claim.
Now you’re spitting the dummy and claiming I had a dig at you because I can’t help myself.
Jesus wept. What age are you ?
Canamalar –
You’re last sentence tells me you’ve lost the argument.
Stay away from hun sites and maybe you won’t be so obsessed with them?
Davidoplous, you are right. We should yeast let it go. Moo many people trying to prove a point or get the rise out of someone with half-baked arguments.
KTF
Auld Tam
Its your birthday, chill oot:)
HH
TGM –
You’re right.
See ya.
HUGH BONKLE FAE DALLAS on 5TH SEPTEMBER 2016 1:18 PM
I have a recurring dream where we annihilate them for the next 6 meetings. (6 should be enough). They will then revert to the early 80’s where attendances of 3000 was the norm for them. You see working their way through the divisions they had a cause and that was to show that the gers were Scottish fitba and to assume their “rightful” place. When they realise that they are an irrelevance they’ll again disappear like snow off a dyke. That should see the tribute act fold and join the originals in liquidation, this time there won’t be a rangers 3.0.
Once the stadium is sold and there is a supermarket built on the site I will travel to it every week to do my shop. “So over there son right by the bread aisle that’s where wee Jinky smashed in the 2nd to clinch the league in 1967. Over there by the pies that’s where big Hartson lobbed their goalie. And see over there by the Timpson’s in store concession that’s where Henrik scored his 50th goal of the season.”
In a unique set up for the store the Electronics, Beer and Technology aisles or EBT for short would be situated together. And the cafe would do an HMRC meal deal, a ham and mustard roll with coffee. Only £1 of course.
When Ibrox finally becomes a supermarket in which aisle would you like to see you favourite Celtic goal be enshrined?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Y’all might have noticed over the years that I don’t put a lot of thought into my posts. Call it as I see it,do my best,hit from the heart,etc.
Not so for everyone. Some are either inspired or deep deep thinkers.
I’m quite happy for the above post to be both or either,an absolute cracker,bud!!!!
Auld Tam,
As I said, Kitalba outed you as the liar you are so anything you have to say is most likely just a sad old man looking for attention making up story’s about people you know nothing about. My last sentence nails you. As does your last sentence without evidence your trying to tell people a made up story that you have no way to verify even after I told you I don’t visit Hun sites you still insist I’m wrong and your right, really pretty sad place to be.
Canamalar –
Did you question the other poster who pointed out to you the way cookies work, and said you have been visiting Hun sites ?
No?
Hilarious.
Off out to celebrate.
Goodnight.
There is no coming back from liquidation. The act of liquidation means the end. Once something has ended it is finished. The huns were liquidated, ended and then finished. A totally new club/company is not the same hun from before. The only thing that has carried over is the support. The same low intelligence is carried over in the supporters of the new club. They can make all the claims they want in pro hun media but we all know the truth. The hun is not very bright but deep down they know the original rangers are liquidated, ended then finished. The only thing left for them is the hereditary hate and low intelligence from before.
How many stupid low intelligence Huns does it take to change a lightbulb? 40,001, one to change the bulb and 40,000 to maintain its the same light bulb from before.
HH