Celtic turned in a mature away European performance this evening as the subjugated Qarabag in the heat of Baku. Chances were at a premium for both teams. Qarabag were reduced to hopeful shots from outside the box, while Celtic took an hour to fire their first real effort, but had the best two chances of the game.
Celtic were nervous looking in the opening 15 minutes, as they struggled to retain possession, allowing Qarabag ample opportunity to build attacks. Midway through the first half Craig Gordon attempted to punch with his left hand but missed and, fortunately, the ball hit his right hand and fell to safety.
29 minutes in Qarabag’s best player, Almeida de Oliveira forced a save from Gordon from outside the box but although the Celtic keeper had to stretch to reach it, it was a save he would have expected to make. A minute from the break Nir Bitton attempted an audacious chip from the halfway line which the keeper backtracked to stop.
10 minutes after the break El Jadeyaoui had the first attempt of the game which was made inside the box but Gordon saved easily. Then Gary Mackay-Steven drove across field before passing to Stuart Armstrong, who took a step inside the box before shooting over the bar.
On 66 minutes Qarabag found a man in space inside the box for the first time but by the time El Jadeyaoui took a touch Dedryck Boyata was on hand to block.
Seven minutes from the end Stefan Johansen made his trademark lung-busting run into the box to assist Armstrong but Stefan was a tad ahead of the pass and ended up shooting wide while stretching back.
James Forrest had the best chance of the game four minutes from time. He ran at the Qarabag defence from 40 yards out, rode one challenge, and found himself clean through with the keeper to beat but instead of shooting from 12 yards he tried to square to Griffiths (who was never going to get the ball) and the chance was missed.
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Delaney’s …. you couldn’t have told me that before I started winding him up?! :)
but, I’m an old guy (almost 50!) … surely, he wouldn’t hit an old guy, and a tim! and if he does, its just as well I’ll be traveling with my own doctor when I (hopefully) meet Canamalar at CQN corner in September! KT will take care of me!
Good controlled performance defensively and it could have been more comfortable had we taken our chances. Delighted to be through
With the new prize money increases from UEFA, losing in the play offs sees us net 3M euros and winning guarantees 2M euros.
No excuse to not go out and strengthen for the European campaign which lies ahead.
Shropshirejambo…thank you for your earlier post congratulating Celtic on our progress to the Champions league play off round.
PFAyr
Two finer Ayrshire infiltrators, you couldnae hope to meet. Great company. Ger is totally aff his napper. Agreed haha.
Thanks to all for co efficient updates. Site improving as well now.
Even better news now regarding potential opponents.
Doc,
Tierney will be loaned out by December. about time a loaned youth proved succcesful development.
HH
Good result this evening and composed for most part, not surprised that izzy not exposed at back, not asked to play like a winger will do that!!! will the doubters stop the izzy cannot defend crap now?? Hope so!! We are doing alright and hopefully we can progress to c/l still lots to do, either way i think big vvd will be for the off so don’t think building hopes that he will say is useful, i imagine we’ll get another lined up p.s. would lime bitton to get extended contract, bhoy is lovely to watch, hh
Sorry for the location of this link, but if you scroll down there is video of the Ronnie Roar from tonight
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ronny-deila-hails-battling-celts-6201634
Mike,
We’ll see the best of the big man next year, these games have come too quick. The 4-2-3-1 relies on the 3 providing the chances for the 1 and this just isn’t happening, so as you indicated bring in a forward coach. Who he may be is up for debate, either that or the existing 3 aren’t up to it and we need to change. Celtic face the most important investment decisions of the last 45 years.
Who would be Perdo?
seems a bit of confusion over our possible opponents – is it Dinamo Zagreb or Partizan Belgrade. Other four options are consistent
….PFAYR SUPPORTS WEEOSCAR on 5TH AUGUST 2015 9:35 PM
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You could give Cifcti some good advice, just saying…:)
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By the way you ain’t replied to Cqn Coupon e-mail yet.
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Keep the Faith!
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Hail Hail!
MiT
I was 50 in June. Canamalar is a couple of years older than us. Like all Partick Tims, he is a good guy.
Paul67,
Make sure you have switched ioff the round robin Allgorithm on your vm’s. IThe supervisor handles all i/o anyway
HH
We have been working all day on the site. As I mentioned last night we have identified some issues and reckon we know what we have to do to sort the problems.
Paul upgraded the new server at the end of last week as we quickly reached capacity on the new, bigger server. Before tonight this additional increase saw us at its peak use a mere 47% of capacity.
This afternoon saw that figure increase substantially. The good news is that the site didn’t crash.
We will make the changes and you will see a big improvement over the coming days. Will be glad when it’s all sorted!
JCA … I agree with you … I think NC is doing okay … it is the other three (SA, SJ and GMS) who are making him look poor through their lack of movement off the ball.
PS… I dont recall your blog name form before …are you a ….? :)
I fancy drawing the Albanians we aint been there for 35 years.
The last picture with Biton and Lustig here is a beauty.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-match-reports/pictures-one-final-champions-league-6201541
Good night all
Weefra \ 0 /
cyber hug sir.
But the “you need to be logged on to post a comment” error message having jyyst posted is sweary word annoying
HH
If we are looking for a coach for the forwards, I can think of one bloke who might improve them.
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Name of Larsson.
we are currently ranked 46th in Europe. Our opponents:
Dinamo Zagreb – 88
Macabi Tel Aviv – 98
Malmo – 122
Partizan Belgrade-136
King Zog – Albania – 224
Astana – 286
Sevco – 666
Delaneys,
just turned 50,jeezo,
did you have a milk round and a paper round as a wean
I’d rather avoid Kazakhstan ..
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Although .. it’s a very nice place…
:)
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Tel Aviv is a fair trek, but I reckon they’re the weakest team ..
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TBH .. Don’t really care who we get .. Just glad we’re in the draw…
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Happy Dayz
Remember our friend John from Kazakhstan? He was criticised for supporting Celtic against Karagandy despite being from Kazakhstan. He was at the game tonight.What a man.
Don’t want any Albanian team. Mental fans. Duda and Legia Warsaw will testify.
Cosy cornerbhoy….
I’m not sure if I could keep up with yourself and your bhoy, I’ll give it my best though. Catch up at the hootenanny.
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Kip for me, well done the tic.
Delighted we made it through. Was a bag of nerves throughout the game, anticipating some ludicrous call from the referee or some weird deflection.
A few things to learn fron tonight. Izzy controlled their danger man by staying tight on him. On the other hand, Broonie and Lustig gave No. 25 oceans of space to set up moves. Virtually all the potential threats emanated from him.
To many times, we opted to dribble rather than pass, only, to give the ball away. As for James Forrest, it is inexplicable why he didn’t shoot at a gaping goal.
All in all, a very disciplined performance, with the team getting stronger as the game wore on.
As for the next round, a few seeds have dropped out, changing the equation for us. We avoid the dangerous Apoel and Bate, could end up in the same stadium we played Karagandy, or could have a short trip to Malmö, who had a superb result against Salzburg. The Albanians have a very good striker, Hamid Salihi, who has scored at least 5 goals so far this year in the CL. He bears watching. The Croats are a team to avoid, I think.
Roll on Friday.
Tel Aviv would not be good for us.Avoid.
HH
Greenin …
I flew out to my mum’s place on the weekend…. after my dad passed away a few years ago, she recently sold their house, and moved into a condo …. so she was cleaning out a lot of my dad’s stuff …. so, this past weekend, I went through a load of his old celtic books and dvd’s …
last night I watched the dvds of HL’s last season and last game ….. got a bit misty eyed!
sadly, I dont think he would leave his current job for a coaching gig for us … but I expect that he will manage us one day.
Gordy
Sent up lums when I was 5. :)
All hail (hail) Bert Kassies !
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http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2015.html
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4th Qualifying Round for Champions (10 teams)
Seeded teams coef. Unseeded teams coef.
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FC Basel Sui 84.875 Maccabi Tel-Aviv Isr 18.200
Celtic Sco 39.080 Partizan Belgrade Srb 14.775
APOEL Nicosia Cyp 35.460 Malmö FF Swe 12.545
BATE Borisov Bls 35.150 Skënderbeu Korçë Alb 5.575
Dinamo Zagreb Cro 24.700 FK Astana Kaz 3.825
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Apologies for the earlier confusion
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fleagle1888
….PFAYR SUPPORTS WEEOSCAR on 5TH AUGUST 2015 9:35 PM:
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Apologies, just caught up with my e-mails.
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Keep the Faith!
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Hail Hail!
Only found at 4.30 that I do not have BT Europe, even though I am a BT subscriber. Dinner gobbled, ran for the bus and into town to the Bad Ass Cafe. Good crowd in attendance. Squeaky bum time throughout but we got there in the end. Very professional performance, Nir Bitton was my MOM.
There was a ten minute spell in the first half where we dominated, Qarabag were really under the cosh. It would be great to put teams under that kind of pressure more often. A prolific goal scorer or a Lubo/Petrov type midfielder is vital for us to progress in the group stages, if we get there.
Thunder Road: I told you Cloghercelt would love your work. You have a fabulous talent. Don’t forget the fadas:-)
There was me enjoying a peaceful lurk; and all of a sudden my sanity is called into question by two fine bhoys. Dearie me!
PF, sorry I couldn’t make market tonight and DD, I will see you soon.
Very content with the performance tonight and even happier at the other results which ensure that the highest rated side we can face is FK Astana from Kazahkstan.
HH
Right Pete cheque book out we need another striker hh
Lots made of malmo result against sburg, worth remembering their starting 11 is depleted when compared to last seasons team at least 5 have moved on to other clubs… The devil is in the detail, but no matter who we get it will be a hard game
hh
WC
Thanks for setting my CQN profile to “real-time” so that I dont have to wait. Your a good man :-)
RealtimeClliqueCSC
they are the lowest rated (286)! Tel aviv (98) is the highest