Celtic will play three familiar opponents in the Champions League group stage: Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Moscow. We have a mixed recent record against Barcelona, eliminating them from the Uefa Cup in 2004, but finishing behind them in the Champions League group stage in the autumn of that year. Barca also knocked Celtic out of the Champions League in the round of 16 in 2008. The Camp Nou is the only ground Celtic have managed to avoid defeat on away Champions League duty.
Gordon Strachan’s Celtic eliminated Benfica from the Champions League group stage in 2007 and again in 2008. They also got the better of Aiden McGeady’s current team, Spartak Moscow , in the Champions League play-off round in 2007.
It is a difficult group for Celtic but each of their opponents will be wary of the Celtic.
475 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- »
PSV only managed to score 9 tonight didn’t quite manage the 10 they put past Feyenoord a couple of years back,
TET
Why say more ambition from PL? So the manager just meekly accepts what’s handed to him?
Can’t see that t.b.h. but it meets the criteria for having a go at PL I suppose.
Stringer Bell,
Associated costs should be relatively light though – staging 3 CL home games plus some performance bonus money for the team – and even then, those costs will be more than offset by additional gate money from the 3 matches and sponsor bonuses :)))
Estadio
Took a few seconds but very chuckleworthy.
B B
Did you see my earlier blogs abt Saturdays leaflets thing?
KDC:
One or two good performances don’t equate with value for money. I think Keano got more from the deal than the club…
Wee Gordon Strachen on tv ” a don’t care who is playin in the world that nt, there will b no better atmosphere than at celtic park that nt”. The wee man never fails 2 talk up Celtic
Bundoran bhoy – many thanks had many of these sites but was wondering if anyone could recommend an installer before I approach an nknown company.
Thoughts on our group, not the best draw we could have got, but not the worst either. It will be very hard to progress from the group I think, even to get 3rd. But with the last game at home, if 2nd or 3rd are still possible, then I would think we would do it. Barca will top easily I would think, and although we will be confident about playing Benfica and Spartak at home, I think they will be thinking the same thing about their home games. I think 4th to 2nd will probably be very tight, with very few points in it. To be honest, if we can just improve our co-efficient, and become a pot 3 team, for next season, I would be quite happy with that. Match day 5 could be huge. Hopefully Barca wont have qualified already, while away to Spartak, and we manage to take something away to Benfica. But if Spartak take points of Barca and Benfica beat us, match day 6 might not be so important. But on the plus side, our first game is at home, and I think we can take the 3 points from Benfica, and Barca are at home to Spartak, so a 3 point head start over Benfica and Spartak might provide enough momentum to qualify. Main thing is, we are playing in the big one and have nothing to prove or lose, and everything to gain!
Sorry Jude
Been offline till tonight. CRC was dealing with leaflet drop. Drop us a mail
HH
galbhoy:
Strachs is persistently first rate as a pundit.
i don’t know about anyone else but when it comes to Europe i want all EPL teams to lose unless they were playing a former club of course.
If this is supposed to be an apology from ITV they can ram it!
“To Celtic fans out there – we mean no disrespect. An ill advised way of us saying we think you’ve got a very tough
draw. Apologies.”
kdc
Who cares? Didn’t even kno Falkirk were playing sevco tonight, more important issues ;-)
west wales celt
I think we are just going to have to disagree on this one
Maybe I have just been too much of a fan for the thick end of 20 years but I see a contribution without 90 mins every game that would be invaluable
And maybe I would just love to see him in the hoops and love to be in paradise to be part of it
See City are trying to buy Javi Garcia from benfica for 24 million. Might make that game a bit easier. He must be good.
galbhoy 75
22:12 on 30 August, 2012
Wee Gordon Strachen on tv ” a don’t care who is playin in the world that nt, there will b no better atmosphere than at celtic park that nt”. The wee man never fails 2 talk up Celtic
didn’t arrive a bhoy but definately left one………..good guy
davie
and the Spanish teams who dodge tax to sign players…
Excitment builds in doss hooses throughout Scotland as sevco enter the draw for the third round of the Scottish Communities League Cup…
pauloantony
I think the fans and more importantly Neil Lennon deserve someone new to give him and the team a lift and to excite the paying customer.
Jonny Russell for me would be a great idea, Del Piero captures the imagination (if he will come) and we do need a centre half as our youth team do not look ready to give us a boy of John Kennedy proportions right now.
We have known these two positions needed strengthening for a long time especially now Stokes is out for a while as one more injury to Hooper (who gets a few) and/or Tony Watt leaves us short for a while and we do need cover for league games. We’ve seen the kinds of challenges put in by our opponents in away matches and I am amazed we haven’t had even more injuries.
It is only common sense.
No one promised us signings but the notion has been put out there by the manager since the tie finished last night that bodies were coming and when the twitterati start telling us things are stalling I get twitchy. I cannot help it.
There will be a lot of wailing of we close business tomorrow night with no – one and with some justification given the amount of money now coming through the door with other assets sitting in the playing staff who can clear debt if that is top priority.
I expect deals to be done because I think the folk running the club would not be so negligent but as we both know this is Celtic and frequently we don’t invest when we ought to.
Even two loan players will do me but if we go into the CL with only the current players at our disposal we are taking a hell of a chance unless we are only there for the appearance money.
just clocked the AZ alkmaar score:
AZ Alkmaar 0-5 Anzhi Makhachkala
(agg 0-6)
Is that a typo!?
well done hearts
you are the diet huns
but
ye done scotland proud
hard luck
west wales celt
Agreed m8
Hail Hail
Why on earth would we be interested in Conor Wickham, don’t get that one at all.
Tony Watt is a better player from what I’ve seen, haven’t seen CW in the flesh.
The need for a CH is still there, but less so after Kelvin Wilsons display last night.
Get the right men in or don’t bring in anyone. Money is tight don’t waste it.
Brendan Rogers is trying to change a decade or more of blinkered stagnation of a once great club. I don’t know if he is up to it. I don’t know that even if he is whether he will be given the time. In fact there are so many things I don’t know about what causes a club to plummet from touching the sky to grubbing around with the mediocre ….but just maybe the guy who took a wrecking ball to the concept of the boot-room, collegiate responsibility and co-operation and respect for opposition, fans, players, and history.
Brendan should not be judged on his first few months. Thank God we didn’t do that (albeit in different times) with The Big Man. Great clubs usually have great histories, but they definitely have a vision of a great future.
I think that Brendan Rodgers will have that as a huge part of his strategy. If everyone else has, then early reverses will be discounted and he will be given time.
Anything else would seem perverse and self-defeating.
Mind you the EPL is the equivalent of chaos theory in the laws of the football universe.
Status, kudos, bling and toys for the boys seems to be the currency of the boardrooms battle for trophy clubs rather than trophies. They’ll survive as long as Sky needs to sell dishes.
The self-serving cesspit that functions south of the border leaves whatever shenanigans occur in Scotland as barrow boy bluster.
Hail Hail
Estadio
Greensideup is also Neil Lennon
22:04 on
30 August, 2012
Naka did it from twice the distance and the bus was moving, so can we have Naka back for those CL nights? please
gsu
+++++
Naka had about 10 goes at it though and the bus was moving at a steady pace, as opposed to the ‘parked bus’ we face every week
In other news: just rewound the ESPN highlights re ‘Burleys comments’ and can say that he did not say anything of the sort (what Tom McLaughlin said). Anyone with Tivo/Sky+ – just punt it to 53:50 game time to check it yourself, or from 53:20 to get the full context
PSV won 9-0 tonight in the Europa league!
Helsinki drew 3-3 at home to Atletico Bilbao tonight also
Now booked to be in Barcelona with my family 22-26 October :D
Now heard Kenwyne Jones and Berra have had medicals.
Hmmmmm
galbhoy 75
WGS deserves every plaudit, a lot of the support werent sure of him when he arrived, but three titles and 2 last 16’s in the champions, that soon changed. Every time he is doing the pundetry on Celtic games, there’s never a negative word. love the wee ghuy.
PC67
Magnificentseven
22:16 on
30 August, 2012
galbhoy 75
22:12 on 30 August, 2012
Wee Gordon Strachen on tv ” a don’t care who is playin in the world that nt, there will b no better atmosphere than at celtic park that nt”. The wee man never fails 2 talk up Celtic
didn’t arrive a bhoy but definately left one………..good guy
==========================================
wee gordon
hated him as a player because he took the pish oot of us
as a manager
LEGEND
neil
strachan
is the standard
go
fourth
Snake
£15 a ticket for Adults, £10 concession i think. Green wants all the big earners out but other clubs can’t match the wages these guys are on over there (Bocanegra £18k a week, Wallace £12k, Elbows £18k). Bentfoot was on £12k a week but i heard he accepted a severance payout of circa £350k to leave on a freebie
All is not well behind the scenes. If Green doesn’t bring in more players for Fatty Arbuckle tomorrow, then watch the toys hurtling out the pram
BBC Scotland online is really annoying me.
Last night, they squeezed the Celtic result onto their sports homepage but only after Arbroath 0-2 ICT and Queen’s Park 2-1 Dundee. Abysmal editorial decisions, showing no understanding whatsoever of what was really newsworthy on the night.
Tonight, they run a McCoist apologia over the suspended three-game touchline ban sanction (why bother?), making sure to quote McCoist’s reassurances that he didnae mean it. There is no reference to the very real repercussions of his remarks that Raith Rovers and Fife Constabulary had to contend with in the following days. Airbrushed away.
Newspapers need punters and advertisers to hand over cash. The BBC does not. We all have to pay for it. I am about to renew our licence now. I have said before that, for me, Radio 4 and Radio 3 are worth the fee. I cannot think of a single BBC television programme that I have felt motivated to watch in the last three years, although I must have seen the odd bit of football I suppose. The point is that I have to pay whether I like it or not and so does nearly everybody else. What is BBC Scotland’s excuse for its Sevco sycophancy?
magnificentseven
Would love him to see him come back at sometime and do the half time draw and get the reception he truly deserves he is one off us and always will be
kdc
22:17 on
30 August, 2012
just clocked the AZ alkmaar score:
AZ Alkmaar 0-5 Anzhi Makhachkala
(agg 0-6)
Is that a typo!?
+++++
Nope, although I think they’ve spent around £100m on players in the last two years.
Samuel Eto’o on £300k a week anyone?
snake plissken
22:22 on
30 August, 2012
Kenwyne Jones would tick a few boxes, big, robust and direct. Wages?
Berra less sure about him, is he better than anyone we have?
Brian McNally @McNallyMirror
Strachan on #Celtic v Barca: “ I don’t care what games are on that night, in the world- the atmosphere at Celtic Park will be the best.”
Expand
Reply Retweet Favorite
Celtic Underground @celticrumours
Remember where you heard the name Ambrose first.
Expand
Reply Retweet Favorite