Red Star won the Belgrade derby on Saturday, beating Partizan away 1-2. That result allowed them to leapfrog their opponents to the top of the Serb league, Partizan are now two points off the pace having played a game more.
The 1991 European champions have had a flawless start to their domestic campaign, with seven wins from seven. The only spoil to their season was losing out to an unfancied outsider in the Champions League playoff round….. a familiar tale.
Last season Red Star eliminated Bodo/Glimt from the Champions League playoff round. The Norwegians dropped to the Europa, where they reached the quarterfinals before being knocked out on penalties by Lazio.
The League stage was a tough test for the Serbs. A spectacular 5-1 over Stuttgart and a 0-1 in their final game at Young Boys were their only points, as they lost heavily to Inter, Monaco and Barcelona, along with defeats to Benfica and Eindhoven.
Tomorrow’s opponents have so much in common with Celtic. They endured Partizan winning six consecutive league titles, before clawing their way back to relevance in 2014. They have won 10 out of the last 12 titles and are now firmly in control in Serbia. Domestic competition, though, does not provide a landscape to sharpen their tools for Europe.
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HH
As Jahmai Simpson-Pusey isn’t in the EL squad, is he any closer to getting any kind of game time? Can’t imagine City are delighted with the situation as he played a number of first team games for them last seaso
Heard he wasn’t happy about being asked to play in whatever the B team league is called these days.
From the web:
“THE European team with the best win rate in the 2024-25 season was Red Star Belgrade, the champions of Serbia for the seventh consecutive season. The one-time European Cup winners finished with a win rate of 86.5% and scored 123 goals, an average of 3.32 per game. They averaged 2.7 points per game and lost one of their 37 Serbian Super League fixtures. They ended 27 points clear of second place, the highest margin of victory across the entire continent. They were the only team in Europe to reach 100 points. Red Star also won the Serbian Cup to achieve the double.”
J S-P thought that he was coming to a UCL team.
No-one warned him about our reality.
The JSP signing makes little sense. Why play him and stunt the development of Murray ? Why sideline our own CBs in Scales & Trusty to develop JSP for Man City ?
JSP wasn’t brought to Celtic by BR, someone else has meddled in football business and brought a player into the Club who is not needed.
I suspect JSP will be back to City in January we we’ll have spent a tidy sum on this saga.
As it is, the Europa tickets go in general sale at 2:30 pm today. It’ll be interesting to see how many seats are still available.
The bookies have us as favourites for tomorrow which seems a bit nonsensical to me. Belgrade is a big ask for us.
Speaking of the EL, has anyone heard how ticket sales are going?
The deadline to buy a 4 game package was 5.30pm last Thursday and season ticket holders have priority over single game tickets until 2.30pm this afternoon, after which they go on general sale.
Have to say I’m a bit surprised not to have read “hearing we’ve sold only 10 EL packages” type comments or maybe I’ve missed them?
I suppose we can see for ourselves at 2.30.
I think JSP was a “club” signing so I wouldn’t expect to see much of him.
Red Star Belgrade; what a cracking auld name for a classic football side !
Reminiscent of the exotic Euro teams of wur mis-spent yoof; Lokomotiv Moscow, Hadjuk Split, Ujpest Doza… now it’s its the City network affiliates plus GGC and yankee dollars controlling the game.
BAH HUMBUG FC
Bodo glimt won their quarter finals against lazio on pens. They lost to spurs in the semis
Quad
Given the teams you’ve listed, it’s more like my misspelt yoof!
Our opponents in order – Pot – Coefficient
Celtic coefficient is 38
Crvena Zvezda – Pot 2 – 44
Braga – Pot 2 – 46
Sturm Graz – Pot 3 – 23
Midtjylland – Pot 3 – 34.75
Feyenoord – Pot 1 – 71
Roma – Pot 1- 104
Bologna – Pot 4 – 19.446
Utrecht – Pot 4 – 13.43
In theory, we have the chance of a strong finish but you know how that can work out.
Dickie Bird R.I.P.
vale bhoy on 23rd September 2025 10:51 am
Tounekti…is over 6ft tall.
For a wee guy.
____
Yep he’s quite tall. I don’t think we’re quite the short arse team we’ve been the past few years. Nygren looked to be even taller than Scales, I thought. As long as they’re good as well as tall. Bless them all… 🎵 🎵
An Dun
The simple answer re the city loan player is that the hope would be he would improve the team and help us win games.
Thats why any club signs a loan player.
Whether it is Morata at Juventus or Cerny at rangers.
As for Europa tickets I guess time will tell how many we sell.
The club has priced them much cheaper than the other Glasgow team in Europa for a much harder set of fixtures.
If our regular moaners don’t want to attend European games then that is their loss. I do hope those who do buy tickets and want to be there get priority should we progress.
At least those in the stadium will be there to back the team. Especially those who don’t often get to go.
🤣🤣
Glenowen on 23rd September 2025 12:43 pm
Quad
Given the teams you’ve listed, it’s more like my misspelt yoof!
——
LOL; I resemble that remark !
Hrvataki
Thanks for sharing that. I think it is only part of the story.
Red Star really focused on this.
Mitdjylland are playing really well currently.
Utrecht likewise until this past 2 games.
Feyenoord are really flying.
Roma doing very well also. Nt Lazio 1-0
Sturm really strong and won at Salzburg 2-0
Braga really not so good
Bologna mid table but a bit unlucky
Some really tough tests. Is we do get through we will have done well. Even with 24 out of 36 qualifying.
An Dun @ 12:08pm re Jahmai …
I suspect we’ll need to be patient with him.
He’s been in for 7 weeks and is here for a season.
He’s a young player that I feel can come into our environment and really support us.
With the number of games that we play, we need a number of centre-halves and he’s one that his profile and attributes fit how we play.
BURNLEY78 on 23RD SEPTEMBER 2025 1:05 PM
Opta has ours as the third toughest draw in the Europa, but the toughest draw in the EL seems to be always well short of the easiest in the CL in terms of difficulty, which we were last season
Tomorrow’s game will be a marker.
Possibly, a reality check.
I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of spirit we have on the group.
As I said previously, I don’t have huge expectations for our league stage campaign.
We did 12 points last season and it got us into the play offs.
I’d settle for the same again.
Who knows?
We might just grow into a decent outfit in 4 months time, win the play off and go on a wee run.
Time will tell.
My mind goes back to 13th November 1968 when, as a 15 year old schoolboy, I went to Celtic Park for the European Cup 2nd round 1st leg against Red Star Belgrade of Yugoslavia.
As my brother and a couple of mates and I took our place in a packed Jungle, that very special floodlit European atmosphere was electric as 75,000 Celtic fans roared the Bhoys onto the pitch.
A tense first half ended with a 1-1 scoreline after Red Star equalised just before half-time. It was a nervous crowd who welcomed Celtic back on-field for the second half.
It turned out to be 45 minutes of vintage football from Jimmy Johnstone who terrorised the Red Star defence with 2 goals and 2 assists to leave Celtic with a 5-1 lead to take to Belgrade.
Fortunately for the Yogoslavs, Jinky did not travel to Belgrade due to his fear of flying after Jock Stein had made him a promise at half-time in the first leg that if Celtic win by 4 goals he wouldn’t need to travel.
Jimmy held Stein to his promise and stayed at home as Celtic left Belgrade with a 1-1 draw and a 6-2 aggregate win.
I’d take 1-1 tomorrow.
Red Star – now that takes me back – oh what a night – unforgettable
Does anyone know the basis upon which the “toughness of the draw” ranking is calculated?
If it is simply the UEFA 5-year coefficients plus home and away weighting … I am as unpersuaded of “3rd toughest” this year as I was about “easiest” last year.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 23RD SEPTEMBER 2025 1:48 PM
It’s much more complex than that, it uses the Opta Power Rankings:
https://theanalyst.com/articles/power-rankings-your-club-ranked
Was very impressed with Partisan Belgrade’s young attacking team against at Easter Road recently, and thought Hibs did well to get past them. Said at the time on here that the Serbs would have given us problems. And so no doubt will their famous rivals. We are in a tough league, and if we can come close to our performances in both Atalanta and Munich we could very well achieve a half decent result. FC Kairat never really looked like scoring against us, and if, and it is a big if, Brendan can get the best midfield formation in front of our defence, we will have a chance of getting off to to a decent start in our EL campaign. Not sure we have that defensive midfielder in our armoury though, but hard work can compensate for that.
Plenty of Euro experience in our team, so lets take a bit of confidence from that.
tom mclaughlin
Great memories there. Just reading on Celtic Wiki that Jock played 4-3-3 in the second leg in Belgrade, with a midfield three of Brogan, Murdoch and Connelly in front of the defence. And achieved a brilliant result.
Good afternoon all. How the devil are ye?
Burnley78 on 23rd September 2025 1:05 pm
Hrvataki
Thanks for sharing that. I think it is only part of the story.
Red Star really focused on this.
Mitdjylland are playing really well currently.
Utrecht likewise until this past 2 games.
Feyenoord are really flying.
Roma doing very well also. Nt Lazio 1-0
Sturm really strong and won at Salzburg 2-0
Braga really not so good
Bologna mid table but a bit unlucky
Some really tough tests. Is we do get through we will have done well. Even with 24 out of 36 qualifying.
————————————————————————
Following UEFA’s refusal to let Celtic play Braga 8 times, Celtic has withdrawn from the tournament!
The teams we played in the CL last season averaged less than nine points won which would have achieved 27th.
The two worst teams in champions league history, a pot one team that won 3 points, 5 of the bottom 13 teams.
If it wasn’t the easiest draw it must have been very nearly
It’s far more complex than that of course – it doesn’t take into consideration the draw that that each team got, for example, which is why the rankings that opta give us are a better guide
C40me – cheers.
The Opta piece looked comprehensive but I checked out largely after “… is updated daily”
Variables galore.
1. Key Player 1 picks up stupid red in previous game and is out
2.KP2 is nursing a slight hammy and will be rested for the weekend
3. KP3 twisted a knee in training the day before the game and is out
4. KP4, on the plane to Glasgow, sat next to a director whose party animal teenager has unknowingly picked up Covid. KP4 is just “a bit off it” on match day
They are 11 guys who individually and collectively will be up for it and physically ready for it to varying degrees.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 23RD SEPTEMBER 2025 2:34 PM
Of course, but the amount of data they use and their modeling means it’s likely the best guess you’ll get.
You could compare the rankings with the actual outcome to see how accurate they are, if I was Opta I’d be doing exactly that straight after the final games to test the modeling. But the performance of the teams we faced suggests they didn’t get it wrong with us. Perhaps it was even easier than they forecast?
Hrvatski Tim
That is funny.
Annoying the govan lot have an easier lot of games.
5 very winnable : Braga Brann Genk Ludogorets Ferencvaros
Roma Porto Sturm are trickier.
Let’s all do the Huddle
Sorry to hear that re Dickie Bird. Of an era for sure.
Not sure how he would have coped with DRS etc.
I’ve only looked at Braga but there’s plenty of spare seats.
Europa tickets are now on general sale if anyone’s interested.
A wee bit of a queue to get in, but not too bad.
Pricing at £45 per match for general sale looks very silly to me. There’s many thousands of empty seats, selling them at this price won’t shift many.