…OK, I suppose we have to mention them.
I did a preview for STV on Monday and was asked what my expectations were for last night but had to admit I had zero expectations. This season I hoped we would get into the Champions League group stage, or at least, the Europa League. We remarkably overshot. My real hope for the latter stages of the tournament was that we would exit without taking a hiding.
Technically, 0-3 at home is a bit of a hiding but it doesn’t feel that way for several reasons. The first half was the best football we have seen from a Celtic team in years; far better than either of the performances against Barcelona, and on a par with anything under the Strachan and O’Neill eras. Unlike Barcelona, this match plan was flawed, but it was an honourable flaw.
The “gamble” to play Efe is one which Neil may consider, in time-honoured Celtic tradition, will be inscribed on his gravestone. When you face Juventus you need to take gambles; if they all worked, clearly, they were not gambles. This one didn’t, we learn and move on. The player put on a brave performance and I’m very proud of his achievements this month.
With an away game at the daunting Juventus Stadium to come, many considered that our best chance of qualification would be to win the home game, and we clearly went about our business with the intention of doing just that. Had we faced Juve in the group stage it is possible we would have left fewer spaces at the back. Any watching Barcelona players must have marvelled at how big Celtic Park looked on TV last night compared to their visit two months ago.
We don’t know how good Juventus would have been if we camped in front of our own penalty box, as they did for long periods, but they were a more-than-effective counter-attacking team.
It is hard to pinpoint what we were missing. Georgios Samaras would have played if fit and would have given us the height-dimension up front we lacked without him. He would also have given Gary Hooper the support he badly missed. Charlie Mulgrew’s status as Best Corner Kick Taker in Europe is at risk if he doesn’t take corner kicks until Kris Commons has innumerable tries.
Juve were prepared for the Celtic threat from corners and behaved illegally throughout the game. One of the referees should have had the strength of character to deal with the problem but they were sadly unable.
There were many positives. Emilio is back to his very best. On one occasion in the second half two Juve players were goal-side with only Forster ahead. Emilio made-up the five yard deficit and stopped the attack. His pace, skill and decision-making were first class.
Kris Commons repeatedly took-on a crowd of Juventus players before releasing a team-mate or making space for a crack at goal. He looked like he enjoyed the occasion but didn’t get the clear-cut chance his play deserved.
Lustig and Matthews are both excellent right-sided defenders with pace and skill. Kelvin Wilson did well, as did Efe for long periods. Fraser had little to do all night but had no chance with any of the goals. Victor Wanyama bossed everyone in his vicinity, and this was some vicinity. Roy Keane played 13 games for Celtic and, after an unfortunate debut, I remember thinking “This is what all the fuss is about”. Victor elicits the same sentiment; more on the consequences of this another day.
On Friday 1 March the Lisbon Lions will be at the Kerrydale Suite providing commentary and answering questions on their magnificent European Cup final win in 1967. This has never happened in 46 years since that game, to say it is a unique opportunity fails to tell the whole story.
The event is part of our 125 4 125 campaign – central to reinvigorating the charitable spirit which is part of the club we love. It will be a family occasions, tickets are available at £10 for adults and £5 for children. The night has been organised by several fans working in conjunction with the people at Celtic Charity, so please do your best to support this great occasion. Individual tickets or tables are available, details here.
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che
19:51 on
13 February, 2013
has traynor walked away yet?
>>>>>>>>
Don’t you mean slide away?
No Doubt Jabba will say it was “Off the Record”.
Hahahahahahahahaha
coat……….. …… …… …
Nothing on the beeb so it must have been a non story.
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/succulent-lamb-rack/4144
Watching Madrid cheating just like Juve…Mancs too experienced to take it..our Bhoys will be wiser next time..all part of the learning curve
Welbeck scores
1 nil UTd
Long time lurker first time poster. Took so long in getting registered I will just say hello for now.
RVP movement for the goal superb…experience!
LAZEE BASHED TART
Welcome!
Man marking at corners – fail
Not a fan of Madrid, but the tenor of the Sky commentary is making it difficult to support United here…
ICT 1 up
movement for the goal is what 25ml gets you
Kinda goin for united the nite thats how much i hate mourinho
Happy to see MU beat Real but my one hope ( apart from miracles! lol) is that Barca wins the trophy. HH
Twice Ronaldo has shown incredible skill to bullet perfect 20 yd passes off his chest
Cultsbhoy
Thanks!
As i suspected and expected.
We all knew the fat man was a liar.
Nothings changed.
And nothing will have changed tomorrow.
A bit of a non story rught enough.
Bhoys
When attempting to understand S Dougall’s view of last night blatant cheating ,IMO you have to look at it from the point of him being a long standing MIB in a corrupt Scottish game .
Nearly every journo ,player and presenter in the English media today spoke of being baffled as to why the ref saw no fouls ,even JL Valli a Juve legend admitted that Celtic should have had at least 2 pens and was at a loss to explain why they had not been given ,this against the backdrop of his teams match fixing previous .
Yet an ex Scottish ref appears on almost every Scottish media platform to defend the indefensible ,Now why would that be ?
I am convinced that if any ref had allowed that to go on against an English team in the CL ,to a man the whole country would have damned him for it .Yet here in Scotland an ex ref comes on to argue the refs case ,It’s not as though he would have been criticising any of his old colleagues ,so why does Dougal find it hard to see what nearly everyone else watching saw .
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Come on Peter Lorre shoot
Real equalise
Ronaldo
1 each
Great header from Ronaldo makes it 1-1
ChicoML2 @chicoML2
RVP could have been killed by that Wonaldo stwike.
Love him or Hate him, Ronaldo is a player. Great header of the ball.
Philbhoy – It’s just the beginning!
Its a bigger story for Huns…who will be unhappy that their \Director of Communication colluded with Agent Whyte to fabricate stories that diverted their attention from the real story of their clubs imminent demise…Huns with Brains will be livid
stephbhoy @18:03 we outplayed Spartak without Wanyama and despite the inept performance of Ambrose. Wanyama opted out of the Spartak game by picking up a needless booking.
Wilson and Ambrose cannot turn, cannot accelerate and cannot control the ball in under 5 yards and 5 touches. Trouble is Ambrose thinks he can. He has poor balance and this was exposed by his compatriot Emenike in the Spartak game. He was brushed aside like a child, by a man who is smaller than him.
What does it say to the rest of the squad when jaded and injured players get the nod ahead of them?
I expect a rush to the treatment table from many of our “top” players.
Scott Brown will hang in and give his all in 3 weeks. Then hopefully he’ll submit to the treatment he needs. Trouble is he doesnt strike me as a man who will pick up many nominations for “patient of the year” from the nursing staff.
Great free kick goal for Shakter against Dortmund
Shaktar 1-0
Larssonesque
Both goals were the subject of well taken headers although from a defensive point of view both Ramos + Evra will feel they should do better.
Real Madrid keeper looks hopeless
I thought we were magic last night, much rather we played honestly than the cynical Juve way.
We shall overcome!!
Lesson learned , even further next year.
Ps See us support, no one can beat us!
Real all over United
Real should’ve had a pen there.
Equaliser for Dortmund from Lewandowski.
Re our game last night, we played brilliantly for 75 minutes. IMO apart from early goal it was a superb performance. Lenny will get stick for playing Efe, it was a gamble which backfired. Equally he took a gamble on playing Izzy whilst all of us on here were saying Lustig & Matthews. Izzy was superb as was Wilson & Victor. So Lenny got it right on that one. I just want to say how proud I am of Lenny & The Bhoys and how much I love the Celtic.
That was a stonewall penalty for RM there.
Lichsteiner would have been proud of Jones’s challenge on Di Maria.
Cultsbhoy
“Huns with brains will be livid”
What both of them? :)