…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.
[calameo code=000390171980e8545b80a lang=en page=10 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
926 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- »
thomthethim
23:09 on 13 February, 2013
He wasn’t at home. He was in training camp.
=================================
The rest of his Celtic team mates went to Malaga for a weeks training and played a friendly, to top up fitness levels.
Both them and Efe probably played the same amount of games over the same time.
Efe was suspended for 1 game also.
Unfortunately, as was shown at the ANC, Efe was poor when having to defend, particularly in the final.
However, he caught the eye when coming forward.
mickbhoy1888
Now, now, I did say like we all do…….my problem is remembering things >}
thomthethim
23:09 on 13 February, 2013
I think most of the squad were in training camps or was the Steau Bucharest game was just a figment of my imagination
Commins shld have kept his mouth shut!!! Hope Neil has a word.
My dear,dear,dear,friend..Auld Heid.
Of Course.. Ah hiv MA Bad days..like everybuddy else diz..
Howevahhhh..
In Ma Contributions oan here Ah am writing as a Fan..
which is…Short fur.. FANATIC..
so..
Ye dinna expect fur a Minute, That a Celtic Fanatic wid be a Fount o’
Abundant common sense or Logic..???
Right?
Kojo
Yer pal.. who likes yer style..
Still.. Laughin’.. though
I remember after we lost the eufa cup game in Sevilla, Henke got interviewed by some mob, and he wisny too happy with the defence that night, I wonder if MoN gave him a spanking ?
TET
I wish I had hadn’t remembered now to book up for Turin
Kojo
“You simply Do not Like Me..”
You’ve tried that line before but, since I do not know you, my feelings are, obviously, not personal.
I do abhor your racist posts.
I do dislike your wind up Big C approach which runs contrary to the blog’s stated intention of avoiding lazy journalism and tabloid sensationalism because this healthy blog does not need it.
And I do dislike attitudes that show an unhealthy belief in their own infallibility when they have been shown to be mightily fallible.
But, nothing personal.
CultsBhoy
“we have exceeded expectations..lets CASH IN!”
We may have exceeded your expectations, not mine. Lets just sell the whole team why don’t we?
I agree to sell Hooper, I think we can get a better striker as said earlier. We have the nucleus of a great young team and now we are debt free, assets on the park are better than money in the bank, what do you think?
CQN is a brilliant forum for exchanging views, I suspect many of the disagreements over, players, tactics, signing targets, who we should sell..etc, etc have their basis in the different expectations we each hold.
I expect to win or at least seriously challenge for all domestic trophies. I’ hope for CL qualification..the best I’d ever expect is Europa Cup. I have zero expectations of Champion’s league success as long as we are based in the Scottish set up.
Therefore I have an idea who can achieve that..when folk like Vic outgrow that realistic level of expectation, I feel they need cashed in. They need replaced with players who can win the SPL and give it a go in early stages of CL or maybe go the distance in Europa Cup.
Some folk on here have higher expectations…part of me admires that.
.
praecepta
22:22 on
13 February, 2013
Celtic_First
22:13 on
13 February, 2013
praecepta
22:08
I know, but you can’t download my text messages to your PC and I can’t download yours.
..
Yes you can..
If you or Someone sent my a Anonymous text saying.. Hi..
There is a Very good Chance.. I could tell you where they Live..Works.. Height .. Where they Holiday.. Photos.. Etc Etc..
It’s Scary..
Summa
Auldheid when a player has a howler he should be allowed a few weeks to regain his confidence. On the training ground.
BTW I’m sure it was you I was talking to about school holiday and Saturday dinner schools. I tracked down a photo of the one in Glebe St opposite St Mungo’s Boys School, on the corner of Stirling road, not the corner of Cathedral St as I thought.
I have yet to walk into a boozer after a game where every Celtic fan is in total agreement with the events they have just watched
My expectations of Celtic are to see us win the CL or whatever equivalent there is at the time.
The sooner we do that the sooner I can die happy.
:-)
MWD
Setting Free the Bears
So that’s it settled,then.
You Don’t Like Me.
Kojo.
mickbhoy1888
Fine margins, we were unfortunate last nite, had yer auntie had etc.
like most other Tims, I am surprisingly not too unhappy about the result, we had our chances, we didn’t take them, a couple of mistakes and the rest is history.
But against a team that cost more than ten times as much, we did good imo, and we didn’t need any help for the referee, who had he been honest and given us a pen first off when Hooper was blatently fouled at the first corner, things might have been different, who knows, but as ever, a Tim asking for a level playing field.
HH
Just had an email (literally out of the blue) from a bluenose colleague.
‘How’d you like that spanking by Juve Timmy’
‘Yous can get back to being obsessed about Rangers now’
I took the bait,
‘I enjoyed the game, how were your pancakes?’
Who’s obsessed?
Is this blog from Alex Thompson, OG Raffertys big news?
SffS
There’s a convention around syntax and punctuation which allows us to read the written word in an efficient manner. Replacing that convention with your own version and expecting others to pick their way through it shows a distinct lack of culcha.
Backing up SMS conversations?
http://www.backuptrans.com/iphone-sms-backup-restore.html
Other products available!
WeeOscar4Life @23:30 on 13 February, 2013 “My expectations of Celtic are to see us win the CL or whatever equivalent there is at the time.
The sooner we do that the sooner I can die happy.”
Are you in some big hurry WO4L or have you some really high quality powder that you’re just itching to over-indulge in?
Sell victor and Gary if we have better replacements, if we do not then, as Celtic fans, we should be promoting their retention.
Anything else is proving we have no ambition, apart from making money, is that the level of ambition for those ‘fans’ promoting their sale?
I take it that the JT news is not the nuclear option that OG and Barca have spoken about for some time?
He was only in post, sorry, The Rangers post, for a month or so.
The nuclear option was mentioned before then, him outed while at the DR is not really mind boggling news.
So, more to come then?
Expectation, hope and ambition are different things..
Oh Dear, shocking post last chance, you really have blown it.
Kojo
“So that’s it settled,then.
You Don’t Like Me.”
Remind me again where logical deduction comes on your uncountenanced list?
CultsBhoy loves being 1st forever & ever @23:39 “Expectation, hope and ambition are different things.”
Agreed CultsBhoy. But when they merge and equalise it’ll give us what we crave.
After all did you 20 yrs ago hope, expect or dream of a club called sevco?
What you on about TET?
Ntassoolla
23:35 on
13 February, 2013
WeeOscar4Life @23:30 on 13 February, 2013 “My expectations of Celtic are to see us win the CL or whatever equivalent there is at the time.
The sooner we do that the sooner I can die happy.”
Are you in some big hurry WO4L or have you some really high quality powder that you’re just itching to over-indulge in?
Sad news coming out of Donetsk tonight
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21451432
Ntasoolla
Our hopes, expectations or aspirations had absolutely no effect on the demise of Rangers.
T’was suicide plain and simple
TET I don’t follow.
Something I’m not in on?
Gotta Leave,Steve..
See you folks..
Kojo
Still, Laughin’
New post on RTC
michael
23:47 on 13 February, 2013
New post on RTC
>>>>>>
can’t find it could you post a link Michael.
Can’t believe I just said that under WeeOscar4Life monicker.
Apologies to WeeOscar4Life team, Wee Oscar and Knoxy.
Moonbeams WD
Away to logout and login as me.
Major Doh! Moment.
Not a new post on RTC. A repost of the succulent lamb blog from March 2011.