…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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moonbeams wd. kano 1000 \o/ supporting neil lennon 100%. champions. c’mon wee oscar.
05:47 on 14 February, 2013
Thank you for proving my point regarding things being taken the wrong way.
.
2Macaroons..Said:
It’s an open txt massage to the world,
..
Are You Avram Grant..?
If You are..
Isn’t it Ironic Don’tcha think..?
Summa of MassageParlourGamesCSC
summa of sammi….
06:00 on 14 February, 2013
I’m blaming predictive keyboard. :-)
Good morning Timland.
Happy Administration Day.
For any lurking hun’s
Roses are red
violets are blue
yer team’s deed
GIRFUY
Away tae work.
Tell you what else isn’t ironic.
10.000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
That’s just daft.
twomacaroons
But I didn’t take it the wrong way!
I took it my right way.
MWD
Roses are red
Bluebells Urny Blue
Craig is awe Whyte
He came and… you
Good morning friends from a dry but grey East Kilbride.
1 year on!
Only 2 days till I am back at The Park cheering on the Champions. Can’t wait.
Jobo
MWD
Your right way, what a strange thing to say.
If you say so. Carry on.
twomacaroons
What is said was said so!
#HappyAdministrationDay
MWD context and comprehension expert
.
I Don’t like the Whole Twitter thing..But I don’t mean to Denigrate those who Do..and for those Who do Tweet..Denigrate means ‘Put Down’..
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Summa of TweetOfaTwitOrTwitOfaTweetCSC
you allright summa ? betcha you missed sammi the other night. still hacked off we should havebeaten them
Jackie
Its 3-0 at half time. Not over yet.
2 quick goals from Sammi and Juve will brick it!
MWD
MWD –
Like Kilmarnock at Rugby Park but on a slightly larger scale…
.
2Macaroons&aPacketOfCrisps..
10,000 Spoons..???
So Your Not Avram Grant.. Your Uri Geller..:-)
Summa of BentSpooningCSC
Guten Morgen from a cold and overcast Nordrhein Westfalen, Happy Admin Day.
Craigy was Whyte
Charlie was Green
The huns became zombies
That’s plain to be seen
SSN reporting that a woman has been found dead at the home of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius by South African police.
MWD
I can tell your one of those ‘my way’ type of guys.
Your thinly veiled Hun accusation did not go unnoticed, but tis water off a ducks back. You are the atypical cqner, now do one an don’t about me
cheers mwd
the long wait doesn’t help
Summa…
Alanis Morrisette not so ironic CFC.
.
JackieMac..
Al is Goed..
Re; Missing Sammi..
Until about 24Hrs before the Game.. I feared Juve could Give us a Hiding.. 2 or 3-0 went through my Mind..
I never really went along with: If we can beat Barcà..We can Beat Juve.. Mindset..
Don’t think I have ever seen it so Positive before a Euro Tie on here..(We have Lenny to thank for that)..
Come match day I convinced myself a 1-1 Draw would be a Good result.. And we could do it without Sammi.. As it came to Pass.. I think we needed His Experience after 3 Mins more than we ever have..
We Got Mugged.. But We Mugged Barcà..TWICE..
Funny enough.. The Juve match reminded me of the Seville Final.. Minus Henrik.. Ha ..
Summa of MissingEnigmaCSC
Good morning CQNers,
In life you’ve got to learn your lessons and the most obvious lesson to be learnt from Tuesday’s game is that we need to change our strategy of relying so heavily on corners for goals.
.
Rosie is Dead..
Violet is Blue..
Our Horses don’t look too Well..
They will make Nice Stew..
Summa of ShergarCSC
You don’t have to be a mastermind contestant to recognise Jim Traynor is, was, and always will be a manipulative and treacherous man, it’s obviously in his nature and as such I find nothing shocking in the latest exposé by Alex Thompson.
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4794374/Bhoyve-started-so-Ill-finish.html
Morning all!
Jabba in cahoots with Whyte?!
That’s nothing!
Take a look at this! It’s worse than we thought!
It’s on Wiki – so it must be true!
He is about 600 years old,[4] a Hutt crime lord and gangster who employs a retinue of criminals, bounty hunters, smugglers, assassins and bodyguards to operate his criminal empire. In his palace on the desert planet Tatooine, he keeps a host of entertainers at his disposal: slaves, droids and alien creatures. Jabba has a grim sense of humour, an insatiable appetite, and affinities for gambling, slave girls and torture.[5]
Is Alex Thomson aware of this?!
Needs to be put out in the public domain!
HH!!
twomacaroons
No thinly veiled Hun allegations from me.
If you know my history you will know I call a Hun a Hun without fear or favour.
I was pulling your leg.
Woke up in that sort of mood.
#HappyAdministrationDay
MWD
Jobo
You’ve got it.
Lets just watch Sammi go. :-)
MWD
‘GG
03:24 on
14 February, 2013
OG story may have been the AT revelation of Jabba clearing his articles with Craig before printing.
AT blog on Ch4 If I find a link I’ll post it. Twitter has been all a tweeter about it.
It even prompted RTC to put aside his single malt and pipe and slippers to comment.
——————————————-
Must have missed that GG, where did RTC comment?
HH
I hope OG Rafferty’s story isn’t about Traynor.
I’m hoping for something explosive.The Traynor story is only confirmation of what many have suspected over the years. The Scottish press has been full of Hun apologists for decades.
The story about Traynor will cause no shame or embarrassment to The Huns as they have none.
Traynor will not suffer as a result of this as he is now an officially paid Hun. He must have known that his journalistic career was over in the MSM after working in a PR role for the Huns.
Traynor will issue more tabloid statements via the Hun websites and the Huns will love him for it. In the next few days he will be loved even more by the Hun hoardes as he will spin the Craig Whyte angle as trying to get the Huns a fair hearing in public and” I was trying to get Rangers justice” line.
This story will die a death in the next week as this is Scotland and this type of thing is best swept under the carpet.
Jabba trying to argue that getting CW to approve stories before publication was normal practice etc….
Yes, we know Jabba. That is the very definition of “Succulent Lamb” and precisely what the “Internet Bampots” and PMGB have been saying for years.
All of the MSM feed from the same trough.
Greedily feasting on the titbits thrown to them by SDM and his cohort.
The MSM are supposed to investigate and report what is actually happening. Thereby uncovering stories rather than simply printing PR from Ibrox.
If they had done so, perhaps Celtic & other fans wouldn’t be celebrating “Administration Day” today.
Jabba, you played a huge part in the downfall of RFC.
Perhaps we should be sending you flowers and a “Thank You” card….
Happy Administration / Valentines Day Everyone
Violets are Blue,
Roses are Red,
The Huns Failed to exit administration
Any now they are DEAD….
rangers then, sevco now, zombies forever
Off to work
HH
Accounts in the red
Your noses are blue
You know f’ all
Because of Jabba and Hugh
Paperwork sorted yet?
Murdochbhoy, yermanfromMK
07:16 on
14 February, 2013
………………………
Young John must be a close relative of Bo’nessian Jock Savage…..Mr Celtic to those that new him………..(he was my lifter ower in the early sixty’s)
Paddy T
Allgreen
I agree completely .
O.G. Has been guilty on a couple of occasions of over hyping the “nuclear ” explosivity of coming stories.
He obviously has great contacts for sourcing the stories ahead of the exposé .
But the actual effect of these stories is that they are ignored by the majority of Sevcovians after a few days.
TT
So Traynor wants us all to believe he was stringing agent Whyte along all the time and not really prostituting himself for a job at the now defunct Rangers FC? . The revelations certainly put his resignation rant into perspective. An impartial journalist who was so sickened by what he perceived as unfair treatment of a football club that he resigned under a principle? Or a weasel who was hoping to ingratiate himself to the support of his new employers? The only reason you may doubt the latter as being the true reason is that the support would need to be gullible in the extreme to buy into such obvious behaviour. Hmmm. He will do very well under Green. Two cheeks of the same ass who are fully aware that their motivation to make money from a sectariain infested cesspit full of gullible idiots is easier by feeding them what they crave. Defend the indefensible, throw a blanket over the truth, add in the odd gesture to irritate Celtic, ala training facilities for our opposition, and the ‘fool me once fool me twice’ idiom is made a whole lot easier to demonstrate.
Is there another support in world football who would allow themselves to be taken in again so easily, and so quickly? The answer is no, but then again there is no support in the world so entrenched in hatred of everything outside their own front door that they are blind to what is staring them in the face. Green is every bit as devious as Whyte, but had the foresight to realise that if he told the hordes what they wanted to hear, his task would be made easy. It worked a treat, and continues to do so. These were the people who protested his takeover, threatened boycotts, yet who now seem happy to watch him bleed them dry so long as he continues with the pro Rangers – anti everyone else soundbytes.
They say you end up with whom you deserve in life. By god how this lot deserve each other. Season ticket renewals up soon. Watch for the increased prices, but more importantly, the verbal diarrhoea that will proceed the ticket sales. Will they buy it? Fool me three times? Surely not.
The Huns have got a big blue nose
They’re howling at the moon
Rangers till I die in January
Then Sevco forever in June
Looks like the big Chill is over in the Chilterns, much milder today, lying snow gone…
Murdochbhoy, YerManFromMK @ 07:11,
Performing well at set plays were a huge part of MO’N’s success, both in attack and defence. I believe if Celtic are going to punch above their wieght (like we have done ths season) the are a must.
We were dire with set plays during the Mowbray era and although we played some great football, with some notable exceptions the results were far from good enuff.
The problem as I see it was KC crossing the corners straight into Buffon’s six yard box.
I’m guessing NL wanted Charlie’s height and heading ability in the box but I must agree with Paul67’s lead Mulgrew shoud have taken the kicks.
As an aside I thought Juve defended brilliantly from our set plays.
Hail! Hail!