…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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Zombies are dead,
Rangers were blue.
Sevco are a tribute act,
‘cos they pissed off The Revenue!
I wondered what news could be so important that ssn had to stop fat sally mid sentence whilst he was praising charles green to the hilt….
alas, it was only for an ad break
Noonelikesyouandnoonecares
In some perverted desire to paint our Celtic players as naive and at fault, we are seeing an attempt to paint the Juve tactics as culturally relative, normal, and usually ignored.
They are not. The practice used by Juve defenders is explicitly proscribed by the rules and it has resulted in penalties awarded. Indeed the last time Juve did this at CP, such a penalty was awarded, when Chris Sutton was manhandled by Montero.
Yes, there is a common practice of blocking and tugging at set pieces but defenders are usually at pains to make their attempts far less evident than Juve defenders took pains to do. Far from praising them for their “homework”, they should have been criticised by expert Italian defenders of the past for how blatant and indiscreet they had been. The standards of Italian professional cynicism are slipping badly.
The fact that this is a talking point at all, and not just by whinging Brits, is because the ref ignored blatant transgression of the rules, not because we saw a masterclass in defending corners.
The sport is making great progress in the US and Japan. there is no way that those cultures will tolerate a sport where such vagaries in applying regulations are glossed over.
This is an embarrassment to Juve. The reason they are dismissing it as of no great importance is because they want the spotlight to turn from them. It is page 1 of the PR book- nothing to see here- which even the geniuses at Ibrox have tried this as a tactic to allow them to complete their fakeover in private.
And the proof of my assertion will be shown on the 6th March when you will witness nothing like as blatant behaviour at set plays from the Juve defenders. They know that closer attention will be paid to their behaviour, even though Celtic will still pose the same level of threat from set plays. They also know that they will not need to be as blatant because they accomplished their aim when they saw how the ref was going to ignore the evidence of his own eyes and any remarks made by the miked officials behind the goals.
I do not blame the Juve defenders for taking it as far as they did. My ire is firmly aimed at the ref for choosing to allow them this freedom.
HH
Am I the only person who visualises half the Scottish sports journos,sitting writing their copy in their Sevco tops, with Tina Turner on the CD.
Some of the writing / make that most of the writing is truly shocking.
I paid close attention to the editorials inside on admin day and liquid day.. None were critical . Minty never even got a mention in some..
Hell mend them.. Bring on Dundee Utd.
HH
Stringer Bell
Well said. Cheap shots better posted elsewhere!
Hickory Dickory Dock
Murray spent all the dosh…………..
Then came Whyte…………………….
And fooked them RIGHT
And now green’s right in the shYte
BigJoeTHEpoet
Some of the poyums on here wid bring tears tae yer eyes.
setting free the bears @ 11.04
UEFA want this swept under the carpet. That is why Lenny is not being punished by them for criticising the referee. If they had banned him it would only have drawn attention to the referee’s performance. They want the whole thing to be forgotten.
SFTB@11:00
If not on the 6th March then you can bank on it that Juventus will get at least 1 penalty awarded against them in the QF’s for holding at corner/free kicks.
Depending on the draw i don’t see them getting past the next stage.
We have a great blog, and our posters are witty,
But so far today, the poems have been shitty.,
tigertim @ 10:06 said
Time defining moments in life:
Where were you when JFK was assasinated?
Where were you at 15:30 on 14th February 2012?
I was walking into a pub in Eaglesham with a good ‘bluenose’ mate when my phone received a text. I glanced at it, but said nothing. When I looked up my mate just said “I guess that’s bad news for me? OK, first pint is on you.”
How hilariously funny is this in relation to the bhun demise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IJemGjS_CM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Roses are Red
Ragners are dead
dead,dead,dead
DEAD,DEAD,DEAD!
Happy Administration day!
simpleasthat.csc
HH
/Bishop B
setting free the bears
11:04 on 14 February, 2013
Absolutely spot on….
Roses are red;
Celtic are green.
Huns Admin today,
Died come Halloween.
Stuff Valentine’s Day, Happy Administration Day!
Sashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, a year ago today, the Huns went BUST!
Happy administration day
first time on since tuesday – got back late afternoon yesterday.
The result apart I had a great day out with my son topped by bumping into Lenny while we were on the stadium tour – he was a bit pressed for time which was understandable.
First time i’ve experienced the CL atmosphere first hand – absolutely awesome.
Hopefully won’t be the last
Bumped into fellow CQNer in the hotel (solmick ? – apology if i’ve got the name worng it was a long day.)
setting free the bears @ 11 04 .
“This is an embarrassment to Juve ”
I think Juve should be embarrassed . I think The Referee and UEFA should be embarrassed too.
Cynical me thinks that Juve don’t do embarrassment . The Agnelli family do that -We are masters of the universe thing .-We get what we want /how we want / by any means necessary..
The breaking of the Calciopoli scandal saw some Juve supporters waving a banner which said ——— The End Justifies The Means — [ to be fair other fans waved a banner which said —–You Shame Us.!
There wasn’t much embarrassment in view when they were found guilty in the Calciopoli affair . The President of Juventus sat in his palatial office and stated —–
” He [ Moggi ] did it all on his own . We did not know what he was doing “.
Juve are an interesting phenomenon . Much loved /much hated in equal measure . I was in a wee Sicilian fishing port town yesterday evening ——- 2 Juve social clubs and a bar with-Zona Anti Gobbizzata -stickers on its door [ hunchback free zone / no Juve supporters ]
A year ago today
the huns began to say
our bills we canny pay
happy administration day
A wee note on Tuesday and European Football
Contract twists n turns– and an Italian restaurant
http://wp.me/p1G95H-lk
Henriks Sombrero, 10:39
No, nothing more from me
Test
Was Juve’s corner kick strategy, a ploy picked up in Auchinhowie?
Did they watch an Alistair coaching session?
O.G sorry if this has been answered by you already. Was the Traynor story the big story you spoke of?
I will post the other f later!
tigertim
10:51 on 14 February, 2013
Witty and probably inappropriate.
Like the best of humour.
istanbulcelt – nothing wrong with the ‘of’ except its place in the sentence.
‘the big story of which you spoke.’
pedanticCSC
Cheers Gene….. I think
bottomoftheclass CSC
Brogan,
I enjoyed reading that I’m a bit fed up listening to people on here and other places assuming that we will lose all our best players in the summer, Neil Lennon and Celtic are building something special and certain players might just want to be part of that rather than play in the Plastic Christmas Tree that the EPL has become…
test
Where has everyone gone,we have a game in just over 48 hours.
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/1513/1360844402248.jpg
Podium chasers on the F5 button.
Not like me.
HH
and it should be a tough game . Utd a great side. Lets hope we get beyond 15s without conceding !!
JCGE on admin day
HH
What’s an F5 button?
happy anniversary……………..its a year today that the old firm whet into administration,thats what its got to do with me!!!!
Everybody was so busy celebrating Administration Day, that they forgot it was also Valentines Day so they’re all way to get cards and flowers from a service station
f5 key?
Pedant?
:-)