…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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We made Juve look very ordinary up until the 2nd goal IMO.A very bold team selection which could have worked for us on another day.Personally i would have played Ledley for Forrest.We have done ourselves proud, oh and the referee is a cheat.Every year you see the onus on referees from UEFA to get clubs from Spain,Italy Germany and England through ,to maximize advertising revenue.Look at the number if soft penalties Man City got in their group games,and they still flopped.The chances of a Celtic v PSG tie later in the tournament were nil.
@RhebelRhebel: Any truth in the rumour that last nights referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco’s son plays for Juve U12’s @UEFAcomAlexO @STVGrant @bbcsportsound
If true then stewards enquiry required.
Just back home from the game some great comments on the blog today thought we were great one or 2 mistakes excepted. Old Tim we went to the Italian Kitchen yesterday great Craic terrific restaurant unshamed plug onwards and upwards. Hail Hail Hebcelt
I thought we played so well last night and to go down 3 nowt was extremely harsh. A record EC home defeat- seen us play much worse and winning- think we should have put a lot more pressure on the ref though in dead ball situationd but we will learn.
I can only find 8 games this guy has reffed in the past 1.5 seasons. In those 8 games he has dished out 35 yellow cards. No reds. Clearly he does not do reds!
I think we’re all agreed playing Efe was a mistake, it was a gamble, so you’re Lenny, you can see you’ve made an error, you believed him when he told you he felt great, so why not do the obvious, and get him off?
Que Sera Sera, were not going to wembelee. :-(
I for one was very proud of the way we played last night. Every neutral fan and even some of that mob said to me that the result more than flattered Juve. It always looks and feels different when you are there but having watched it now on TV as well I think we played great apart from the obvious errors in defence.
setting free the bears @ 15 20
” there is no doubt that the floated ball was a Conte inspired tactic ”
Juve defended much deeper than they normally do..
Conte said that was aimed at drawing Celtic forward and creating space to exploit . He praised his players for doing as he had instructed.
Disappointed about the result last night, but not about the performance.
Thought it was a mistake to play Ambrose after going to the trouble of resting everyone else, and so it transpired. For my money we had other suitable options available in defence and I’d have played Charlie in the centre with Wilson.
However, hopefully we can all learn from errors like that.
The ref was hopelessly ineffective, and if the extra official patrolling the goalline cannot spot the host of misdemeanours unfolding before his eyes then he might as well be discarded as a pointless luxury.
All told however I have been pleasantly surprised by our European forays this season and look forward to more of the same next season and from then on too.
HH
Dublinbhoy
That is surely untrue, eh?
Mihal
Cheers for the compliment. I assume it was meant as a compliment
For the absence of doubt, and those mineshafting scapegoating critics seem very thin-skinned when alternative views are put in their way, I have, absolutely, no problem with people criticising Celtic players, managers, Board members or employees. Where I take issue is over the certitude they have in those opinions, particularly where they are fleetingly held views which are just as likely to be contradicted when they next post.
it is hard to imagine how posters, such as Kev jungle, adopted the Neil Lennon badge in their posting name and professed undying support for our true Celt only to revert to wanting him sacked after each slip up our team is involved in.
I would not let most of them handle their own pocket money (or sharp objects) far less entrust them with something as valuable as Celtic.
And yes, that applies to you and me too.
As an aside to last nights game did anyone else experience utter chaos at the turnstiles even although they arrived in plenty of time for the game and it being blamed on the electronic entry system. I have heard rumours to the contrary and that the problems were caused by the incidence of duplicate and forged tickets in circulation
For obvious reasons I am not going to name any names but I was speaking to a person last night who received an additional number of tickets through the post that had not been applied for and on contacting the ticket office to arrange their return he was told “just rip them up and we will issue duplicates to the people they were intended for ” needles to say the person I spoke too,being the responsible person he is,disposed of the the tickets in the suggested fashion. I suspect that there were other incidences of this administrative error where the additional tickets were not destroyed in the suggested fashion and found their way onto the Gallowgate and a tidy profit for someone less scrupulous
What time is the Servco dirty linen being washed at tonight. I will cheer me up and give me more amusement. Anyone know the gist of the story?
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles
It was interesting listening to Neil the other day, speaking about his confersations with Alex Ferguson.
He spoke of the need to keep players long term as an necessary ingredient of successful teams and his hope of keeping some of this squad for the rest of their careers.
broonie, Kris commons & Charlie mulgrew were the players I thought of that get what it means at celtic.
Hopefully many more feel the same :))
Latest Corker
RhebelRhebel@RhebelRhebel
Any truth in the rumour that last nights referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco’s son plays for Juve U12′s
=======================
And that he’s actually 15….
cheating b’s
HH
Ref’s son may/not play for Juve U-12s
Yet we routinely accept dyed in the wool bluenoses ref our games here?
Something doesn’t compute.
twists n turns
That is a very good point…and if he saw a foul which required yellow cards then why no free out or a penalty?
Juve are a cheating club in a cheating league. They have been found guilty of match fixing on a huge scale before…does anyone believe they are beyond having a word in the ear of a match official offering some form of inducements to ensure an easy time in a crucial game?
Ach, maybe I’m paranoid.
Hail Hail
twists n turns
Gary Stevens frequently used to man handle Paul Elliot 15-16 yards from goal. Big Elliot used to make a very late run at Celtic corners. Stevens would block the run and frequently grabbed the Celt. No award from the MIB in those days either.
JamsieBhoy ……. From 7 hrs ago
alex thomson@alextomo
#c4news TOMOBLOG – revelations later concerning Craig Whyte and a senior current Rangers official
——————————
7hYour club is dead@corsica1968
@alextomo Surely not the Andrew Dickson that Ellis said was his “eyes & ears”? Is he still there?
—————
7halex thomson@alextomo
@corsica1968 much further up the food chain than mere Andrew Dickson
….pfayr
15:29 on
13 February, 2013
Fair point….. but ultimately it’s persons the same as me and you with no football management experience or knowledge that decide the destiny of a football club
leftclicktic
I think Neil sees the big goalie in that category too.
Looking towards the game in Turin.
If we start the game at the same tempo as last night, and keep it up for same 65mins as last night, I think we’ll be ok.
Lenny should wrap Sammi in cotton wool till then. I think he would have run riot last night.
Will Juve rest some players and sit back on their lead? Will the new Pope be a Catholic!?
It’s in their dna.
Last night showed that we should be wary, not afraid of Juve, and I think the players picked up on that.
Forza Celtic!
SPF
leftclicktic – Servco the gift that just keeps giving:-))))
I saw those tweets earlier but I am impatient and want to know if anyone knew anything more. O.G. seemed to be hinting at something on the last post.
Two Macarrons
“you believed him when he told you he felt great, so why not do the obvious, and get him off? ”
Because it was not that obvious between the 3rd and the 83rd minute that he was struggling.
Because Lustig had to go off and his only alternative in replacing Efe would be to pull the highly effective Wanyama out of midfield and into defence.
Because Rogne was omitted as he is just back from another injury and wants to leave the club soon. ( I would have had him on the bench but I do not know his fitness state or the reasons behind that decision).
There are always potential reasons if you have an open mind to look for them and you are not basing your views on hindsight.
There
twisty
defo
i`ll have look at the meetings come April/May
btw..doesnt have to be Ayr ….if its Ayr i`ll have to contend with that mad badger big Jon staying in ma hoose ….if its Hamilton or Muss..he’ll have to put me up :¬))
I’d have loved G Hoops to do what a certain Vinnie Jones did to Gazza.
He would have thought twice about getting up close and personal again.
From the off, Ambrose was a total bum scare every time he was in possession.
He gets away with it in the diddy SPL.
In Europe though? It’s like Tebily all over again.
Just in case anyone thinks there could be truth in the rumour, which I’m sure most don’t.
In this article from September 2012, Undiano Mallenco says that his boys aren’t really into football. The older of them is only seven and the younger four. So unless, for some reason, Juventus is running an under 8s or under 5s team near Pamplona and managed, against the wean’s better judgement, to convince an unenthusiastic Undiano junior to join up and play, the rumour is tosh.
http://www.qualitysport.org/2012/09/undiano-mallenco/
sftb
I think you are ignoring the context of WGS era and current unchallenged top of the table status..conveniently to intimate I have irrational 180 turnarounds?
The context of my ‘show me the money’ comments is because that realistically is as much as we can get in the final stages of CL.
My question was underpinned by an opinion that there would be few takers for Scott Brown but was also prompted out of interest as to who you felt would be interested. 2 years ago I felt SB was a match made in heaven for the likes of Arsenal..but that was 2 years ago. I think SB has peaked at Celtic. I admire his energy and agree he showed plenty of that last night. He had a good game possibly because the game was so fast – I always feel he plays best by instinct (when he has no time to weigh up options)..having said that he would not make my starting 11.
JamsieBhoy, 15:49
It’s getting a bit busy over in the Ibrox PR office…
A very complementary article of Celtics efforts in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/feb/13/celtic-juventus-champions-league?
Hail Hail
no bobby does it Petta, and your post is like a bumsite, pun intended..
traditionalist88 13:18 on
I do quite a bit of travel and tbh the 12 hour flight from SouthAfrica is one of the simplest – North/South means no time zone issues, but don’t for a second think that mental tiredness is the same as physical – it takes time for the brain to switch on rather than shutting off over time.
Like all Celtic supporters, I am downcast today over last nights result.
Strangely, it was one of our overall best displays in years. The team totally dominated midfield and
created several chances to win this game. Our commitment to the challenge was evident for all to see.
We played flowing football and won most 50/50 tackles.
I am firmly of the opinion that Neil Lennon’s decision to play Efe Ambrose cost us the game.
There was no way that he was fit enough, either physically or mentally to play against one of Europe’s top sides after the demands of the Africa cup followed by a grueling flight on the day of the game.
Nope sorry Neil, you slipped up badly there.
However, before anyone cuts me down, I also say that it is Neil Lennon who has built this
magnificent team and last night apart from the two mistakes, we were top class.
I would have hooked James Forrest at half time for Tony Watt, but that may not have changed the flow of the game.
Rogne, Mulgrew or Victor could easily have doubled with Wilson.
Last night does not make Efe a bad player, he’s actually one of my predictions to become world
class, but last night, he should not have been in the panel.
As for the Ref.
His booking of Hooper was a disgrace. His inability or will, to stop the rugby tackles on our players from dead ball situations should preclude him from ever reffing a Champions league game again.
He is not the reason we lost this game, but he acted in a cowardly or corrupt way last night.
O.G.Rafferty
You certainly know how to brighten up a day :))
mickbhoy
The turnstiles at my bit were just as busy as they always are on CL night when a lot of the crowd turn up around 7.30 or later and find themselves in a queue of over 200 for each turnstile.
Having said that, there seemed to be just such an issue with duplicate tickets for two seats at my area of the ground.
However, both parties seemed to believe they were in the right and there did not appear to have been any collusion over the matter. I have seen it before where the regular seat holder applied late for tickets for their own seats and, after obtaining them, found that a non-regular had been sold these in the public sale. That happened to me once and the cause was inefficiency in the Ticket Office computing arrangements rather than criminal re-selling.
That’s not to say that this did not go on too. I would have been surprised, given the clamour for tickets, that someone did not try to pull this ruse to help a mate get in to the match.
I doubt it was so widespread as to cause chaos at the turnstile. I think supporters turning up too late caused most of the queues.
Sftb,
Sibs are there to be used, I thought it was obvious efe was struggling, Lenny could not have foreseen Lustig going off injured, he should have replaced efe at halftime in my opinion, but he didn’t so we move on, Lenny will have learned a valuable lesson for the future.
Subs’ doh.
Look what the Mrs has got me for Valentine’s Day
http://www.wowcher.co.uk/email-deals/travel/deal-33690-detail/529-instead-749-lupine-travel-6-night-escorted/deal.html?c=21&ito=wowcher_email_0115&auth= &p=link_0