Despite the slenderest margins between the teams over two legs, Rosenborg failed to lay a glove in earnest on Celtic in Trondheim last night. James Forrest, who likes a goal in the qualifiers, connected wonderfully with a shot from a right angle which was visible only on rebounding off the back of the net.
In a sign of things to come, Celtic were composed in possession, even deep inside their own box. This desire to take a touch and find a pass wasn’t entirely successful. Rosenborg pressed high regularly, forcing Craig Gordon into unmeasured passes to the wing.
Kieran Tierney was magnificent, especially in the first half, when he maintained a high position on the left. This gave Celtic their most reliable route to attack.
Rosenborg sprung forward at halftime, causing Celtic some consternation for a period, although Gordon was never stretched. Brendan Rodgers had the luxury of bringing Leigh Griffiths off the bench; Celtic didn’t look back.
Don’t think things are going to ease up. That 1-0 aggregate score saw us enter the final minutes able to concede once without the threat of elimination. That wasn’t the case in either the third or fourth qualifying rounds last season. I hope we’re back in the afternoons for penalty practice.
While we are one tie away from the Champions League group stage, we are also on the brink of making it out of Pot 4. If Sevilla, Napoli, Liverpool or Olympiacos exit the competition and Celtic progress, we will be in Pot 3 for the group stage. Olympiacos are in the champions section of the draw alongside Celtic, but they went out of the competition to Haopel Be’re Shiva last season, who lie in wait again this term.
Sevilla, Napoli and Liverpool are all in the non-champions group, where tasty opponents Nice and Hoffenheim await in the non-seeded section. Sevilla make a Gaudi-esque art form of going out of the Champions League in the qualifiers, to let them concentrate on their main purpose in life – dominating the Europa League. If we take care of our own business there’s a decent chance we’ll move up the rankings.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to our Mary’s Meals appeal yesterday, and to Intelligent Car Leasing, who made the magnificent offer of 4 hospitality tickets for Saturday’s league opener against Hearts. The winner was informed by email a few minutes ago – so check!
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Have seen Moultioni play several times.
He would do a job for us in the Hoops……he will of course improve with
Blessed Brendan’s magic of course.
I think the reason Hayes didn’t take his man on was due to him being told not to.
Had Brendan wanted him to go past his man he would have told him to.
It’s no rocket science.
I know travelling will be a pain but I think Qarabag and Astana are comfortably the poorest teams out of the 5 we could play.
Either would be good.
:-)
fan-a-tic on 3rd August 2017 3:44 pm
I agree, it was like a repeat of last week for at times. Out wide, back inside, out to the other side. Thankfully KT was getting a bit more joy. But on the other side the movement was awful and any time Forrest/Sinclair made a darting run there was hesitancy to play the pass and played the safe ball back inside again.
On one occasion(1st half) Lustig had the ball, saw a good run upfront, hesitated, then thought about playing it back inside 5 yards..in the end he did neither and tapped the ball into the path of the Rosenborg midfielder.
Theres being safe and theres being brave.
Thankfully Griffiths came on and knew the runs to make and when to demand the ball.
In Hayes defense I think he will be good cover for the left side,
HH
Jonny Hayes is the new James Forrest in more ways than one
Whippingbhoys CFC
It was mid 30s today in 4 of the 5 possible destinations, so for that reason I’ll have my fingers crossed for Prague(22C). Plus having played them preseason gives us a little insight and although it was only a friendly and finished 0 0, I thought we looked comfortably the better team.
They’re all tricky in their own right but Be’er Sheva gave us some palpitations last year so I’d like to avoid them. I suspect the club do as well as they may as well write UEFA a cheque after the draw for the Palestinian flag fine coming our way. Astana and their plastic pitch as others have noted is also a concern. Regardless just happy to be in the draw with another 2 weeks and 3 games to prepare.
Off subject but can someone tell me the story of Wallace being called a grass
Merci
REGGIE
Astana are the only team half way through their season so another reason to avoid
If we’d played Rosenberg in a couple of months time we would have beaten them easily
Moult,at Motherwell, would be a good addition,to the Celtic Squad
Hayes will be great cover all over the park..both wings .
Forest should only be deployed in big games
CELTIC40ME on 3RD AUGUST 2017 4:24 PM
Didn’t know that so that probably puts them to the top. Plus the time difference is the biggest there(+5)
SCULLYBHOY@4-12
Why did you jump to conclusion Hayes is a whipping boy?
I am the only one who criticised him and tried to give him the benefit of doubt that he was playing to instructions,
If you want to respond to my criticism of Hayes last night then feel free to refute my points.
Turning it into some kind of scapegoating quest is playing the man not the ball.
It’s good having a top manager who is also a fan in charge. You just trust him . So we all have opinions, minor grumbles but we are all happy to give way to the opinion of BR.
Re the Neymar transfer.
La Liga rules require the player to pay the release clause fee themselves.
Apart from avoiding all of the “staged payments, based on appearances,etc.” I love the idea that Neymar walked into the equivalent of La Liga’s offices on the 6th floor at Hampden, reached into his pockets and pulled out £198,000,000 which he thrust on the desk and waited for the administrator to write out a receipt.
How long does it take to count £198,000,000 assuming it was £50 notes?
And how deep would Neymar’s pockets need to be?
Any criticism of Hayes is unwarranted. He found himself isolated on the right wing. Nobody got close to him so his only option was to pass back to Lustig. Remember this is something that Brendan would want him to do as it’s retains easy possession. He couldn’t cross the ball as there was nobody to hit in the box and not once did Lustig go beyond him to create another angle. Johnny is finding his feet and will be a good player for us. In fairness he wouldn’t have started last night had Griffiths and Dembele been fit.
Great Result last night, was quietly optimistic, thought we’d keep a clean sheet and thought we’d score. And so it proved.
Excellent finish from James Forrest, when he was first amongst the first team he was very direct and always made the keeper save.
For some reason he lost confidence or we coached that out of him, hope Brendan gets that back, would be a huge plus to his game and we could see him fulfill his potential.
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Great to see Scottish Football fans including Paul67 get behind the Fans for Justice Campaign let’s hope the SFA sees sense before it has to go to Court.
Still that could be better than the Craig Whyte Trial…
Especially if we get to the “it wisney me” bit again:)))
Hail Hail
https://twitter.com/ReadCeltic/status/893128845712293890?s=08
If we end up signing Loius Moult, I will be looking for a cut of the transfer fee, since i first mentioned him in a post about having 3 strikers and keeping them all happy last week, before Brendan read my post and adopted my views :-)
To be fair, Aberdeen have had enquiries knocked back by Motherwell, this summer, I think.
When thinking about an ‘SPL’ standard striker, the two goals he scored against us at Fir Park in the 3-4 game last season brought him to mind – one an exquisite lob over Craig Gordon. There is some quality there, and Brendan could do worse than have him as cover.
Personally, I’d rather see some of the young guys getting a chance.
UGHAYE @ 4:21 PM,
It was in the aftermath of the Hibs, Sevco Cup Final, as the Hibs fans celebrated he said to the ref that a Hibs fan had assaulted him and the ref called him a grass:))))
Three Sevco fans then stormed the pitch to see him and the other 27 Sevco players who were assaulted… Allegedly.
Hail Hail
We’ve got Kieran Tierney :)
See = save
thetimreaper on 3rd August 2017 4:52 pm
Any criticism of Hayes is unwarranted.
==========
What if instead of ‘criticism’ we called it constructive feedback? Because I haven’t seen any unsubstansiated attacks on any Celtic players in relation to last nights game.
Given the fine margins that come into play at this level, and maybe even more so in the playoff round, constructive feedback is good – it improves your chances of winning again, and promotes continuous improvement.
Of course, thats the managers job. So this blog may as well cease, eh?! And any fans meeting in pubs should not air any opinions about the match.
HH
Anybody else getting bombarded with FB, Twitter and email messages from some guy called Moult from Motherwell?
He reckons he’s the very man who can improve our team in Europe and gain us our next treble, also asks if I can repost on Celtic media.
Agent Moult (smiley)
Austria get a penalty in the semi against Denmark….
Missed oooft
VMHAN – YNWA WEE OSCAR on 3RD AUGUST 2017 5:12 PM
Anybody else getting bombarded with FB, Twitter and email messages from some guy called Moult from Motherwell?
He reckons he’s the very man who can improve our team in Europe and gain us our next treble, also asks if I can repost on Celtic media.
Agent Moult (smiley)
—–
Apparently his agent lives in Turkey…
I believe Walker of Hearts would be a good addition as our third striker he is young skilfull and can score for fun . When we sell Dembele as we surely will Walker could step in and become one of the main strikers.He is also Scottish and it would stop a more than decent player going to the deid team. H.H.
Anyone interested in tickets for Brian Wilson tonight?
TRADITIONALIST88 on 3RD AUGUST 2017 5:08 PM
Yes shut down the blog and no more opinions, cause thats what i said.
🙄
Thought the ref was fair last night.
Got one or two calls wrong for both sides but justifiable errors.
He did not get easily conned by their diving.
Perhaps though it’s because both teams are from lesser leagues?
Would have have been so impartial if we had played one of the teams from corrupt uefa’s favoured leagues?
Walker – no
Moultinho – no
Roberts – yes
45 minutes till the ole Dandies do their best to leave us with 2 Scottish teams still in Europe.
I was told last week by a friend of Mark Burchill who is now working as head scout at Bournemouth that they had made a substantial offer for Bitton, which we rejected.
Denmark hit the bar …woodwork .
Chairboy cheers