Photo: Vagelis Georgariou biglens.co.uk
Georgios, “I’ll have two goals in the first half”.
No matter what Celtic’s objectives for tonight are, to keep things decent, or to overcome an enormous deficit, priority no. 1 will be to protect Fraser Forster’s goal as much as possible. Juventus scored three goals at Celtic Park while making sure Celtic players were denied daylight in front of goal.
We also have to keep 11 men on the park. Manchester United went out of Europe last night in part because they went down to 10 men, but also because Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t produce an effective way to protect his lead with 1 men until it was too late. If anyone is red carded, let’s make sure he is wearing black and white. Indiscipline from the home team offers our only opportunity of making a contest of the tie.
Charlie Mulgew is lacking match fitness and would be an enormous risk, no matter how key to our European game-plan he is. Georgios Samaras is the player European scouts all go home talking about after watching Celtic. He is the archetypal European player and could extend his already-record-breaking scoring run away from home in Europe tonight. Don’t bet against him.
Our full backs will be key. Emilio Izaguirre played his best game for Celtic in the first leg but has been far less convincing since. It is time for the Honduran to demonstrate his full potential on the big stage. Adam Matthews has impressed since arriving at the club and I fully expect he will mature before your eyes tonight.
One or two Celtic players have declined new contracts in the hope of attracting some of the silly money available elsewhere. Producing at the Juventus Stadium might convince some they are worth the trouble. This is no reference to Photogenic Georgio, b.t.w., he’s here for keeps!
The Twists & Turns Celtic Supporters Club is holding a charity night at the Supporters’ Association Club on London Road, this Friday, 8 March, at 7.30pm. There will be Question and Answer session with me, John Fallon, Dixie Deans, Archie MacPherson, compared by Phil Agnew. Afterwards you can enjoy music from Foggy Dew.
Tickets are £10 and you can get them from Phil by calling 07811 178764, or email me your numer and I’ll pass it on (celticquicknews@gmail.com). Profits are going to the Tommy Burns charity.
I’ve been to a few nights with John, Dixie, Archie and Phil and they are always fantastic Celtic occasions, so get yourself a ticket. See you there.
284 Comments- Pages:
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squire danaher,
I am maybe being naive, but I took no offence to Ian Jack’s piece.
I only saw it as an outsiders view of something which he did not understand & which his community saw as being worthy of suspicion. Most of us are conditioned by our upbringing & can have some pretty negative notions of that which is the ‘other’ in our childish world. Some of us outgrow them. Many never do.
I welcome anybody being honest enough to articulate his prejudices.
Like I said, it is informative to see ourselves as others see us.
_____________
I am anticipating Cheltenham as I always do,..like a child awaiting Christmas.
Experience should tell me that it will very likely be a pleasure that will prove to be expensive. No matter.
I hope I never lose that buzz which makes this meeting the highlight of my punting year.
Sadly it is now too chaotic & overcrowded to make it the annual pilgrimage it once was, but I still ‘cant get enough’, even if I am no longer there in the flesh.
Hope you are well & that your luck overcomes the difficulties that only Prestbury Park can offer.
I would think our objective would be to get through the first half without them scoring. It would be a good achievment, and worth something. Juve might not ‘go for it’, but they won’t be exactly trying not to score the tie ending 4th! So getting in at half time 0-0 would be good for the team, it would be great team experience. If, and its a pretty big if, we can score the first goal in the first half, or at the start of the 2nd, then I would hope we ‘go for it’. Because that would be the ‘anything can happen now’ stage. Scoring a 2nd or having them get a player sent off would make the whole thing go crazy, and make them nervous.
But either way, if we were coming here 1-1 or whatever, I would expect Neil would want to keep it tight in the first half, so keeping the tie alive and trying to go into half time at 0-0 or 0-1 would be a good objective and a great result imo. We need to score 3, but the main problem is them scoring. The later we score the 2nd the better, as they will then only be thinking about defending, if we score an early goal, they will still be relaxed knowing they have the whole game to score one back. So would be a bit disappointed to see us really attacking too much in the first half. 2nd half would be a different story as there is nothing to lose, and their mentality will have changed to hanging on, instead of scoring more. We simply cannot affored to lose another one, or it really is game over.
On a different note, I will be happy that we still have our brilliant, long tradition and history. No tainted titles, no being found guilty of cheating or match fixing in our past. The team we are playing against cannot, and never can say the same. Same goes for those who will try to mock us, unaware of the irony they will never reach the hights we are playing in again. So even if we do get beat 3-0 again, at least we know we played fair and honestly.
Good luck Celtic!
Sammi’s locks looking lustrous there.
Is he blessing his fellow players or indicating he’s gonna net a brace tonight?
Just want to wish the bhoys all the best tonight, a win or draw would be fantastic for us and a bit of pride back. To all the supporters, stay safe and enjoy yourselves.
Kilbowie Kelt
I think what was objectionable about Ian Jack’s otherwise reasonable personal portrait, was the lack of insight he displayed when shoehorning the “separate schools” argument into his own argument.
When he spoke of being dislocated from the friendship of other boys who went to different schools on different buses and bemoans that system, he is not asking to go to their school and have his school closed so that he may keep contact; he is implying that their school be closed.
He does not elaborate on why he should lose friendship because their buses arrived back at different times. Did he not venture out of his house once home from school? How id he gather other RC friends later in life? It sounded too much like “some of my best friends are RC but I’d have more of them if they did not insist on separating themselves from me”
It did not chime with my own childhood where, on return from the local RC and non-denom (prod) school we all poured out onto the front green for a 20 a side game of football.
Yes, school was a factor in determining who your closest pals were but it was an excuse for losing any friendships you had.
Ian Jack was honest in describing the bigotry he heard growing up. He was less honest in describing how much it had remained within him.
from Liverpool Accounts
reports that former manager Kenny Dalglish’s recent dismissal cost the club nearly £10 million.
WoW! Always good to employ a rich ex-player/supporter with the best interests of the Club at heart!
But perhaps he wasn’t charging the club, just the company operating the club, so that would be ok then.
If I could get 1% of that to feck off, I’d be off tomorrow!
HH
http://youtu.be/143OGMSUedA
Football effects people in different ways.
setting free the bears
13:11 on 6 March, 2013
thomthethim
I am assuming it was Auldheid’s post of 12.10 (which I supported) rather than mine that you are backing
******
No, it was your’s, although, as you were endorsing Auldheid’s view, then, by extension I was supporting his also.
Some of our support have decided already that enough is enough and have made that decision.
For me, my attachment and support, albeit now it is emotional rather than financial, will be based on what are Celtic going to do.
Even if they are seen to be out voted in any SPL decision, they have to be seen to non complicit in corruption.
Any other option is not acceptable.
What is really needed is a Celts for Change campaign, where the support can unite in guiding the club through this situation, even if it is by the scruff of the neck.
KILBOWIE KELT 1333
IMO,it is full of the sort of snide wee asides you might hear in a pub on a Friday. As a piece of journalism,it says more about the author than about his subject.
As for Cheltenham,I’m going naked into the negotiating chamber. Not a one up my sleeve (not surprising if I’m naked). I normally look forward to it immensely,but this year will be a struggle for me.
Not helped by Alan King’s stable jockey,Robert Thornton being ruled out.
Good luck to the Celtic fans in Turin tonight, to travel all that way after the bad news first leg is quite a show of support, regardless of how the game goes I hope all the bhoys have a great time.
AULDHEID @ 12.10 on previous thread, excellent post, most impressed.
I thought about posting a link to the Ian Jack article on Saturday, which like most of his writing I enjoyed, but then I thought he would be hammered as an anti- Catholic bigot… Some people seem to look for reasons to be offended..
Off oot… I am actually going out
The current SPL Board is made up of Ralph Topping (SPL Chairman), Neil Doncaster (SPL Chief Executive), Eric Riley (Celtic FC), Stephen Thompson (Dundee United FC), Duncan Fraser (Aberdeen FC) and Michael Johnston (Kilmarnock FC).
tell me this why is eric riley on spl board is he the token tim ? he should have been forced to resign the minute the spl gave up its right to enforce its own rules and allow the sfa to
enter the fray and totally kill any chance of justice, why was the sfa even allowed to be interviewed about this investigation, were the spl informed of these side letters if not then they broke the rules nothing at all to do with the sfa, spl used a judge and the sfa to get them of the hook of having to enforce their own rules, if eric riley which means celtic did not agree to this why did he not resign? surely the club would not agree to such a obvious
cop out, enforce the rules no need for anything else.
No doubt come kick off I’ll be screeching at the TV like Maximus at the entrance gates of the Colosseum anticipating that with each slaughtered lion comes a goal for the Celtic.
However, until that point I’m filled with dread about this evening’s gladatorial contest. Yep two of their goals in the first leg were a consequence of individual errors, the likes of which we shouldn’t witness again in Turin.
I think that my greatest concern is that we push too much for that first elusive score that would keep the tie alive that we are picked off by the precision of Pirlo and his accomplices.
Anyway this is Celtic who knows what may unfold. Keep it tight for the first half and then slay the lionesses.
Hold, Hold, Hold.
LiviBhoy
13:00 on 6 March, 2013
Don’t encourage him some of us will suffer……………
Squire, if still around are you out tonight?
Tonight our players will gain some valuable experience. I think we should be realistic, a draw would be a good result.
Who’s the ref for tonight?
Setting Free The Bears
13.44
It did not chime with my own childhood where, on return from the local RC and non-denom (prod) school we all poured out onto the front green for a 20 a side game of football.
====================
Yup although mine was a back street off the Gallowgate but there we all played.
There is a book from Edinburgh University publishing to come out in the summer with a foreward by Jack McConnel called or about Bigotry in Scottish Football. I was asked to contribute a chapter and it revolves totally around that point.
yorkbhoy
“hammered” or merely had the inconsistencies pointed out.
I have come across too many people who claim that they despise bigotry whilst displaying the same traits themselves.
They are usually the kind of people who describe themselves as apolitical too.
I was not looking for offence in the Ian Jack article. I think he started with the best of intentions to describe his experiences growing up. He ended by blaming “The Other” for his situation. That is never an honest position to take.
Has he had any wrestling experience like the last one.
HT
It’s Olivia’s birthday today, same as Charlie Mulgrew.
So house full tonight and will miss the CQN updates.
I’m sure we will give a good account of ourselves.
I always find the ‘schools debate’ amusing.
No one seems concerned that isolating some people at Eton et al separates them from the rest of society.
No one seems concerned about separation at Fettes or Kelvinside or St Aloysius for that matter.
No one seems concerned that by going to school in location A’s catchment I won’t be going to school with people in Catchment B.
No one seems concerned that we separate those with a disability from their local school thereby ensuring they only interact with other disabled children.
Frankly, we can’t all go to one big school in the centre of the universe.
I actually like the idea of ‘multi schooling’ where people of all faiths or none might freely learn together. It would be interesting to see if it was possible to construct a school that was capable of delivering education within the various belief and non-belief requirements on a single location/campus.
It seems to work reasonably well at the first and last; nursery and tertiary education levels?
C’mon the hoops.
1-4 would be tree men dus!
HH
SFTB & BMCUW,
I hear what you are saying, but in my not too reliable opinion, Ian Jack is trying to articulate his own flawed way of looking at the Catholic world, which is as confusing to many of those of us who were brought up in it as it is too him. He may have been a bit ‘creative’ about how he became estranged from his wee childhood pals, but for the most part he was holding the mirror up to himself rather than attacking the other ‘tribe’.
79caps.
Agreed mate.
But come kick off I’ll have myself convinced it’s gonna be 1-4 ;)
KK.
Agreed. Says more about him…………….
Geordie Munro
Anche io.
I watched the game against Napoli and Cavani was being wrestled quite a bit, he had his hair pulled at one stage as well which you don’t often see in the modern game.- Neil
Looks like sammi`s georgeous locks might be in for some rough treatment.
Separate schooling and losing pals because of it is an argument only ever raised in Scotland. If you argued thus in England (or anywhere else), you would be laughed at. It’s akin to the idiot who in the Scottish Parliament testified to seeing his schoolmates stoning the buses carrying Catholic children to their nearby school and who blamed the Catholic children for the stoning through their attending that establishment. Of course, that was Kilwinning.
TTR,
Lets hope he’s head and shoulders above the opposition;p
Paul67 et al
Manchester United versus Real Madrid
Barcelona versus AC Milan
Juventus versus Celtic
That is the company we share as a result of our efforts this season.
The company that we keep.
Okay, it would take a footballing miracle to continue in this tournament, but the prize is so great that is what every player must strive for from the kick-off. And we must pray for.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD
That never happened in my day going to school in Kilwinning.
I had to bloody walk,and it was the far end of town…..
Parkheadcumsalford,
“Is an argument only ever raised in Scotland.”
And thankfully not all of Scotland.
KK
I accede that his intentions were honourable but, leaving aside his legitimate opinions on separate schooling (too often a lazy shorthand phrase for Cllose RC schools) two other passages troubled me.
First:-
“his welcoming party was careful to stress Scotland’s own pre-Reformation history and thus to nativise its Catholicism, but Scotland’s Catholic population is of mostly Irish descent – O’Brien was born in County Antrim – with consequences not always predictable”
Where do you draw the line on Migration and religious identity. Scots were originally pagan, then Celtic Catholics, then Roman Catholics, then Protestant, and now, largely atheist/agnostic. It is disingenuous to find petty fault with a claim to a Scots tradition of RC worship.
Secondly:-
“Majesty, history, mystery: these may have been the impressions they once conveyed, with their thrones, their curia and their white smoke. But now … well, one can’t help thinking of the poor ashamed wizard when the curtain collapses in Oz.”
A pretty cheap shot. He could equally have gone with a Harry Potter angle.
One of the recent posters produced a list of the buzz words in his article. Now, I know he was attributing some of these to his less enlightened ancestors and neighbours but some are his own:-
Ordered
A procession,
fatuous,
despite robes,
ceremony,
solemnity,
progresses,
through red centuries,
mitred headgear,
aloft,
cloven feet,
below,
liturgical wisdom,
stretching credulity,
in rational beings,
to racking point,
the compassionate urge,
to deliver us from evil,
while shedding not one drop,
of precious blood,
so profoundly spiritual.
I found it to be an attempt to exorcise his bigoted influences growing up but he failed to get rid of them all.
Geordie Munro
:-)
——————————————————————
Our school bus was stoned by the other side going to school
and stoned by our own side going home.
Ref is Turkish,first season doing CL…..
Eric Riley is no token tim…
KK
Sorry,
I copied the wrong list and have closed the site down so I cannot retrieve.
Anyways, I’m off oot to prepare for more important events this evening.
I have written a letter to Peter Lawwell informing him I am not satisfied to “draw a line under this and move on, for the good of the game”
For the good of the game we need to see justice done.
Rangers were found GUILTY by LNS of every single charge laid against them. How he can then conclude that they gained no advantage is utterly bizarre.
One must assume that Stephen Thompson the Dundee Utd chairman had the blessing of the other SPL Chairmen to make the above statement.
I would like confirmation (or denial) of this, and the reasonng behind the decision, in a public statement by our club.
Celtic Mac
…and we are in the competition longer than epl giants chelsea and Man U.