By Alex Gordon.
A DREADFUL penalty-kick miss by Bahrudin Atajic condemned Ronny Deila to his first defeat as Celtic manager.
The Bosnian striker had the ideal opportunity to level the scores four minutes from time after substitute Paul McMullan had been downed in the box.
Unfortunately, Atajic blazed his spot-kick over the bar into the Hamburg crowd much to the annoyance of the new Hoops gaffer.
It was a largely experimental Celtic line-up with Deila taking no risks ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier against Legia Warsaw in the Polish capital.
Alas, appalling defending by Filip Twardzik gifted the Germans the winning goal before the interval.
The left-back made a mess of trying to control a long and hopeful punt into the Celtic penalty box. The ball broke clear and was immediately presented to Christopher Nothe who could hardly believe his good fortune.
Nothe struck his effort first time from eight yards and Craig Gordon had no chance as the low drive zipped past his right hand in the 39th minute.
Twardzik toiled in the opening 45 minutes and was also booked in the 33rd minute after a lunging tackle after once again giving the ball away with a slack pass.
Celtic started at whirlwind pace and had three excellent opportunities inside the opening 10 minutes.
Atajic fizzed in a low shot from just outside the box, but keeper Philipp Tschauner got down swiftly to hold the ball at his right hand post.
Five minutes later, Tony Watt, looking lively on the left wing, tried his luck from a tight angle.
His shot totally bamboozled Tschauner, but carried over the crossbar and out to safety.
Amido Balde should have got the game’s opening goal in the 10th minute when he was through on goal after some neat play outside the box.
However, the Portuguese Under-21 international lacked composure at the vital moment and allowed the keeper to block his hurried parting shot.
Gordon, making his second appearance for the Hoops, showed he was still rusty after being out for over two years with a slack goal-kick to Nir Biton.
The Israeli midfielder, captain for the day, was taken unawares and St Pauli broke forward, but made a mess of the opportunity.
Stuart Findlay, partnering Eoghan O’Connell in the middle of the inexperienced back four, was also sloppy with some wayward passes, but the Hoops escaped punishment.
The game was billed as a friendly – and the clubs have an affiliation – but the home players weren’t slow to put in some punishing challenges.
Skipper Soren Gonther was yellow-carded for a rugby tackle on McGeouch that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Celtic’s current home at Murrayfield.
Liam Henderson tried to set up Balde with a neat chip into the danger zone, but the ball carried over the giant frontman’s head.
It looked like being a stalemate at the interval until Twardzik’s lapse in concentration and control allowed St Pauli to snatch the lead.
Deila put on Lukasz Zaluska for Gordon at half-time and replaced the ineffective Balde with Paul McMullan.
Henderson brought the St Pauli keeper into action with a long-range free-kick in the 65th minute. The idea was good, but, unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite match the ambition.
Zaluska produced one memorable moment when he pushed a raging effort from Sebastian Mhyre over the crossbar 10 minutes from time.
Then came Atajic’s dreadful spot-kick blunder which was followed in the last minute by an effort from Watt which swept just wide of the target.
As an exercise, it was worthwhile and the Celtic youngsters will expect to do better when presented with the opportunity to impress the new manager.
CELTIC: Gordon (sub: Zaluska 46); Herron, Findlay, O’Connell, Twardzik; Biton, Henderson, McGeouch; Atajic, Balde (sub: McMullan 46) and Watt.
1,482 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- »
Now for some proper feckin music…
They had to support the Celtic:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FsWCYwezQ4U
Gospel. :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw0MOBNCL1Y
Legia win
HH
Wake up.
The least that we could do is to try and highlight this genocide, raise some money even?
Where is the Green Brigade?
Injustice is injustice.
The only thing that these persecuted people have left is their faith.
The hypocrisy is astounding.
Iraqi Christians are raped, murdered and driven from their homes – and the West is silent.
By Tim Stanley World Last updated: July 21st, 2014
Where is the moral outrage over the persecution of Iraqi Christians?
For the first time in 1,600 years, Mass is not being said in Mosul: an ancient culture has been wiped out in a matter of weeks. It’s a war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about.
Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq and the place where many Christians believe Jonah was buried. Since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) rode into town, their faith has been forced underground. Bells have been silenced, the hijab enforced with bullets. Tens of thousands fled after being offered an unattractive choice: convert, pay a religious tax, or be put to the sword. The levy was unaffordable. According to one local news agency, Isis troops entered the house of a poor Christian and, when they didn’t get what they wanted, the soldiers raped the mother and daughter in front of their husband and father. He committed suicide out of grief.
Having driven away the worshippers, the Isis fanatics are now trying to extinguish the physical legacy they left behind. A centuries-old church has been burned to the ground; Jonah’s tomb has been desecrated. Isis wants to create the Islamic equivalent of Year Zero, a brave new world with no evidence of Christianity, women’s rights, democracy or even that most subversive of instincts, human pity.
It might seem like this revolution has nothing to do with us in the West, but that’s more than a little naive. The genocide of local Christians did not begin with Isis but with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the conflict, there were 1.5 million “Chaldeans, Syro-Catholics, Syro-Orthodox, Assyrians from the East, Catholic and Orthodox Armenians” in the country – living, of course, under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, but living nonetheless. Today, their number has dropped to just 400,000. Religious violence peaked in the first four years of the invasion and then declined dramatically after the US-led surge.
There was a hope that President Nouri al-Maliki would live up to his initial promise to protect religious minorities. But the rise of Sunni opposition to the Shiite regime in Baghdad sparked a second phase of persecution against Iraqi Christians.
Over the border came Isis, a particularly virulent strain of Islamism previously incubating in Syria’s civil war. Bashar al-Assad’s refusal to surrendered power in Damascus has destabilised the region yet further (the use of gas weaponry has a tendency to court opposition) and his own Christians have found themselves trapped in the middle of an internecine Islamic bloodbath: it was one year ago in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa where Isis first experimented with its instruction to “convert, pay a tax or die”.
The Syrian patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church has estimated that perhaps 25 per cent of his country’s 2 million refugees are Christian.
The West’s direct intervention in Iraq created Hell on Earth for its Christian citizens, while the West’s lack of action in Syria (out of deference to its failings in Iraq) has permitted a regrouping of Islamist forces and the opening of a second front against Christians. The lesson is: “either leave other countries alone or, if you must intervene, do so with consistency and resilience”. The consequences of going in, messing things up and then quitting with a weary shrug are terrible for those left behind.
Yet, having been so intimately involved in the collapse of Iraq, the West is now bizarrely silent about events in Mosul. The streets of London fill with thousands marching against Israel’s military operation in Gaza; the West rails mightily against the Russian separatists in Ukraine. But of Iraq there is nothing. Why?
It could be that no Westerner wants to return to Iraq, that politicians fear that even discussing the country will lead voters to fear yet another invasion and yet another bloody occupation. Or it could be that we feel embarrassed about the very idea of Christians as a persecuted minority. The reporter John Allen argues that Westerners have been trained to think of Christians as “an agent of aggression, not its victim” – so we’re deaf to pleas for help. That opinion is supported by Ed West in an excellent e-book, and its consequences have been condemned by religious leaders here in the UK. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has compared the suffering of Middle East Christians with Jewish pogroms in Europe and reminded everyone of the words of Martin Luther King: “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” It would indeed be awful to think that the West might remain silent as violence rages purely out of a failure to recognise that Christians can be victimised, or out of a reluctance to cast aspersions on certain brands of Islam. It would make this the first genocide in history to be tolerated out of social awkwardness.
The West’s response to Mosul is worthy of contempt: if we won’t speak out for Christians, who will? But any disgust at our own moral cowardice should be balanced by admiration for the Iraqis who continue to bear witness to their faith in a land that moves closer and closer to outlawing it. Their resilience illustrates the difference between fundamentalist Islam and Christianity: the former is a religion of killers, the latter is a religion of martyrs. And for those of us who share the faith of the thousands fleeing Mosul, Jesus’s own sacrifice offers hope – a reminder that victory is guaranteed for those who endure: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Whatever your faith, please pray for the Christians of Mosul.
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning
C…………………………………
Q………………………………………
N………………………………….
BigJoeinDaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahouse.
Weather update from India………………..
Eh…………………………………………..
The Monsoon is in full swing, wind and rain and 27deg.
BigJoesGlobalTravels
Catman
03:22 on 28 July, 2014
Celtic have agreed a fee of £1.2million with Standard Liege for striker Tony Watt and are bracing themselves for a double bid from Southampton for prized assets Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk.
The deal for Watt was thrashed out late last night and the player will fly to Belgium this morning to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical.
The talented 20-year-old striker had a loan spell at Liege’s rivals Lierse last season during which time he impressed with eight goals for Stanley Menzo’s team.
He also had several well-publicised bust-ups with Menzo when the coach questioned the Scotland under-21 international’s attitude, but his on-field ability ultimately caught the eye of Liege
They are keen to push the deal through today as they have a Champions League qualifier against Greek side Panathinaikos this week and want Watt registered for that clash before tonight’s deadline.
Watt shot to fame in 2012 when he scored for Celtic in their 2-1 Champions League victory against Barcelona at Parkhead – just months after Neil Lennon signed him from Airdrie for £80,000.
Lennon then sent him on loan to Belgium for regular top-team football but the player had hoped to kick-start his Celtic career under new boss Ronny Deila.
Deila wanted to sign Watt last season for Stromsgodset but couldn’t get the deal done in time before the Norwegian transfer window closed
Watt played for the Hoops in their 1-0 defeat at the weekend to German club St Pauli.
Now, barring any unforeseen last minute hitches with Liege today, that will be his last appearance for the Scottish champions.
Southampton meanwhile have cash to burn after the sales of Dejan Lovren to Liverpool and Calum Chambers to Arsenal and are poised to retrun for goalkeeper Fraser Forster after an initial bid was rejectd by Celtic last week.
They are also keen on central defender van Dijk who was a stand-out success for the Scottish champions last season.
BigJoeThinksWEneedRepalcementsNOW
In other words… Big Joe has the tom tits.
My advice is to drink plenty of flat Coke.
HH.
Er ye go wee son,blast from the past:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tyIg17nsGLs
• 16 roads – Celtic über alles…
04:21 on 28 July, 2014
In other words… Big Joe has the tom tits.
My advice is to drink plenty of flat Coke.
HH.
How the fook did you know…………….
Was in hospital for 3 days…………….
All better now…………………………..
Well as better as BigJoe can be………………..
BigJoeLost6KILO
16 ROADS
Great track,bud!
Also on that album is this little favourite of mine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHVM22JjRgk
Love …………………………..
E………………………………
D………………………………….
M………………………………..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lKWjRguRys
BigJoecanthelpIT
JOHNNYRAMBO67. 2342
That’s a fantastic piece of work,mate.
The warning helped,of course. Some of it is difficult to watch.
But people should watch it nevertheless.
big joe
04:33 on 28 July, 2014
—————————————
Hahaha!
Pure class lol :D
Enjoy yerself El legend.
HH.
16 roads – Celtic über alles…
04:37 on 28 July, 2014
big joe
04:33 on 28 July, 2014
—————————————
Hahaha!
Pure class lol :D
Enjoy yerself El legend.
HH.
Was need to loose a couple of Kilo’s anyway……………
aNOTsoFATbigJOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRG1vw1Nes
Another remix of the same tune……………….
Come on…………………………..
You know you want 2………………….
THINjoe
Bobby M – I’m gonna see if I can buy it now on Amazon.
Another classic track :
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n4pWcVPUybE
big joe
04:40 on 28 July, 2014
—————————————–
It’s 2014 ffs, not 1988!
Bring the noise :
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qfMlQJ5SeFo
16 ROADS
BIG JOE has been everywhere else,so a trip to the moon is probably on the cards!
Graham Spiers@GrahamSpiers • Jul 26
Heading over to Ibrox for the rugby…anticipating a bit less of the ‘traditional singing’. #Glasgow2014
Mr Spiers doing some TROLL fishing on twitter………..
G
He got quite a haul by all accunts……….
LoveHimorhateHim???
• BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
04:55 on 28 July, 2014
16 ROADS
BIG JOE has been everywhere else,so a trip to the moon is probably on the cards!
Some might say I’m permanently wired to IT …………..
It’s not a fun trip……………………..
WORK……………. Unfortunately.
smallJoe
I’d believe it Bobby M.
Anyway slainte to ye and the Joe fella for making me laugh there.
Def last one :
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AS6cRI-d0Eo
God bless the Celtic.
Slan.
• 16 roads – Celtic über alles…
05:00 on 28 July, 2014
I’d believe it Bobby M.
Anyway slainte to ye and the Joe fella for making me laugh there.
Def last one :
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AS6cRI-d0Eo
God bless the Celtic.
Slan.
Great stuff Slan……………………..
A blast from the past…………………………….
JoePonders
16 ROADS
Great track again,mate. Canny get it to play,so I’ll chuck it on my iPod in the morning.
Listen to it in the pub.
.
And talking of the PAST…………………………
This ones dedicated to the late Malcolm Owen….
Gon ………… far 2 soon………………………… ChasingTheDragon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsdIxw8jImo
SFTB. Thank you for the response. I wiil try to reply in the evening.
Interesting article in the Herald.
European football: Keeping the rich rich and Scotland poor . . .
Michael Grant
Chief football writer
MONDAY 28 JULY 2014
A NOTHER midweek of Champions League and Europa League football awaits for three of Scotland’s clubs so let’s dust down that great, loaded phrase “unbroken history” and see if it applies to the tournaments themselves.
JoeOFF2theGym
• Zbyszek
05:39 on 28 July, 2014
What are your thoughts on the game this week mate.
Joejustasking
Big Joe The worst draw for both teams in my opinion. The chances for going through are 70% Celtic, 30 % Legia. I would say, Legia are the favourites by a margin in Warsaw. On the other hand, this is football and all is possible.
Running Orders
They call us now.
Before they drop the bombs.
The phone rings
and someone who knows my first name
calls and says in perfect Arabic
“This is David.”
And in my stupor of sonic booms and glass shattering symphonies
still smashing around in my head
I think “Do I know any Davids in Gaza?”
They call us now to say
Run.
You have 58 seconds from the end of this message.
Your house is next.
They think of it as some kind of war time courtesy.
It doesn’t matter that
there is nowhere to run to.
It means nothing that the borders are closed
and your papers are worthless
and mark you only for a life sentence
in this prison by the sea
and the alleyways are narrow
and there are more human lives
packed one against the other
more than any other place on earth
Just run.
We aren’t trying to kill you.
It doesn’t matter that
you can’t call us back to tell us
the people we claim to want aren’t in your house
that there’s no one here
except you and your children
who were cheering for Argentina
sharing the last loaf of bread for this week
counting candles left in case the power goes out.
It doesn’t matter that you have children.
You live in the wrong place
and now is your chance to run
to nowhere.
It doesn’t matter
that 58 seconds isn’t long enough
to find your wedding album
or your son’s favorite blanket
or your daughter’s almost completed college application
or your shoes
or to gather everyone in the house.
It doesn’t matter what you had planned.
It doesn’t matter who you are
Prove you’re human.
Prove you stand on two legs.
Run.
Running Orders by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Good early morning friends.
It’s a very misty start to the day here so I’m afraid I can’t see what the weather’s like ;-)
Appears to e dry and a it warmer than yesterday.
Golf at 7.14. In the fog.
Jr67.
Heartbreaking (2342).
http://www.commdiginews.com/news-2/is-christian-persecution-in-the-middle-east-another-holocaust-21985/
http://www.catholic.org/news/international/middle_east/story.php?id=56251
Disappointing news that Tony Watt is for the off.
Whilst I wasn’t as convinced as some, I had hoped he may benefit from a new regime and show the application to take advantage.
Seemingly, that has not happened…
The reported persecution of the Christian community in Iraqi is desperately sad; what an appalling vista western meddling has left behind…
JR67 – will steel myself for a look at your video bud…
WWC – You’re a class act mo chara,always have been, and always will be…
Read this again though,please:
“The reported persecution of the Christian community in Iraqi is desperately sad; what an appalling vista western meddling has left behind…”
You are not daft, but that statement is pure ridiculous.
Think about it.
HH.
Johnny Rambo 67:
A massively powerful video my friend.
Your concern to bring this abject suffering to a wider audience is hugely appreciated.
CelticfanswithsocialandpoliticalconscienceCSC
Sun backpage headline
Celts Flog Watt for 1.2m
Why is it when we sell a player the rags use terms like flog
This was no car boot sale
I mean on our initial investment in the player its a 1100% profit
Imagine if dead club were able to do such excellent business I expect the headline would be much more positive because its them
I guess the rags have to downplay any money we make to make the mob feel better.
I read Jacksons piece in the record today trying to poo poo the success of the opening ceremony at Celtic Park for the CW games against using Murrayfield for the Legia game
Boy are the rags hurting, desperately looking for reasons to fault anything we do.
Anyway Watt leaving was always on the cards the lad carved out his own exit fair play to him.
16 roads:
I’m certainly not immune from faux pas events but you’ll need to enlighten me…