What a great game of football. Brugge dominated from kick-off by figuring out how to block Celtic into submission. The game was 10 minutes old before we had possession for more than a few seconds. By contrast, Celtic were unable to return the block as Brugge regularly passed the ball out from the back. The visitors had done their homework and tactically dominated the first half. Celtic prepared for the last game they played, not this one.
Brugge have now twice benefited from a bizarre goal in this season’s Champions League. Their penalty against Aston Villa was, if anything, more ridiculous than Cameron Carter-Vickers passing the ball into his own net. The difference between the Villa mistake and last night’s was that Brugge forced the issue at Celtic Park. Carter-Vickers was the fourth Celtic player in possession pressed across the field, as Brugge hunted for a mistake. Bizarre, yes, but it was worked for and deserved.
The subdued Celtic Park crowd waited for Brendan Rodgers to make the necessary changes. When they arrived just before the hour, it took very little time for Brugge to be knocked off their tactical perch.
Alex Valle struggled for the first moments of his substitute appearance against Leipzig earlier this month. The contrast with last night could not be greater. He was composed on the ball, held onto it, drew opponents in and moved. A minute after coming on, he found Daizen Maeda, who scored an absolute peach from a tight angle, in what is becoming Celtic Champions League tradition – it went in off the far post.
Great games, like this one, don’t all need lots of chances. Brugge (and I) thought they had restored their lead, but the goal was ruled offside. Celtic created better openings that the visitors in the final period of the game, but nothing more than edge of the box chances.
Brugge boss, Nicky Hayen, takes a great deal of credit. Not many young managers from comparable leagues will come to Celtic Park and out-plan Brendan Rodgers like this. Brendan can also take credit for mapping out the changes just before the hour.
I also really liked the way the Bulgarian referee controlled the game. He let play flow and I didn’t disagree with a single foul or caution. He was also quick to get involved if he saw a hint of timewasting, and was so effective at this, there was little added time at the end of either half.
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You can’t win a Champions League match with two of your three central midfielders so far away from the ball – in possession and out – that they are unable to influence the game.
It’s inexplicable why the two of them were allowed/instructed to position themselves thus. Bonkers. Totally styoopit.
There.
Good afternoon all from the Victoria Bar. A fine Thursday in prospect, let’s celebrate the Glasgow Celtic!
As others have said this morning, getting a draw in the UCL with such a ropy performance is absolutely a point a point gained going by longstanding experience. 8 points with 3 games to play, one at home against the competition’s also-rans is a great place to be.
Need to find our football heads again though. That’s 3 matches – Killie, Hertz and Brugge – where we’ve failed to show up with our top game.
Our late Kick Off against Hearts gave the Brugge Coach a perfekt opportunity to study Celtic and Work Out His tactics. Brugge’s League Match finished Long before we started at Tynecastle.
I’m sure many of us (myself included) were thinking of an outside chance of making the top 8.
Would take 3 wins to give us an outside chance.
Possible yes, but highly unlikely.
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sorry, rubbish cut and paste there, i didnt name check who posted this but ……..
with 9 points each to play for the league structre and final placing have a real possibility of gpoing doen to goal difference.
we still could have a top 8 finish, even without winning all 3 games.
6th place Bayern Leverkusen are only on 10 points, in a cluster of seven teams on ten.
13th place Munich are one of 4 teams on 9 points.
20th placed celtic are one of 4 teams on 8 points.
so 13 teams above us that we could overtake some of them, and given the fixtrues to go, several feature games against each other so points have to be dropped.
but the same is also true of 12 teams below us, with a spread of 5 points that could still overtake us.
I really enjoyed last nights game, i thought it was tactical and physical, and a good match up, they were a good team, but both sided only had 3 shots each on target.
back to the league table, a debate on the beeb now is, will the big boys be happy to continue with this format, if they are losing out on straight top 8. by that they mean, real , psg, city playing poorly and losing fixtures, but the reality, the top 8 now is all teams from the big5 leagues.
i would still expect all the big boys going into the last couple of games, if they need to win they will find a way.
anyways, it is all so tight with still 3 games to play,
i wonder how our probabilities have changed on OPTA now.
Too many didn’t turn up last night, very lethargic, stood off them ,we would have lost that game in recent seasons, so a draw was a good result,I said same as P67,the Brugge coach is one to keep an eye on.
for the whole first half i was very frustrated that taylor and aj didnt overlap effectively or indeed fast enough to give the wide forwards an option to pass into the corner spaces, instead they repeadedly came inside and made a final backward pass.
engels imho had a stinker, callum did get bullied, hassled inot poor passes, and reo was all over the place apart from the right place.
kyogo’s game intelligence, the wee fella must get mightly frustrated that players cant pick him out.
anyways, its as old as the hill tactic, but everytime we get a thrown in the final thrid, i dont really get why we dont go down the line down the corner if our player cannot be offside, then use the space, it just becomes a sprint between our and their defender, we did it once and nearly made a chance.
i cant be the only one who was screaming at daizen when he had the chance to go past the fullback into space, and doubled back,
then scores 5 seconds later with a wonderful goal.
watched thousands of games, and what do i really know.
finally brendan interviews beofre and after match, such an intelligent man, his observations and comments are really top class management.
aff oot.
I dont know that were lethargic, i did think their man to man match up really worked defensively, and the way they break was very good,
2nd half at several points they would do craig levein proud as they had 6 across the back and four in front of them.
i take heart that we are competative, and like other say, when we have a set back, we dont collapse with the loss of another goal, or a sending off, in fact our discipline is really good, 6 yellows across 5 matches.
some stats from uefa to come.
It was a good point last night. We’re developing into a very hard team to beat.
Valle must start in Zagreb.
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/clubs/50050–celtic/statistics/
Celtic are undefeated in their last three games in the Champions League, their last joint longest unbeaten streak was from 10 December 2008 to 2 October 2012.
Celtic are unbeaten in their last five Champions League home games (W3 D2), having lost eight of their previous nine at Celtic Park before this (D1).
Andreas Skov Olsen attempted four shots in this game, the joint-highest total for a Club Brugge player in the Champions League .
Celtic’s Daizen Maeda scored his third Champions League goal this season, the joint most by a Japanese player in a single campaign (Daichi Kamada in 2022-23 and Shinji Kagawa in 2016-17).
Maeda’s three goals is the joint-most by a Celtic player in a single campaign, with Moussa Dembele the last player to do so for the club (2016-17).
Cameron Carter-Vickers became the first Celtic player to net an own goal in the Champions League since Jozo Simunovic against Anderlecht in December 2017.
Christos Tzolis created four chances, the joint-most on record (since 2003-04) for a Club Brugge player in a Champions League away game.
Carter-Vickers attempted 148 passes in this game, the highest total for a player in the Champions League.
Celtic seventh best overperforming side in Champions League – gossip
published at 08:12
08:12
Celtic are the seventh best overperforming side in this season’s Champions League comparing their points with playing budget, with Brest leading the way and Real Madrid at the bottom. (Transfermarkt), external
Celtic earned another £583,000 for Wednesday’s Champions League draw with Club Brugge. (The National), external
Liverpool will target Bayer Leverkusen’s 23-year-old former Celtic right-back, Jeremie Frimpong, should England international Trent Alexander-Arnold move to Real Madrid this summer. (Bild)
Tough night ,a very hard earned point, I’ll take that.
Engels again did nothing to inspire me, he’s a talent no doubt, can’t figure it out.
Huge difference when Bernardo and Valle came on in my view.
Poor Rio was just snuffed out, no room at all given to him.
Another point, just 2 more and we’re there
I love Celtic
KINGLuBO
racking my brain, have we ever scored 10 goals in the group stage before ?
Not sure if we have scored 10 but sure we have conceded 10 before.
Draw probably a fair result. Tough going at times against a side with a depth of CL and knockout stage European football over the last few years, helpfully unconstrained by being scared of pulling too far in front of Cercle Bruges.
Still in with a decent chance of the play-offs but so are plenty of other teams! Everything is just so unpredictable. Benfica beating Monaco away, Red Star 5-1 over Stuttgart and with so few draws the projected points totals could be higher than first thought.
All to play for – exciting/anxious times ahead!
saint stivs
Unbeaten in the CL from Dec 10 2008 to October 2 2012?
Four years undefeated?
Celtic are undefeated in their last three games in the Champions League, their last joint longest unbeaten streak was from 10 December 2008 to 2 October 2012.
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one of those daftly presented facts – because 09/10/11, we were not in the champions league.
Attendance watch.
v Bratislava 56,826
v RBL 57,551
v Brugge 57,456.
I was a bit suprised with the declared offficial attendance at 57,456.
I was suprised because Brugge took up the whole away allocation in the sout east corner, and took up the front stand east section and almost filled it.
This did mean the netting was in place for the first time, and there was some segregation.
If the blue meanies ever get back in town that is what their allocation will look like.
Sure there were individual single unoccupied seats but not enough to really notice on the tv.
The one area that had a few emptry rows was reserved once again for sponsors, and there was some empty hospitality boxes.
More games doesnt necessarily attract the sponsors for the freebies.
what is very noticeable, the kids who normally are there at league games are replaced by random adults on expensive tickets.
but hey ho.
Very observant and equally interesting pieces on last night by PAUL 67’s main article & BOURNESOUPRECIPE @11:15 AM(previous)
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I am not one for wholesale changes for the sake of it when it comes to league matches that “we should win”, however bearing in mind that we have seven games in December covering three competitions when fifteen league points, the League Cup v the Ibrox club and an important CL tie in Zagreb in the offing, I am prepared change my mind for our clash this Saturday with Ross County.
My selection would be the following:.
Sinisalo
Ralston
Trusty
Scales
Valle
Engels
McCowan
Bernardo
Forrest
Idah
Palma
Kasper, AJ, CCV, Taylor, Kuhn, Kyogo, Maeda, McGregor, Yang.
I doubt Brendan will change to this extent and starting without Calmac is probably tantamount to heresy, nevertheless with our points advantage over the Ibrox club now sitting at eleven and Aberdeen’s tough fixture at Tynecastle coming as they seemingly hit a rough patch – will there ever be a better time to make extended use of the squad with the insurance of a fully fit bench if needed? HH
Darwin on 28th November 2024 1:57 pm
I am not one for wholesale…
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I’d try that midfield on Saturday (Engels, Bernardo and Mccowan). I’ll need to check, but a quck glance last night left me thinking 10 or11 points might not be enough. Hopefully it will.
They sussed out the AJ/Kuhn combination, which has been excellent for us this season
!!Bada Bing!! on 28th November 2024 2:21 pm
They sussed out the AJ/Kuhn combination, which has been excellent for us this season
aj stopped doing the overlap because nicolas didnt give him the ball, and he was caught out of position to defend, tough shift if the wee man plays keep ball.
Was very impressed with Brugge. Ironically their young right back was skinned for the goal but otherwise excellent. Acclaim to Daizen for a magnificent effort. I think too much was made of CCV’s part in the OG. It was a team failure and the goal was deserved. The impromptu huddle was acknowledgement by the players that they were off it. However, good teams find a way and we have a very good team. Valle and Bernardo transformed us and I thought Jamesy and Idah made really good contributions when they came on. A good point.
I had the same thought about the ref. Really liked his refereeing of the game. Wasn’t buying the cheap attempts at fouls by either team.
If big Schmeichel gets injured, we could be in a bit of bother ,in some games when we are a few goals up,we should put Sinasolo on,to get some experience
One defeat in five games in Europe’s new gold medal competition is a record we should be very happy with. Brugge performance was a carbon copy of the way Celtic played Leipzig hunting down our players in packs with quickfire accurate passing movement and attacking with speed on the break. Except we didn’t collapse in the manner Leipzig did despite conceding with CCV’s horrendus mistake, we recovered admirably and snatched a vital result with another fabulous Daizan goal shades of Nics against the German’s.
I thought our defending against the Belgian’s set piece was excellent although they did miss some good chances in the second half thwarted by a terrfic save by Kasper at a crucial stage in the match. Another tough game in a couple of weeks time against Zagreb. Once again our depth of squad worked with the introduction Jamsie, Adam annd Paulo. Upwards and onwards.
Still no sign of that damned elusive handsome hun…..
Saint Stivs on 28th November 2024 12:43 pm
“I dont know that were lethargic, i did think their man to man match up really worked defensively, and the way they break was very good,”
Excellent point – their number 30, Jashari, stuck to Arnie like glue for the vast majority of the 60 mins he played and when he moved away from him he made sure that someone else picked him up
I thought it highly unlikely that a Belgian team would allow one of their own national team any space whatsoever given they are well aware of how good the young man is
On another point for those of us unlucky enough not to have a ticket for last nights match and who had to watch it on TNT I was more than a little surprised by the punditry from Lenny and big Johan after the match
Lenny was more than a little “surprised by the Brugge performance” – he obviously didn’t catch their previous match against a decent Aston VIlla side
Likewise both of them were of the opinion that we would have been dead and buiried “if Brugge had a decent striker…” This obviously wouldn’t include Christos Tzolis he scored a not too bad four goals in 36 mins on Saturday including a first half hat-trick
We were rank in the first half last night.Not one player playing to form.Some,like Kyogo,Khun,blameless,no supply.The problems all started with some ridiculous playing out from the back.Stupid passes,too slow.I cannot understand a pass out to a marked full back near the corner flags,who then tries to play it to the winger,facing him with an opponent on his heels,all 20 yards from our goal.Its madness.Resulted in their goal last night,but on very numerous other occasions we have been very fortunate.CCV most touches of the ball.FFS.
With our wingers,never saw a diagonal pass over the top all night.Too slow,by the time we made up our minds,midfielders all marked.
We took a full half to realise this.
Bernardo should a starter.Very clever,strong boy.As BR said,Engels nowhere near the finished article.Then why treat him as such in big games?.
Scottish Government reinstates winter fuel payments
Bada
I’m amazed that the Scottish government can afford this – or can they
I said after Leipzig that I was proud of Celtic
Well same again last night
Obviously a different game
We got bullied a wee bit in the first half but dealt with it as best we could
Second half we gave them a much better game
Draw fair result
In years gone by we would have lost that game by half time
So its a point won in my view
One wee gripe
James Forrest is a great contributor to any game in the SPL
CL Im not sure
I would have brought Yang on before James
But very proud of us great game and a great point
67ECW
!!Bada Bing!! on 28th November 2024 3:08 pm
Scottish Government reinstates winter fuel payments
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😁I’m thawing out already 👍
On another point for those of us unlucky enough not to have a ticket for last nights match
je suis.
this is exactly why i go on and on about unoccupied seats.
celtic ticket office do not do enough to get empties filled up, ie bums on seats.
if away team are not using their allocations get thhem back.
if uefa and sponsors are not using them, get them back (remembering season ticket holders are displace to let this happen).
how big does segregation need to be now they have the netting in place.
i do find this hard to believe but i suppose it happens, someone buys the package, but then doesnt attend all the games the same unoccupied seats can be seen at these games, once you see them you cant unsee them.
and the seats behind the goals with supposed restricted views, can we sell them like that, at a cheaper price ?
celtic stick up SOLD OUT signs online, but the reality is e
DARWIN
I can see where you’re coming from, but I would play our strongest 11. Then if we are a few goals to the good maybe we could experiment a bit, but not before.
My strongest 11 would be
Kasper, Aj CCV, Trusty and Valle
Bernardo, Callun=m and Hatate
Super Nic, Kyogo and the road runner
KINGLuBO
Some,like Kyogo,Khun,blameless,no supply.
kyogo maybe,
nicholas no, he lost the ball 23 times last night, he failed to either pass to a celt or give the overlapping ball to any of ours.
I actually thought James did well. His ball retention is excellent nowadays, maybe a result of thinking I’m not going to run away from this fullback. Valle and Bernardo made a big difference.
Btw, i thought trusty was very good again last night. He’s not flawless but has great recovery pace. He’s also more aggressive than our other centre backs. Reminds me a bit of boyata but better on the ball and a better passer.
BRRB at 2.53
Sorry pal, can’t help, haven’t seen him.