Thank you, Celtic, growing the family

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“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“*!*! you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”
“Thank you, Celtic.”

That’s the response from Scottish Premiership clubs on notification they will each receive £365k solidarity payment from Uefa for Celtic reaching the Champions League group stage. At the bottom end of the league, that will pay the wages of six members of the squad for a year.  To one and all: You’re welcome.

Further up the table, it could make the difference between being underwater and not needing to seek borrowing. Be in no doubt, this is a great day to go to work at all top flight Scottish clubs. Directors across the country, who keep their clubs afloat with personal loans, would have been on their feet cheering as Scott Sinclair’s opener hit the net – all of them.

I loved the interactive billboard campaign which launched within minutes of full time: “This is how it feels to be in the Champions League”. As a club, we are hitting all the bases right now; opening avenues for the whole of Glasgow, and Scotland, to enjoy and participate in our success. This is how it feels to grow the Celtic family.

As for the weak-minded among you: there was never any danger last night. Without profligacy in front of goal, we would have been ahead at the break. Scott Brown learned that two mistakes in quick succession is likely to lead to a goal, while Mikael Lustig satisfied his long-held curiosity as to what would happen if he was the last defender, and instead of closing down an opponent rushing towards goal, he backed off.  It would have been a great learning experience for some of the young players involved.

Rijeka couldn’t lay a glove on Olympiakos last night, while Sevilla only just clung onto their advantage over Istanbul Basaksehir, who were a goal away from qualifying for the group stage, and elevating Celtic to pot 3. Our hopes now lie with Hoffenheim overturning a 1-2 deficit at Liverpool. Pot 4 beckons. Still, I’m not complaining.

Hospitality for four on Saturday: meals, bar, Directors’ Box tickets, the lot!!

Celtic sponsor, Intelligent Car Leasing, have offered four full hospitality tickets for Saturday’s game against St Johnstone. You and three friends could benefit from a stunning pre-match meal in the Walfrid, halftime refreshments, as well as a complimentary bar before and after the game.

You will also watch the game from the Directors’ Box. In collaboration with this raffle, we are raising money for Mary’s Meals. Over 3,000 children in Malawi and Liberia eat each school day in a kitchen supported by Celtic Quick News readers. You can donate a minimum of £5 here.

To win, email your MyDonate confirmation to me, celticquicknews@gmail.com with the answer to this question IN THE SUBJECT LINE:

How many Champions League qualifying games have Celtic played in the Astana Arena before last night?*

Other emails with the correct answer will also be considered. Competition closes at 14:00 Thursday afternoon. You need to be able to collect your tickets in Glasgow on Friday. Please ensure you leave reliable contact information on your email. Good luck!

*Failure rate on this question is higher than with any previous competition.  If you know your history… ooft!  It was only four years ago.

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NEW CQN PODCAST – PAUL DYKES PRESENTS WITH FORMER CELTIC CAPTAIN ANDY LYNCH AND SPECIAL GUEST PAT STANTON

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413 Comments

  1. What is the Stars on

    In my opinion

     

    Lustig should be exempt from criticism for the rest of his Celtic career

     

    If for nothing else then for his salt in the wound 5th goal at Ibrox recently

     

     

    Seriously though..no scapegoats

     

    win as team ..lose as a team

     

    Great achievement by the players to get to the group stages.

     

    Season is a massive success no matter what happens now…….and its the 23rd August….

  2. Davidopolous

     

     

    If people can in fact, make their own minds up, it must be just a coincidence that they reflect the general view created by influential sources.

     

    Those sources , it would seem, spoke of a nervy time for Celtic in qualifying in spite of a four goal success. I have no doubt that at 4-1 the unthinkable would have seemed possible but for the vast majority of the game, the most likely outcome was that Celtic were extremely likely to prevail. If people really were not influenced in these matters, then a feeling of comfortable happiness would be he order of the day today.

     

     

    JJ

  3. In the first leg they started to struggle in the second half and we scored 3 without reply. The same happened to us over there in Asia but we still scored 2. The best team qualified without a doubt

  4. BABASONICOS71

     

    Very interesting indeed – should do it with a Tim and a sevcoite or as we know it Tax payer and Tax dodger

  5. WITS

     

    I think you should wait until after the Astana game before calling the season a massive success.

     

     

    JJ

  6. JJ, I was that in that happy comfortable place yesterday, never really felt threatened, and yes I was watching the game:-)

     

     

    At the worst point Astana were still looking to score another three goals!

     

     

    Highly unlikely doesn’t cover it.

     

     

    Their defence was “paper thin” as quoted from Paddy Gallagher, we were always likely to score again.

  7. GENE…

     

    The tax dodger would refuse the drink as it’s in a green bottle.Ruin everything they huns,even experiments. ;)

  8. weebobbycollins on

    It’s 3-1, Leigh misses a sitter, they go up the park and score, it’s 4-1…if Griff scores that goal it’s 3-2 and we possibly go on and win the game…small margins, they say…how true!

     

    It’s 4-1 and they miss a sitter…oh shut up! The game’s over……

  9. Paul67

     

    You’ve been guilty more times than I can be bothered to remember of the levels of hubris you so often accused SDM of.

     

    Yesterday and today’s blog only continued that vein. We are definitely going to win etc, fortunately there was a little more mental toughness among the players than simply to assume that the game was finished.

     

    I’d hoped that decades of supporting Celtic would disuade assumptions, obviously not.

     

     

    And as I’ve said before, Craig Gordon isn’t a quarter of the player when put under consistent pressure in a game

  10. GENE on 23RD AUGUST 2017 5:02 PM

     

    SSN

     

     

    where’s Kirsty – still in the pub:)

     

     

    —–

     

    Savage.

  11. When’s this old transfer thingy kick in btw ?

     

     

    – Paddy stadium open day ?

     

    – South African centre half at airport ?

     

    – Erik with Copenhagen scarf in Denmark above his head ?

     

    – Henderson with Neil Lennon at press conference ?

     

     

    – Last minute mystery man from EPL ?

  12. JJ

     

     

    I don’t disagree with your assessment/prediction ref old Father Time catching up with lustig’s pace. I guess it was the patronising tone that irked me, the more so when it’s directed at a player who’s fought through some crappy ill fortune in terms of injury and who has shown such an affinity with our Club.

     

     

    My soft spot for Mikka doesn’t prevent me advocating Ralston gradually but consistently replacing him as he starter over the next couple of seasons.

     

     

    As for scapegoats…..if WITS says nae scapegoats, then nae scapegoats it is!

     

    ;-)

     

     

    HH jamesgang

  13. Bob O’ Baldy on 23rd August 2017 5:11 pm

     

     

    And as I’ve said before, Craig Gordon isn’t a quarter of the player when put under consistent pressure in a game

     

     

    =================================

     

     

    That will be the Craig Gordon who admitted his culpability at their fourth then turned round minutes later and made a world-class flip-over, readjusting his leap in mid-air to read a deflected certainty and stop them going 5-1 up. And then finished the game clutching everythign they therew near him, calming the nerves of the youngsters in front of him who he kept on their toes with non-stop encouragement. Watch the highlights – never shut his gob all that last period of pressure.

     

     

    The same Craig Gordon who saved the jerseys in the heat of Israel last year, stopping the Be’er Sheva penalety that was the difference between CL qualification and Europa laeague.

     

     

    Aye, that Craig Gordon?

     

     

    The charalatan…

  14. Gene

     

     

    Ha ha. One of the classic tales of hun skullduggery of the times.

     

     

    Just like the phantom ‘offside’ goal from Cadette at Snake Mountain…

     

     

    And there are sooooo many more….

  15. Out top defender and Keeper getting it tight today.

     

     

    6 qualification games, 5 clean sheets.

     

     

    I’ll just leave that out there:

     

     

    6 Champions League qualification games. FIVE clean sheets.

     

     

    Aye…

  16. Sandman

     

     

    He didn’t come up for any corners at their end at the end of the match.

     

     

    Ergo he is a useless jambo bassa!

     

     

    ;-)

     

    AyeRightCSC

  17. Possible next away fixture in ECL team

     

     

    Gordon, Lustig, Jozo, Boyata, KT, Eboue, Brown,, Roberts, Ntcham, Sinclair, Dembele

     

     

    FIVE changes from last night. Half a team to come in.

     

     

    Perspective.

  18. Yoda, I’m usually the super critical one.

     

     

    Some of the slating on here of some of our players, although I see were you are coming from is OTT considering for all of the players in question they have just given us not only CL qualifaction for the second year running but also gave us Celtic the Invincible’s. One bad game with a makeshift and inexperienced defence does not make a bad team or player.

     

     

    Hopefully lesson’s learned and Jozo is available for all CL G games as there hopefully are no plastic pitches to worry about.

     

     

    Last nights result and the two legs are and were a big improvement on last season. We gave ourselves a magnificent chance with the home result and display after initial 30 mins when it was eachy peachy. Last nights game, as well as makeshift defence, I put down to Astana’s nothing to lose mentality in the first 20 mins of second half. Once Brendan re-organised we comfortably qualified after losing by one odd goal in 7. We also could have easily been 3-1 up at half time.

     

     

    Hail! Hail!

     

     

    MWD

  19. I’d drop or sell everyone in the squad who’s made an error at some point.By not winning every game to nil with less than 100% possession they’re just not cutting it.

     

     

    ;)

  20. Craig Gordon

     

     

    Euro Skelper

     

     

    Kept us in more games than he’s thrown away…

     

     

    Made some huge saves in his time between the sticks..

     

     

    Including last night..

     

     

    The Quiet Man CSC

  21. QHERE.

     

    No wonder you don’t post very often, you’ll not fit in with a sensible attitude like that :-))

     

    Post more often please.

     

    Hail Hail

  22. @HarryBradyCU

     

    If you’ve got nothing planned log back on to Twitter around 7pm tonight…

     

     

    Paddy time ?

     

    More Jozo nonsense ?

  23. embramike says ” Yer team’s deid…Beat it!” on

    Should be close to a sell out crowd for Saturday’s ‘top of the table’ clash with Sainties, so ideal opportunity to present new signings to the crowd?

     

    Get through Saturday then it’s the 2 week International break before Hamilton away then first CL game midweek. Hopefully Dedryk and Moussa will be nearing fitness by then and our new signings had a chance to bed in. Good times ahead !

  24. JnP

     

    First I’ve heard Qhere and sensible in the same sentence. Suffice it to say Celtic played wonderful football last night a joy to behold.

  25. If griff had scored a goal like their 4th we would have been praising him not criticising the keeper

  26. jamesgang on 23rd August 2017 5:37 pm

     

     

    Sandman

     

     

    He didn’t come up for any corners at their end at the end of the match.

     

     

    Ergo he is a useless jambo bassa!

     

     

    :-)

     

     

    AyeRightCSC

     

     

     

    =====================

     

     

    :))))))

     

     

    You’ve been raiding the old CQN files marked : ‘Most Mental Reasons Ever Why We Shouldn’t Sign Certain Players’.

  27. Gene on 23rd August 2017 6:03 pm

     

     

    If griff had scored a goal like their 4th we would have been praising him not criticising the keeper

     

     

    ============================

     

     

    Or blaming Mick Lustig for managing to isolate the guy on the byline and force him into hitting it at the keeper, near-post instead of the killer cut-back.

  28. STV News carrying footage of the giant Glasgow billboards, shining green and white joy all ove rthe city.

     

     

    Can feel the earth beginning to tremble as depressed Huns everywhere finally look up…

     

     

    The Perma-Rage Apocalypse is upon us.