Spain were cut low by Chile, England by Uruguay, Italy by Costa Rica. Argentina were pushed to the last gasp by Iran, Germany had to come from behind to match Ghana. Add to this the merit badges earned by Croatia against Brazil, Bosnia against Argentina and the Aussies against the Dutch, and we have a remarkable list of performances by underdogs against countries who to some extent fancied their chances for the trophy.
The most striking feature of all these performances is the way the results were achieved. Apart from their own dead rubber in the Nou Camp last season, Celtic beat or narrowly lost to Barcelona in a series of games over the last decade by defending their 18 yard box as though their lives depended on it. Ventures forward were never supported by many players. We’ve not been alone, this is the way lower-resource clubs have taken on the super-rich in the Champions League.
World Cup 2014 has seen this change. Australia, Iran and Bosnia will head home proud of their performances, something which takes balls. When we’re inevitably drawn against Barca next time in the Champions League, should we press them high up the field? My feeling is, we would be slaughtered, but at one point in this tournament, we need to mature.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.
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649 Comments- Pages:
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thebarcamole
Nae offence taken :-)
gary67
I’m 43 and it’s easily been the best that I can remember. I’m hoping that questions about it come up when the quiz returns :-)
Tricoloured Ribbon
11:00am
Phil ( nice but dim) Neville
“Marcus de Beasley “
Praecepta,
Thanks pal.
Great assist from Ronaldo with no room for error. . .hadn’t done much at all up to then. USA v Germany could be interesting. . . Klinsmann v Loew, master v pupil, and a draw puts both teams through.
HT
Don’t know why Neil never left then.
But it must have taken it’s toll . Don’t think we’ll ever know why he left but would be surprised if what he went through had nothing to do with it.
Beatbhoy
The USA needed sammi in the corner ala the end of the Moscow game at Celtic park
TBM
Have you just noticed ?
When the 5 way agreement was signed. CQN became Celtic quick view. The antithesis of its stated aims. AH, Phil and Paul have to play ball or no crumbs. It is how so called journalism works but if you replace Jack Irvine with Peter Lawwell its the EXACT same game that is being played.
HH
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
.
*Googles Anonymity*
Yea l was Correct..I Do know what it Means..
Maybe time for CQN to have the 12 Traditions like AA..(With the Emphasis on the second A)..
If Sought..
To quote a Guy Who used to write on Here a Lot..
Hmmm..
Summa
Owen Coyle the manager yet ?
aiden bhoy
You’re right it will have definitely have taken it’s toll but it wouldn’t make sense for him to leave now as a result of it when things have been much quieter.
I happen to disagree with many Tims, I think one day we will find out the real reason.
Too many people already know me thinks :-)
HT… No you bud… No way… Always think of you as footsoldier… Hope that is taken in the spirit intended… HH… TBM
Tbj
That’s exactly what they needed to do.
They even got a second chance to keep it just seconds later, but lost it again in the Portuguese half.
Could turn out to be very like the Honduran striker. . . .Costly.
Awenaw… Aye and naw, just don’t post that much anymore… Seems to me that the high heid yins on the CQN are a bit like Sellick in microcosm, eh! Regards & Hail Hail… TBM
TBM
It is my friend, trust me :-)
Hope you and the family are well.
Are the American soccer fans now waiting for overtime?
Get these Bhoys back.
Season tickets will fly off the shelf.
Celtic///…\\\Celtic
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
01.04
If you replace Jack Irvine with Peter Lawwell its the EXACT same game that is being played.
———————————————————————————————————————-
A completely inaccurate sentence. Who do you expect to believe that?
HT… Cheers… TBM
Guy
Explain why you see that as inaccurate and I will answer your question
HH
G64
We stayed at Orange Lake in Kissimmee. Frequented the Lucky Leprechaun on Int. Drive.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
01.34
Jack Irvine’s supposed expertise is in controlling public opinion by fear and intimidation. Don’t think that’s worked.
Peter Lawwell, apparently, is a successful salesman who supports Celtic.
Can’t disagree.
There is nothing in the public record that makes me think the two individuals are interchangeable.
Gene’s a Bhoy’s name
16:16 on
22 June, 2014
the celt45
first game i can remember was the 1961 cup final replay
——————————————————————————-
HH Gene!
Was not a cup game I first saw him play in, but I can clearly recall the yellow jersey and the bunnet.
I also remember getting back from a game and going out for a kick around with some friends. When I came back in, my dad (God rest him) asked me what I had been up to. “Playing like Frank Haffey” I said. After a wee silent moment, he said ” good son, jist as long as ye don’t sing like him !”
Took me a few years to work that one out!!
Keep it lit!!
TC45
eddieinkirkmichael
21:04 on
22 June, 2014
Tontine Tim
20:54
Did he not run a pub just over the bridge at Bonhill?
* wee bit late with this but yes the Eagle Inn known locally as the Evil Inn.
Ok, I think I’ve mentioned that the little things I post are, habitually, invisible to others.
Anyway, I think Al Jazeera news on my tv, channel83, is commendableat all times.
Stop arguing about the colour of shite for ( insert name of diety)s sake.
Sorry to have missed oldtims BBQ yesterday, sounds like a hoot.
Lovely picture of Efe on Facebook Celtic page right now.
HH
Perpetual war and destabilisation.
CFR.
Zionism and the Masonic.
The real Anti-Christian entity on this earth.
TBP recently laid a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl.
What was that all about?
La la la la la la la…
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7M7bJpAuV1o
Champions League draw: Celtic await Euro opponents
by STEPHEN HALLIDAY
Updated on the
23 June
2014
TODAY has been marked as a red letter day in Ronny Deila’s diary ever since last November when he guided Stromsgodset to their first Norwegian title win for 43 years.
What Deila could not have envisaged seven months ago was that the Champions League draw he has been so eagerly anticipating would come around with him in charge of Celtic.
The 38-year-old’s coaching debut in European football’s elite tournament will now be at the helm of a club holding far higher expectations of progress to the group stages than the one he left earlier this month. Today’s second qualifying round draw at Uefa headquarters in Nyon could also hand Deila an instant return to Norway.
Stromsgodset are one of the possible opponents for Celtic, who are among the seeded clubs. They would represent one of the more difficult tasks the Scottish champions could face, although Deila would at least lack nothing in inside knowledge of the team from Drammen.
In a second qualifying round which Uefa normally draw on a loosely regional basis, Celtic are likely to face opponents from northern Europe. Perhaps the side they will be most keen to avoid are Swedish champions Malmö, the club who failed to tempt Deila away from Stromsgodset in January this year.
Now coached by former Norway manager Age Hareide, Malmö are seasoned European campaigners and Scottish football needs little reminding of their record 9-0 aggregate defeat of a hapless Hibs side in the Europa League last season. This year, Malmö are making a strong defence of their domestic title where they are currently six points clear of Elfsborg – the team Celtic edged past 1-0 on aggregate in the Champions League third qualifying round last season – after 12 games of the campaign.
A less testing introduction to life as Celtic manager for Deila may come in the form of British or Irish opposition. A rematch with Cliftonville, the Northern Ireland champions swept aside 5-0 on aggregate by Celtic at the same stage of last season’s Champions League, is a possibility.
The New Saints, the Oswestry-based Welsh champions, have only made it beyond the second qualifying round once in seven previous attempts and are another who would provide notionally straightforward progress for Celtic.
St Patrick’s Athletic, the League of Ireland champions who drew 2-2 with Aberdeen in a Dublin friendly on Saturday, are also in the geographical mix to face Celtic, along with Icelandic champions KR Reykjavik.
The first leg of Celtic’s second qualifying round tie will take place on 15 or 16 July, with the return fixture taking place a week later. The home match will be the first of what they hope will be three successful qualifiers to take place at Murrayfield which is to be their temporary European base while Celtic Park is unavailable due to the Commonwealth Games. Today, the harsh reality of Scotland’s steady slide down the Uefa co-efficient rankings in recent years will manifest itself with the earliest ever start to a European campaign – discounting the old Intertoto Cup – for one of the country’s clubs. Aberdeen will enter the Europa League in the first qualifying round with the first leg to take place on 3 July. Derek McInnes’s side will at least be seeded at this stage and will hope to benefit from Uefa’s geographical groupings.
The Northern Ireland pair of Glenavon and Crusaders, Welsh teams Airbus UK and Aberystwyth Town and League of Ireland sides Derry City and Dundalk are among those who would provide logistically uncomplicated opposition for the Dons. The draw for the second qualifying round will also take place, a stage of the competition in which Motherwell and St Johnstone will enter the fray. Motherwell will be seeded in this round as they participate in Europe for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, testimony to the levels of domestic consistency achieved at Fir Park in recent times.
Scottish Cup winners St Johnstone will be among the unseeded teams in the second qualifying round and could face a repeat of last season’s tie at the same stage, with Rosenborg among their possible opponents. The 2-1 aggregate win by Tommy Wright’s team against the former Champions League regulars from Norway was one of the most notable achieved by a Scottish team in recent years.
Collectively, it can only be hoped Scotland’s four representatives all make reasonable progress this season to arrest the country’s plummeting Uefa ranking.
If Celtic can reach the group stage of the Champions League for a third successive year, this time supported by longer runs in the Europa League by the other three teams, it would be a start.
The Champions League first and second qualifying rounds draw is scheduled to begin at 11am UK time, with the Europa League draws beginning at noon.
The 2014/15 season kicks off with the draw for the UEFA Champions League first and second qualifying rounds at 12.00CET on Monday – streamed live on UEFA.com – and the seeding posts have been confirmed.
Six teams are involved in the first qualifying round on 1/2 and 8/9 July, among them Lincoln FC, who will be Gibraltar’s maiden entrant in any UEFA club competition. They are one of three unseeded clubs along with FC Banants and SP La Fiorita; each will face either FC Levadia Tallinn, HB Tórshavn or FC Santa Coloma.
All three winners will already know their second qualifying round opponents for 15/16 and 22/23 July as that draw is made in the same ceremony. Among the 31 teams entering at that stage are former European champions Celtic FC and FC Steaua Bucureşti, who each went all the way from second qualifying round to group stage last season. Both are seeded, with the 34 contenders pre-separated into three groups from which their respective opponents will be drawn.
In both draws, balls containing the seeded clubs from one group are placed in one bowl, with balls for the unseeded clubs in the same group positioned in another. A ball is taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, where they are shuffled. The first team drawn plays its first match at home, against the second team drawn.
Full list of 2014/15 UEFA Champions League participants/coefficients
First qualifying round draw (seeded teams in bold)
FC Levadia Tallinn (EST)
HB Tórshavn (FRO)
FC Santa Coloma (AND)
FC Banants (AND)
SP La Fiorita (SMR)
Lincoln FC (GIB)
Second qualifying round draw
Group 1
FC BATE Borisov (BLR)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
FC Sheriff (MDA)
NK Maribor (SVN)
FK Aktobe (KAZ)
FC Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO)
KS Skënderbeu (ALB)
Winners first qualifying round match 1
HŠK Zrinjski (BIH)
FK Sutjeska (MNE)
Group 2
Celtic FC (SCO)
AC Sparta Praha (CZE)
FK Partizan (SRB)*
Debreceni VSC (HUN)
ŠK Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
FK Ventspils (LVA)
Malmö FF (SWE)
KR Reykjavík (ISL)
The New Saints FC (WAL)
Cliftonville FC (NIR)
Winners first qualifying round match 2
Winners first qualifying round match 3
Group 3
FC Steaua Bucureşti (ROU)
GNK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
PFC Ludogorets Razgrab (BUL)
Legia Warszawa (POL)
Qarabağ FK (AZE)
HJK Helsini (FIN)
F91 Dudelange (LUX)
Strømsgodset IF (NOR)
Saint Patrick’s Athletic (IRL)
Valletta FC (MLT)
VMFD Žalgiris (LTU)
*Pending CFCB decision
Celtic eye up Stefan Scougall swoop
CELTIC are considering a shock move for Scotland Under-21 star Stefan Scougall.
By: Scott BurnsPublished: Mon, June 23, 2014
Express Sport understands new Hoops assistant John Collins has alerted boss Ronny Deila to the Sheffield United playmaker.
Collins knows the talented 21-year-old from his time as Livingston director of football when he described Scougall as one of the best young players he has ever worked with.
Scougall has since added to his reputation in England’s League One after leaving Livi in January, becoming a main player in Nigel Clough’s side and helping the Blades in their run to the semi-finals of last term’s FA Cup.
United will scrap to keep their young Scot but know they could be fighting a losing battle if Deila wants to firm things up to make his first Celtic signing.
Blades defender Harry Maguire, 21, is also on Celtic’s radar, while talks continue with Scotland keeper Craig Gordon.
Morning all.
Turned up for work one hour early by mistake. What a halfwit.
Portugal should join the diving World Cup again.
The fine Northern Soul song ‘I’m waiting’ by Bill Bush has been in my mind. Nirvana’s ‘Dumb’ also.
Have a fine day.
Guy
Both are PR disciples that want control over disseminated information that allows them to control and assert an agenda.
Jack Irvine does it for money. Peter Lawwell does it for our board who just want to make money.
HH
With sincere apologies for the repetition of my recent morning reports may I wish you a good morning from a dry, warm bright and sunny through broken clouds east Kilbride.
Morning Celts.
Praying we draw New Saints!
I see Boydachenko for the Zombies stories have started…