I’m reliably informed Legia will not ‘park the bus’ on Wednesday. Instead, with a three goal lead, they have enough legroom to play their normal game, attempt to compete in the middle of the park, and expose holes at the back, as they did last week. What’s more, they’re unsure they would be able to park the bus successfully for an extended period.
Set aside the debacle what was our defensive performance for a moment. The period of last week’s match Ronny Deila should initially concern himself with is the opening 25 minutes, when Celtic largely bossed the game. We then have to consider the 40 minutes we looked comfortable with 10 men; not an insignificant achievement away from home in Europe.
In short, Legia are a team which for large periods of the game we looked to have the measure of, despite the anomalies of playing a debutant, an inexperienced youth and with a left back who was left out. We should do far better at Murrayfield.
Legia believe they are going through. They unquestionably have the upper hand but the Celtic collapse in the final minutes, when we appeared to be too busy picking fights than sticking to plan, distorted the perceived difference between the teams. Celtic didn’t just underachieve, they did so on an epic scale. What Legia don’t know, is what a highly-functional Celtic team looks like.
We need to transform that epic failure into the kind of performance we are capable of in Europe. The defence needs to find the form which broke so many records last season. Ronny needs to find some of his awesomeness.
The reality is, despite last week’s debacle, we’re still in this tie – and should plan to go through.
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What is the stars,
Anything for the rest of the week?
RtRev
Maybe, likely not though.
I thought Armstrong was promising, but he didn’t show up for the fight at the Cup final.
May, he’s got a great attitude, works his socks off, and is doing well. More power to him. But I don’t think there’s a European level player there.
tallybhoy
18:52 on 4 August, 2014
Pogmathonyahun would disagree that all Dentists are robbers…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
If Leigh Griffiths is played as the main striker, I think we might pull it back.
jc2
18:51 on
4 August, 2014
Might be nothing but Barca are trying to sign Cuadrado from Fiorentina at the moment but Fiorentina are playing hardball and want €50 million.
HH
Is Jeff Louis better than Stuart Armstrong? Or just cheaper? Or is it an invalid comparison since Armstrong is Scottish & plays in SPFL therefore not worthy of our attention?
TBB
Ive not put them on a par with pirlo and ibrahimovic either but they are better than a lot of our plodders and have potential. Our plodders will not improve now.
gary67
19:22 on 4 August, 2014
You never know perhaps we are trying to sign Stuart Armstrong. Time will tell though who we get…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
NegAnon2
Nonthense is it?
Maybe the fees and salary just seem like a lot to me then……… given what we got.
Throw in Leigh Griffiths and NFL spent quite freely in comparison to any other club that plays without proper League sponsorship, or TV revenue.
We’re caught in a trap CSC
Repeating myself here
John McGinn at St Mirren was the best left footed :-) midfielder we came up against last season, I specifically remember last game at Parkhead, when he totally outplayed and bullied Scott Brown
Young McGinn was substituted right enough :-)
Hail Hail
I have just read the details of Steven Naismith’s great gesture of buying tickets for Everton games for unemployed fans. He also provided money to pay for meals for the homeless last christmas.
Although he greatly annoyed me when he found it hard to keep his balance in the box and made some nasty tackles , he has put back any faith I had in modern players having a social conscience as have our very own Kris and Lisa Commons.
A
Something about awesomeness in the title there.
I don’t know if this team is capable of awesome.
The last player you could perhaps say was awesome is Paul McStay.
I used to think Roy Aitken was awesome. He was my hero when he played with us.
Looking back he was a donkey. Had the turning circle of the titanic and was slower than a week in jail, skinned for fun in Europe – let’s face it this team, esp without broonie is gash.
Stuart Armstrong is two inches taller than Jeff Louis.
bournesouprecipe
so we’re tallist as well as scottishist
Denthists specialise in throbbery.
We have a liking for SPFL prospects just now because our recent failures have all been foreigners.
During the period when we were buying Stephen Pressley, Chris Killen and Derek Riordan we were shouting about how there were better options available abroad at lesser cost.
Does not mean there are no good players in Scotland, Robson & Hartley were functional with us for a couple of seasons but a youngster who makes it into the Dundee United set up is not ready to make it at Celtic.
Gary67
Louis Armstrong?
Does Jeff Louis have all his own teeef ?
Dentists alleviate throbbery……at least they are thupposed to.
Zbyszek.
You have mail.
Kenya Lose To Botwana..
And Can No Longer Qualify For The Africa Cup Tournament…..
That Should Please Victor’s Club-Manager No End….
Come December/January….
—
TR- agree, if we are to have any chance , LG has to start up front,through the middle.
Rumour Heiniken are gers next shirt sponsor.
SFTB
If figures are correct on spend last season
For £800k I know who I would have picked given the option of Amido Balde (had I watched ) or Jonnie Russell ? How about you ?
Hail Hail
TOMMY GEMMELL was in the Celtic side that trailed 4-0 against Partick Thistle at half-time in the 1971 League Cup Final.
And the Lisbon Lion said defiantly: “Not one of my team-mates or manager Jock Stein believed the game was over.
“We reckoned if they could score four goals against us in 45 minutes, then we were more than capable of scoring five against them in the same time scale.
“Honestly, no-one in the Hampden dressing room during the interval in that game thought we were a beaten team.
“History shows now, of course, that we only scored one in the second-half through Kenny Dalglish and the trophy went to Thistle.
“That was easily the most sensational, shocking defeat in my time as a Celtic player.
“But I hope the current squad have the same never-say-die attitude as we had when they face Legia Warsaw at Murrayfield on Wednesday night.
“Never write off Celtic. If the Poles do that, they will be in trouble. If they think all the hard work has been done in building up a 4-1 lead, then they could have a rude awakening.
“I would take my old club to score three goals in a home leg against ANY opposition in Europe.”
Gemmell, the only Scot to score in two European Cup Finals, admitted, though, that the players may miss their twelfth man – the support at Celtic Park.
He added: “What a lift they used to give us when we were playing European ties at Parkhead.
“The fans were like an extra player for us. What a din they kicked up and they must have terrified the opposition.
“It’s difficult to pick one particular game where they roared us onto victory simply because there are so many to choose from.
“One of my favourites was the encounter against Benfica in 1969 when the first leg was played in Glasgow.
“They were still a top notch team at the time and, of course, they possessed the wonderful Eusebio.
“I thumped in one from long range in only the second minute and I thought the roof was going to come off the stand.
“They kept up the volume for the next 88 minutes and we won 3-0 with other goals from Willie Wallace and Harry Hood.
“However, our Portuguese opponents showed that you can pull back a three-goal deficit in the game in Lisbon.
“We were one minute from a 3-2 aggregate victory when they equalised and we couldn’t believe it.
“In those sort of circumstances, you can let your head down and believe it just isn’t going to be your night.
“Their fans were in a frenzy all the way through the extra 30 minutes, but we held out and, fortunately, Billy McNeill called it right when the tie was decided on the toss of the coin.
“Not the ideal way to go through, of course, but we weren’t complaining, I can assure you.”
Gemmell believes the current crop of players will have to display that sort of courage and spirit against the Poles.
He added: “They lost their way in Warsaw after Efe Ambrose was sent off just before half-time.
“The central defence has got to be more compact and the full-backs in the team should remember their main job in the team is to defend.
“I wince when I watch Ambrose trying to walk the ball past defenders while he is in his own territory and that is obbviously very risky.
“The great West German Franz Beckenbauer had all the ability in the world and he was a class act.
“But I saw him hoof it into the crowd on numerous occasions when he knew he didn’t have the time or space to elaborate.
“So, if the back lot keep their concentration, the midfield works hard and the strikers take the opportunities that will assuredly come their way, then there could still be the possibility of Champions League football at Celtic this season.
“It may be more Mission Improbable than Mission Impossible, but don’t bet against my old club turning this one around.”
Turning under-performance into awesomeness
That is what is known as whistling through one’s backside on the windiest of nights.
See Mathews’ name being added to potential exodus to compensate for thrown away CL money.
People in very high places at CP should be taking a long hard look at themselves.
Jeff Louis is now on his way to Liege…
Or the Middle East…
Or Glasgow.
According to sports journalists making it all up….
Back to the politics
Cowiebhoy
19:32 on
4 August, 2014
Repeating myself here
John McGinn at St Mirren was the best left footed :-) midfielder we came up against last season, I specifically remember last game at Parkhead, when he totally outplayed and bullied Scott Brown
Young McGinn was substituted right enough :-)
Hail Hail
And he would literally die for a Celtic jersey.
the singing detective demands the resignation of campbell ogilvie
18:49 on 4 August, 2014
————————————————-
Sorry to interrupt, but I think you will find that the moderate beheaders in Syria are being trained, equipped and funded by the United States, England, Turkey, France and Israel as well as the Arabian Gulf countries.
Remember that Syria is second on the list of nations which the Zionists wish to destroy,Iran at the top of the said list.
Hezbollah in Lebanon is a close third.
See you now have tens of thousands of so-called Jihadists, armed to the teeth and running amok in a country which shares a border with Israel… yet they have yet to fire a shot at Israel, their mortal enemies, allegedly.
The Israelis have even set up field hospitals to treat moderate beheaders and “rebels”, difficult to believe, I know, but true none the less.
Anyway,I hope that you find the information above to be useful.
Thanks.
tictaewin
19:34 on
4 August, 2014
Something about awesomeness in the title there.
I don’t know if this team is capable of awesome.
The last player you could perhaps say was awesome is Paul McStay.
I used to think Roy Aitken was awesome. He was my hero when he played with us.
Looking back he was a donkey. Had the turning circle of the titanic and was slower than a week in jail, skinned for fun in Europe – let’s face it this team, esp without broonie is gash.
Never heard of a guy called Henrik?
MWD,
not sure if I will be an Aye or Naw in the independence referendum,
but I have to say I am in complete agreement with your post at 18.57
HH
Something stinks about present ethnic cleansing in Gaxa.
Israelis claim that they are only defending themselves by destroying tunnels that give Hamas access to Israel.
Like Rome, these tunnels were not built in a day.
Why, with one of the most vaunted intelligence services in the world, did Israel not detect and destroy these tunnels as they were being built.
Seems to me that, perhaps as a smokescreen for something else, Israel has simply delayed destroying tunnels until it suited them.
quonno- the fire sale could start on Thursday morning
!!Bada Bing!!
20:06 on
4 August, 2014
quonno- the fire sale could start on Thursday morning
Who knows, in some folks heads it may have already started and come next June the happy clappers will applaud another seemingly, and I repeat seemingly healthy balance sheet.
Gordon
I’m sorry to hear your story. I was in the city and Celtic supporters were doing well. I saw guys on Nowy Swiat. PMTYH told me there was young lad who met Pope Francis.They were good example of fans backing the team on tour.
I know that I have kicked the nuts out of this one.
Perhaps PL could explain why, when CL money is so important, Celtic resolutely refuse to invest to ensure qualification?
At about ten past eight this morning a fight took place. In the red corner was a well paid Israeli pilot in a highly sophisticated jet plane loaded with deadly rockets, his entire weaponry probably cost a few million. In the blue corner stood an 8 yr old Palestinian girl perhaps clutching a little rag doll. The brave Israeli pressed his button the rocket whistled in , good shot old chap direct hit on the enemy’s house. Another Zionist hero but God has a new beautiful 8yr old angel.
@tictaewin 19:34
Roy Aitken was as “slow as a week in the jail” ?
Correction. Roy was the fastest player on the books.
If you get the opportunity to meet any players who played while he was there, I’m sure they’ll confirm.
HH