Efe Ambrose looked a tad nervous at the start of last night’s game. He wasn’t the only one. Adam Matthews was pressed into an early return from injury, a forced change, but Celtic’s decision to deploy a more adventurous line-up than in previous encounters with Barcelona was by choice.
The result was 36% possession, heady heights compared to last season’s win and narrow defeat, but oh what a price. When Barca went 4-0 up early in the second half I suggested “This could be our record defeat”. My Dad said “Artmedia was only one more than this”. I meant THE record defeat, not the record European defeat. We were a few bounces of the ball away.
Results like this are always possible at this level if the game plan is wrong. In the minutes before kick off on Champions League nights, when the stomach knots with tension, I tell myself there is no shame in defeat, but “let’s make sure it’s not 3-0 again”. This must always be the priority. There seems to be a couple of rules:
If we defend the 18 yard line, in numbers, we have a chance of winning Champions League games, but beauty will very much be in the eye of the beholder.
If we chase vanity marks, as we did at home to Juventus and Milan, and away to Barcelona, we’ll lose heavily.
Last season’s Champions League campaign was a textbook lesson on how pot 4 teams from weak leagues should tackle the tournament. Spartak Moscow had more possession at Celtic Park than Barcelona had at the Camp Nou last night, but Celtic won both games against the Russians. There is a shout out loud lesson here.
Between now and the beginning of the next European campaign we have a great opportunity to build upon the type of football we saw in the last two domestic games. If we do this well, we can prepare for next season with a more mature model, but venues like the Camp Nou should only see our bedrock tactics for the foreseeable future.
The Celtic Graves Society are commemorating the life of Peter Scarff, who died of TB 80 years ago this week at the age of 25. Peter, a teammate of John Thomson and Jimmy McGrory, scored 54 goals in 112 games for Celtic before contracting his fatal illness at 23. A short service will be held at Peter’s grave in Kilbarchan Cemetery at 11:30 this Saturday, 14 December. You are all welcome.
There’s a Celtic shirt signed by the first team squad available for auction on ebay in aid of the Wellburn Care Home in Dundee, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. It’s currently going for a song, so get there and fill your boots.
“The centre of Astana very much had a western feel- vibrant, affluent with a splattering of large video screens on the buildings advertising top of the range cars to luxury apartments. With skyscraper office blocks and top-end hotels with marble kerbstones, this very much is one side of Asia.
“The stadium itself looked fairly new, the shape of it reminded me of Tyncastle, thankfully we were made welcome here though!”
From a trip to Kazakhstan page 136 of the 2014 CQN Annual, available here:
Sean Fallon, Celtic’s Iron Man:
726 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- »
Moonbeams WD. I understand fella as I am exactly the same , H.H.
Theoriginalsadiesboy
No, my sister doe my ironing.
hola,
someone shared a John Spillane video in a celtic pub in cork, anyone got a link so i canpass on, cant find it just now,
ta in advance.
Does
Tonydonnelly….
Have you got an Easdale Brothers bus pass?
Anger, acceptance, embarrassment now reality. We were punching above our weight in that group. We had a bit of bad luck in the early games and a stupid sending off. Backwater league (SPL) that generates minimum income compared to the smaller teams in other leagues. We will always struggle in European competition unless we amass massive debt or find a league that will generate the funds to finance our European ambitions.
Tonydonnelly….
Are you Alf Garnett in Green and White?
Saint Stivs
http://youtu.be/2Nd0Yhv9Cbs
this one ?
Paddy Gallagher….
Don’t think we punched above our weight at all in that group.
3 points meant we probably punched at our weight.
tonydonnelly67
10:54 on 13 December, 2013
‘Theoriginalsadiesboy
No, my sister doe my ironing.’
####
Is that since the unfortunate incident when the phone rang when you were doing it yourself?
BRTH – I hadn’t read your Barcelona/Bruce Springsteen tale before – good stuff.
However, people in Liverpool will take issue with your suggestion that the blaugrana colours are derived from the Swiss Guards. One of the first players for Barcelona went to Merchant Taylor’s school (in Crosby, Liverpool) and he drew on the school’s blue and maroon colours that were to become Barca’s.
Thus it led to the following amusing exchange on one of Merseyside’s playing fields:
“How come your school play in Barcelona colours?”
“We don’t – they play in our colours”.
Come on Paul67…..
I want my first podium before going to knock the froth of one in the pub.
Unfortunately, we didn’t punch anything above paperweight this week.
Ernie lynch
:-))
You can get through life with bad manners, but it’s easier with good manners.
Lillian Gish
Perhaps ‘asked to punch above our weight’ would have been more apt.
natknow – supporting wee oscar
10:00 on 13 December, 2013
He’s a wee stirrer / attention-seeker, but entertaining at times
‘The blue and red colours of the shirt were first worn in a match against Hispania in 1900; the prevailing Catalonia conception is that the colours were chosen by Joan Gamper and are those of his home team, FC Basel.’
-from Wiki /EWLM/EWTB.
So who knows..
bognorbhoy, ta, but not it, its inside the pub, with the crowd, funny. will kepp trying
Q Anyone else just heard that tosh on R5L?
The galling thing about the so called ‘Group of Death’ is that none of the three teams who finished above us will get anywhere near the last 4 of the European competitions,in my humble opinion.
sean thornton @ 10:31 on 13 December, 2013
When NFL got the manager’s gig on a permanent basis there was talk that Stuart Baxter would be his mentor which came as a bit of a surprise to Baxter’s employer in Finland.
Tomorrow against Hibernian,Lenny should be a bit bolder and play Denny Johnstone up front.
This bhoy is the real thing,he may be a bit raw but his youthful exuberance will see him through.We must start giving the young Bhoys confidence in their abilities .HH
DBBIA
Re. Karma leading to Celtic’s recent run of catastrophic catastrophes, I reluctantly have to hold my hand up here. The day before the Milan home game I forgot to hold my breath when driving through the Clyde Tunnel.
JinxedCSC
Conner1888
11:15 on
13 December, 2013
Q Anyone else just heard that tosh on R5L?
obviously not so what was it.
e=mc2,
Have to agree with a lot of your appraisal. I would quibble about Paul67’s motivation. I know Paul is better than that, although I personally think our manager was right to employ the tactics he did in the Nou Camp, even if it did result in a hammering.
m6bhoy
11:20 on
13 December, 2013
sean thornton @ 10:31 on 13 December, 2013
When NFL got the manager’s gig on a permanent basis there was talk that Stuart Baxter would be his mentor which came as a bit of a surprise to Baxter’s employer in Finland.
“there was talk” made up pash.joe ledley was off last week now a bad game and its naebudy wants him.FFS pal do us all a favour.
FAVOURITE UNCLE
Banging on about sectarianism and besmirching Celtic’s good name!
Constantly linking us with the sevco tribute act on the southside!
….pfayr supports weeoscar
10:11 on 13 December, 2013
EK bhoy
Hooper missed a sitter in Turin
———————–
In both games , I recall that the Juve centre half was over Gary like a rash and that we was on the stretch for most of the game …… On the sitter vague memory , indeed, of Gary stretching for a cutback and missing , not sure if that is what you recall or my old memory playing tricks.
Still in Turin , we forced the pace for the first 30 minutes, Juve took a look at us and waited for some defensive gaps and hit us on the break, meanwhile shackling our best players with close marking, as a team (common to a lot of teams) , we will not pass to a team mate who is closely marked, hence our better players look rubbish against good teams, and our players with poorer technique, sorry Charlie, see plenty of the ball ( as they are not as closely marked and very often deliberately unmarked by the opposition) and everyone concludes they had a good game!
Still, Gary did score a good goal at the weekend and will be a decent forward for a top 10 EPL club, probably just a bit too slow to really make it in the top 6, we are undoubtedly poorer for his departure.
Time will tell on his replacements …
HH
Simple facts are:
We punched above our weight every year we reach the last 32 in Europe.
For the past 2 years we have navigated qualifying rounds to reach the last 32 in Europe.
Last year we actually reached the last 16 which is incredible and will not be repeated every year.
With the resources at hand the manager has performed amazingly and to suggest otherwise is nonsense. To suggest that he needs help is ridiculous. The controllers of the purse strings should invest more in the playing staff as they have a stockpile of cash awaiting investment.
There is room for improvement in all aspects of the club and I’m confident that the current setup can build on previous successes.
DBBIA – http://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/nov/23/theknowledge.sport
The honest mistake
Beating Cliftonville, Elfsborg and Karagandy …..is not in any view punching above our weight
Ernie lynch
No it was after that when I called the ambulance .
If we need to be twice as good to reach the last 16, and need to be twice as good again to reach the last 8, we only need to be 32 times as good before we win the big cup again.
Conner1888
thanks for that AND WHERE IS THE SMART SUITED MAN when all this is going on???????????
fanadpatriot
11:25 on 13 December, 2013
Part of me agrees, it would be great to see some of the young talent being given an opportunity to shine especially as realistically there’s no threat to our SPFL title.
We’re sending guys out on loan when really it would make more sense to allow them to learn their trade in our domestic league.
However, what if things go pear shaped, imagine the vitriol then?
If I recall correctly last season we won one out of about eight consecutive games away from home. Now I was a bit miffed at that as it was frequently as a result of changes in formation but more importantly changes in team selection.
Despite that I was prepared to ride the storm as we still had Europe to focus on and that understandably became the priority. However, the normally patient away support weren’t all quite so understanding.
This manifested itself in howls of derision and personal abuse of players in Paisley against St Mirren. We had been particularly poor but the level of criticism, although not entirely unheard of, was not something you’d nrmally associate with the Celtic support.
Emotions are running high just now amongst the support and I’d be concerned at how several misplaced passes would be received by some supporters and how this could affect the confidence of younger prospects.
Pfayr.
A few things:
Those three teams are far better than any team we face in Scotland.
The luck of the draw spared us from facing superior competition in the qualifiers.
The honest mistake
We are a seeded team in the CL draw
Our finances are far in excess of any potential opponents
Cliftonville better than any other SPL team …really
Elfsborg were rubbish
Karagandy got stuffed in the EL
sorry…..don’t agree with your assertion …at all