So what did we learn last night? For a start, when we need to, we can defend effectively and shut up shop, last night was our fourth clean sheet in Europe this season. The 4-5-1 formation, deployed for the opening 65 minutes, was not effective at producing attacking opportunities, although this may be as much to do with personnel as formation.
Emilio Izaguirre was swamped every time the ball went near him, which did little to settle his confidence. It was wise for Neil Lennon to hook him and drop Charlie Mulgew back. I felt sorry for Miku, who looked like a player in an unfamiliar line-up. He is not a lone target man but will do well when we get the ball to his feet. He was only asked to play that role due to injuries Hooper, Stokes and Samaras and will only do so again under similar circumstances. By contrast, Hooper looked the part once he came on. He bullied defenders as effectively as he does in the SPL, a real pleasing point for me.
Victor Wanyama needs to improve his sharpness to make the most of his composure and tackling ability at this level. The perpetual motion of Champions League teams means a fraction of a second off-pace can compromise the defensive formation.
Did you notice how every time Commons got the ball he was thinking “goal”? His turn before crossing from the left belied the meagre money we paid for him. He is every inch a Champions League player.
James Forrest was played out of the game by the full back. He/Neil needed to find a resolution to this challenge but it didn’t happen. He tried to knock the ball round the outside and pass on the inside a couple of times, which was over-ambitions, to say the least. I don’t think we saw him drop the shoulder and take the player on with the ball, which is a pity, as I’m sure he had the taking of his marker. Both Forrest and Wanyama will be stronger on Match Day 2.
The first objective from our return to Champions League football was that we would be able to compete at this level. That achieved, we can look forward to Moscow in 12 days time.
Support a Scottish World Champion Boxer: Ricky Burns
On Saturday 22nd September, lifelong Celtic fan Ricky Burns is defending Scotland’s honour against England’s Kevin Mitchell in an unmissable World Championship boxing clash!
Burns puts his WBO World Lightweight Championship on the line, in a fight billed as the Battle of Britain. You can bag yourself the best seat in the house with BoxNationTV (Sky 437, Virgin 546).
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Brian McNally @McNallyMirror
#Celtic confirmed crowd figure of 53,373 on @BBCAlLamont report & others was wrong. Should have been 57,795. But no one bothered to fix it.
Dan
South South returns to CQN..o))
Dan
Looks like the Kelly’s are back on board
Philbhoy
My good wife’s grandad lived that life except he lied about his age and volunteered. He scratches the surface of horror stories before the tears run down his face.
He is a mason. A real one. Worked his life after thevwar in the granite quarry in Aberdeen. Last owners were Japanese. He got given a day off any time they were visiting.
Who is the author of the book? I’d like to get him it
Wot??????
…”Ally” Lamont, wrong??????
….and it had pejorative connotations for our Club????
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Fan.
setting free the bears
21:47 on 20 September, 2012
You fancy a room?
BT
Had reason to ask C.a.b.i.a in airdrie for help with forms
Cuts to there budget means they are on the phone all day trying to raise funds while fighting for the rights of people.
They sorted everything for me I have nothing but respect for them & all Wros for all they do in the community.
Thank you and “Lang may yer lum reek” as my old uncle used to say.
God bless wee Oscar & family
Good night all MAY ONLY GOOD THINGS COME YOUR WAY
macjay
You’re not that charming :-)
Will be interesting to find out what interpretation the SFA complaint has put on the rifle yielding figure ……… My interpretation would be the rifle is merely to jokingly depict ‘the death of a club’, as is the gravestone …..which is something which actually DID happen.. You see that kind of thing in comedy films etc …… Do these peepul have no sense of humour at all ….. No sectarianism / offensiveness here, folks….just a wee joke, like the 4 horses of the Apocolipse ……..move on, and look for something else, for God’s sake….
setting free the bears
21:41 on 20 September, 2012
macjay
I don’t think the Emperor’s Army lived up to the Bushido code in any respect.
_________________
My father spent 6 months in Changi jail and just over 3 and a half years in the Bushido Labour Camps – he is amongst a group of POWs in a photograph in the book “the Knights of Bushido” – he also spent time in one of the Labour Camps featured in the book “Bamboo Doctor”.
I don’t know how he survived it – probably his faith and fitness (he was an amateur boxer). I took him to the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Centre in later life (as part of a test programme on ex-Japanese POWs) – they found traces of 23 viruses in his body from; Typhoid, Yellow and Black fever to Beri-beri and rickets.
He never spoke much about the horrors. Needless to say – as we grew up we never ever had Japanese; transistors, TVs or electrical products in the house!
Third Lanark man – who came with me to see the Lions and 9-in-a-row many a time.
God bless him!
………and just in case anyone has missed this…….remember the ‘media’ coffin just before Fergus ‘arrived’
Hypocrisy at it’s best…….!!!!!!!!
It was great to experience another Champions League night at Celtic Park.
Aside from the atmosphere, it was enthralling to watch the 90 mins, even in a 0-0 game.
During an ordinary SPL game, you can more often than not sit back for long periods and relax, comfortably enjoying the game. In the Champions League, regardless of where the ball is on the pitch, you are never more than 3 passes away from losing a goal. It’s that intensity which makes these games so compelling.
Last night, to a neutral, I expect we looked like a limited team (at this level). That is understandable, particularly given the injuries we currently have in key positions. It is also something which £50M of investment wouldn’t necessarily solve – look at Zenit St Petersburg getting cuffed 3-0 on Tuesday night.
I hope however that a young team, new to this level of football, shows progression in its play during the next 5 games. Last night we failed to create chances and exert any period of concerted pressure through a failure to recycle possession.
Key to that is the central midfield, which is why I despair a little at the many fans I have heard extolling the play of Scott Brown – “fabulous” I heard him described tonight by a fan on a phone in show.
Sure, for the last 20 mins in particular he was the driving force in the team. No question, he got “tore in” and caused a few of the Benfica players to concentrate more on him than their own play. “Fabulous” however, he was not.
Central midfield is the key to playing at this level. You need to pass, pass, pass and keep passing until the moment allows to make an incisive move forward. Liam Miller’s goal against Lyon at Celtic Park years ago is proof that patience and composure pays off.
We suffered throughout last night due to our central midfield being unable to link the team. Rarely did they take short balls in to feet in the centre of the park and recycle possession. Instead we went to the full backs and then immediately tried to play up the park from there. It was easy for Benfica to defend. Neither did our central midfield at any time get beyond or seek to link with Miku – we were therefore never in a position to create gaps in the Benfica defence through midfield runners.
Combined with that, Forrest failed to show and Commons, for all his positivity in trying to score at all times, does not have mobility to drag defences around. We were therefore a static attacking force.
Last night was a good point. For a young team new to the occasion, against a street wise team expensively assembled, perhaps a great point. I hope however as a team, we grow in confidence and learn how to play at this level.
Re the sausage
Was it a square go?
Have a look at some of the teams in the Europa League –
PSV, Inter Milan, Lyon, Marseilles, Atletico Madrid, Stuttgart, Liverpool, Spurs, Napoli.
Celtic are in a bad place at the moment, missing out on playing these big names :-)
67heaven
Offensive is in the eye of the beholder, in this case a hurting establishment desperate to deflect attention from the sins of their fathers. There is no banter left in Scottish football my friend. The game has changed as much off the pitch as it has on it.
praecepta
Just to make it clear that I intended no offence.
My point was that the way the Japanese Army treated their prisoners in WW2 was a War Crime and opposed to the expressed principles of their own Bushido Code.
My wife’s relative was likewise reluctant to give details of his experiences and had long since learned to ignore such fripperies as cars by Toyota/Honda/Mitsubishi etc; but he would not tolerate much guff about the virtues of Eastern mysticism and the exotic East.
The polis get supporters to unfurl banners for censure purposes, looks loke strathclydes finest will be in the sfa dock :oD)))))
This STV report states the nature of the “Notice of complaint against Celtic over ‘offensive’ banner”
It appears the banner has already been deemed offensive by the SFA and the charges are brought against Celtic for there failure to deal with it.
Can someone tell me who at the SFA is the holder of our nations moral compass. Who decides what offends?
We looked at our photograph of the Zombie banner when designing the Norwich feature in the current issue of CQN Magazine and decided to pull it from the magazine. It looked like a stick they could beat us with then and more so now. Look out for some of their apparently less offensive banners appearing in the next issue, just for the record.
setting free the bears
22:10 on 20 September, 2012
praecepta
Just to make it clear that I intended no offence.
___________________________________
No offence taken – I was well into my 30’s before I really found out what he went through. Think it was round the time of Hirihito’s visit to the UK.
I recall there was also a book called “the Forgotten Army” – upset my father badly. My mother was a surviving widow (approx 30K men and women) who received £10K compensation from the Japanese Government – too little, too late!
This STV report states the nature of the “Notice of complaint against Celtic over ‘offensive’ banner”
Click here
It appears the banner has already been deemed offensive by the SFA and the charges are brought against Celtic for there failure to deal with it.
Can someone tell me who at the SFA is the holder of our nations moral compass. Who decides what offends?
For anyone who might be travelling on a wee September weekend break from Prestwick.
Prestwick Airport @PIKAIRPORT
Airport closed until 09:00 21 Sep 12 due to adverse flooding in the Prestwick area. If you are due to travel please contact your airline.
Retweeted by Grant Russell
Shameful hurtin’ , hunned-up drek.
HHH.
Maybe I’m incorrect but I’m pretty sure that the only thing SFA can do about the banner is make complain to UEFA. They can do it like any other organizations. SFA itself can’t punish Celtic becouse they have had nothing to do with that game.
Celtic should ask those clowns at the SFA if they find the following logo offensive, it depicts a Zombie and a baseball bat. I wonder what the baseball bat is for? It is the logo for the United Kingdom Zombie Defence League:
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/3995/1348175671409.jpg
ukzdl.co.uk. I apologise for anyone who is offended by the flag at the bottom of the logo ;-)
Perhaps ukzdl could be called as expert witnesses?
Oh, now, now. Oh!
(I shot the Zombie.) – the Zombie.
(But I swear it was in selfdefence.)
Oh, no! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!
I say: I shot the Zombie – Oh, Lord! –
(And they say it is a capital offence.)
Yeah! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!
Gordon Strachan and Robbie Fowler no rapport on ITV4
To all those, of any religion or race, who think Scotland is such a bad, twisted place full of bigots and racists there is only one thing to say.
Go.
Go on, just gather up your prejudices, take your suspicions and pack your loathing of Scotland.
Go find a better place to live and leave us to get on with the job of making something good of this country.
Ok, this is the original banner.
Not a mention of huns, not a shamrock/four leaf clover in sight.
Not offensive in any way.
As I said earlier, a halfwit lawyer will get the club off, if the club want ot get off that is.
http://s7.postimage.org/7nyj3gocr/201.jpg
TBB
How are things in Monaco these days?
Will be over the Chestnut season
Zbyszek
22:26 on 20 September, 2012
Zbyszek, the banner was displayed in a pre-season friendly against Norwich City two months ago, not last night. I don’t know why this was brought up today.
Morar Celtic 67
Gordon Smuff???
The offensive banner alongside a REALLY offensive banner
http://imgur.com/gaDkN
….a one, a two , a one two threeeeee
“I’d like to buy the world a Coke……………”
a’body!
my new banner
zombie huns then
zombie huns now
zombie huns forever
with some zombie huns giving invading the park in69
with some zombie huns attacking the police in barcelona
with some zombie huns pissing on koln cathedral
with some zombie huns putting a local alcoholic in a fountain
with some zombie huns abusing a nun outsie marks and spencers in argyle street
and finally some 20 zombie huns trying to murder a polis in manchester
works for me
Maybe we should know who these people are that have decided this banner is offensive.
Pujol
Thanks. Not reading all comments and did not know that.
Then SFA can punish Celtic becouse the banner was shown before friendly against Norwich when should be shown in the game against Rangers. Celtic supporters must pay for their mistake.
TBB
Is that a satirical variation on “Why don’t you go home?”