Helsingborg looked good for about the first 20 minute, but from that point all it was all Celtic. I thought Samaras had a great game - when he's "on" he can be so hard to stop. I just love seeing him flick the ball past a defender and then outrun him down the flank.
It looks all the better when you take into account he was playing with a back injury all match. When he came off the pitch he removed some sort of back harness. A great effort from Sammi.
Group G Barcelona (Esp) Benfica (Por) Spartak Moscow (Rus) Celtic (Sco) A nice draw. A lot of old foes there. We've met Barcelona a few times in the CL and struggled on most occasions unsurprisingly. We beat Benfica 3-0 at home and lost 3-0 away the last time we played them in the group stage and we knocked Spartak out in the final round qualifier a few seasons ago.
Surely a tough draw (as expected), but it could have come worse (look at Dortmund's group). Nice to see Aiden back at Celtic-Park.
Latest transfer rumours for us - Johnny Russell in from Dundee Utd for between £1.5-2m Helder Barbosa in from Sporting Braga Odds on Michael Owen signing have dropped from 50/1 to 10/1 on the back of a flurry of activity. We'll see what does and doesn't materialise.
Yes, I am hearing that Michael Owen is in Glasgow (he has family there apparently) and may sign tomorrow as a free, out of contract deal. Past his prime for sure, but what great experience he has to offer our young squad
Celtic 2 (Lustig 11, 69) Hibernian 2 (Clancy 53, Cairney 73) 2pts dropped but it's not all doom and gloom as this was quite a young side that played featuring Adam Matthews, Filip Twardzik, James Forrest, Tony Watt and Jackson Irvine. Forrest and Matthews are 1st team regulars now but increased exposure to competitive SPL football can only help progress the development of players such as Twardzik, Irvine and Watt. And if we had our finishing boots on we would have won the match fairly comfortably. Other than dropping 2pts the only other concern was the injury Wanyama had which forced him off at HT. A good time for an international weekend in the hope it helps the recovery of some of our walking wounded.
So transfer deadline day (and slightly beyond) saw us bring in 4 new players - Efe Ambrose - a young (24yrs old) CB. Apparently he's very strong in the air and not so good on the deck. Should fit right into Scottish football then... Miku - Striker signed 'on loan with an option to buy' from Getafe. Good reports regarding him and a price tag of around £8mill was being banded about pre-season when Swansea and Reading were sniffing around him. Take that with a pinch of salt. Lubos Kamenar - Keeper signed as back-up for Forster. Free agent. Lassad Nouioui - Another free agent but a striker this time who has been hitting the net regularly in Segunda B with Depor as of late. We needed to strengthen up front and, on paper, Miku and Nouioui look stronger than Murphy and Bangura. Slightly disappointed regarding our CB situation. I was really hoping for an experienced CB to be brought on board and Ambrose doesn't fit that criteria.
yw. I know how much you thrive on your daily Celtic update. Oh, you mean playing some kids. Sorry, Monday's and all that. Don't mention it. We always like to help our neighbours in Leith whenever possible.
I'm no doubt expecting too much, but Paddy has gotten at least two starts in the past couple of weeks, but hasn't done too much with them. I've gotten to see bits and pieces of most of the games and he's shown his typical flashes of brilliance but then he tries TOO hard and gets disposessed. I seem to recall one point where he dribbled through 2 or 3 defenders, got into the box, but then tried to take on 2 more and turned it over.
2 of the 3 are winnable (Spartak and Benfica). Should be interesting dogfight for 2nd place in this group. Any chance someone could post weekly highlights in this thread? Cheers.
Celtic - Hibernian highlights http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/celtic-2-hibernian-2-goals-highlights/
We lost our first match in the next gen series last night. Celtic 1 (Johnstone 23) Sporting Lisbon 2 (Medeiros 45, Cortez 78) http://www.celticfc.net/newsstory?item=3059 Apparently we had the better of the play and were unlucky to lose to a team that are considered as one of the favourites for the competition.
Celtic players included in squads for international duty this week - James Forrest - Scotland Scotland - Serbia Scotland - Macedonia Adam Matthews - Wales Wales - Belgium Miku - Venezuela Peru - Venezuela Efe Ambrose - Nigeria Liberia - Nigeria Giorgios Samaras - Greece Latvia - Greece Greece - Lithuania Mikael Lustig Sweden - Kazakhstan
Samaras dislocated his elbow playing for Greece From what I am hearing, this could be another 4 weeks, meaning he will miss the start of the UCL campaign.
OUCH! I can't imagine how awful that must feel. I mildly hyperextended my knee in high school (distance runner/cross country) and that was agony.
St. Johnstone - Celtic 12.30pm Kick off - Saturday 15th September - live on ESPN Scott Brown looks like being available for this one. His 2 weeks of complete rest may mean he doesn't need to have an op on his troublesome hip. Scott has said that it's mainly just a bit of wear and tear and inflammation and he feels the rest has done him the world of good. Always glad to see some of our walking wounded returning, especially since Sammi will now be out for a while. Speaking of the strikers Tony Watt received the young player of the month award and is progressing well. With Samaras out of the picture for the forseeable future Watt should be getting a steady stream of opportunities to continue impressing NL. Our opponents haven't had their troubles to seek either this week with some sort of flu epidemic forcing Steve Lomas to cancel training this week. Need to get back to winning ways in the league.
Team news update for tomorrow's match - Scott Brown will definitely start Charlie Mulgrew should also be fine to play Might be a bit early for Joe Ledley and Beram Kayal but either or both maybe available for Benfica Champions League tie on Wednesday Lassad has trained all week as he wasn't on international duty and could be involved. Efe Ambrose isn't back yet from international duty so wont figure Miku only got back today so he probably wont play any part tomorrow
Do you think perhaps, Celtic is not taking the league seriously or hoping to save players for Europe? I thought Celtic might have the SPL wrapped up by end of January, but could be wrong.