Celtic v. Rovers UEFA Cup, 1st Leg [R] I am so TORN! I want Friedel and Duff to do well -- they deserve some success. But so do the lads. Ah well, a good tie it will be. A ratings bonzna in the U.K. I'm sure, which isn't something you can normally say about the UEFA Cup. Prediction: 1st Leg, Celtic 2 - 0 Rovers 2nd Leg, Rovers 2 - 1 Celtic
Time to punt. Dermot Keys in Football 365 fans the flames. http://www.football365.com/You_Say_We_say/Football365_Opinion/story_45371.shtml
Not quite as provocative: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/uefa_cup/2378233.stm The subhead reads: "Celtic midfielder Alan Thompson says his side would love to join the English Premiership." It should be accompanied by: "Rangers defender Lorenzo Amoruso says he would love to be able to make monkeys fly out of his bum." Should be a fun tie to watch at any rate.
Not unusual, we have been crap most of this season, we still win If we can get a goal at ewood I think well go through as well.
aye well as long as he warns low flying aircraft in the area in advance before he lines one up it should be fine.
Repeat tonights performance and you're out... Even I was shocked at blackburn total dominance.. Long time since I;ve seen such a one-sided game..
Um, i would say you lot will have to raise your game quite a bit to progress. They are a tough team to beat and i am glad we played them at ewood early in the season as they are geting better and better as the weeks go by. Rovers 2-0 Celtic
We played as bad as we can possibly play, Blackburn played about as good as they can possibly play, and the Bhoys still won. There is no way Celtic will play that bad again in two weeks, so I'd say we have a good shot of going through.
I dont diasagree, the good thing is we know we can play better than that and an away goal leaves them needing at least 3, CSKA Sofia got a draw there too. If we dont play better than that and go out as far as I'm concerned MON can not bother signing a new contract, his football is getting worse and worse.
If Celtic score one goal in Blackburn, Rovers are toast. They played a lot of nice stuff but they tried to walk the ball into the net. The only Blackburn player who looked ever like shooting was Thompson, who was easily the best player on the park. But his shots were either saved by Douglas or deflected wide. ------- As for Celtic, I think that O'Neill is being a bit too loyal. If you look at last night's team, it is basically the same team that was his first choice XI this time last year. The only change is Ulrik Laursen for Mjallby, and that is probably only because Mjallby is out injured. This is despite clear evidence suggesting that Lennon and Lambert are losing pace, Agathe is being found out, and Hartson pushing Sutton hard for his place. Still a very decent side though.
Wullie McStay of the Airdrie and Coatbridge advertiser works team?? Aye he took a honking free kick as well
I don't think it's entirely fair to lay all the blame on MON. He's made some questionable moves (like not getting Hartson in more, good things happen when he's on the pitch), but our problems are primarily the result of the people running the club refusing to address the glaring flaws in this team before the season began.
I dont know, ive been having the odd doubt from the start of last season when I saw who we signed in the summer. MON isnt as well supported as he could be I agree and the board have been coining it in but he has also underspent on each of his allocated budgets and his buys have been uninspiring to say the least, not so much footballers as big guys and the footballers he has bought eg fernandez cant get a game. Its not up to the board to adress the flaws its up to MON and I dont think he really sees the flaws, the last game we won or scored a goal away from home in (not counting suduva as they were god awful) was ajax and juve respectfully, MON hasnt seemed to have learned anything about how to counter teams tactics as you can name our formation and line up weeks prior to the matches and when members of the line up arent performing/are crocked/look disinterested and still getting played time after time when promising young players are desperate to leave the club to find first team football its just not right. The boards decision not to sign kleberson before the basle games was the most stupid thing I think this board has ever done I really do, A quality player like that would have injected a bit of life into a club that feels like its stagnating very rapidly.
Maybe Im being too hard on the wee jumpy fella but It does feel like were not making any progression, if anything regressing with our inabilty to beat the dark half. It has to be sorted out and playing like Glasgow Leicester doesnt help in the meantime.
Hedman, Mjallby, Valgaeren, Balde, Thompson, Healy, Lambert, Petrov, Agathe, Hartson and Sutton should be the fully fit first team in my opinion. I know you guys love Larsson and all that but I would honestly consider Hartson even for the short term scottish games but Larsson in the more important games. Larsson has put a date on the end of his celtic career as well, just like Sir Awex, Walter for example, also a replacement for Martin O'Neill and Stillian Petrov must appear up soon. celtic do play some awful football btw, but sadly it works in Scotland, you could argue that away from home in europe it doesnt work, hence your forthcoming major problem. Although its a great story when crazy gangess team like Wimbeldon and Leicester achieve things as underdogs its hardly inspiring football and is definately not how the game should be played. Scoring goals from set pieces as well you could argue about the manner that these free kicks are won as well but that isnt just a celtic problem and they arent on the Brazilian diving scale.
2nd Leg Preview Rovers: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/021113/80/del1t.html Rovers have their big guns healthy with Yorke and Cole starting up front. Duff fit as well. The three have only started three games together all season. Flitcroft had some sort of accident and hurt his ankle, out. Taylor is highly doubtful. Celtic: Petrov and Lambert are both ready to play. Speculation that MO'N will start Hartson as an attacking midfielder (which he should have been doing all along IMHO).
Much much better, I think we have our system for european games now! We ripped the pish out of them in that second half!
Last season, the victory in Amsterdam set Celtic up for a good season (Scottish and League Cups excepted). Hopefully their display in Blackburn last night (Thursday) will be the springboard for a great time this season. The team's confidence must be high now after such a fine display. I think O'Neill has finally worked out how to play Celtic in Europe. Lets hope so. And so to Celta Vigo - can anyone recommend a good pub over there, I certainly wouldnt want to see the match against the (current) 4th best team in La Liga without a drink!!! How does that song go again?:- "Mhen against boys, Mhen against boys, hello, hello...." Hail Hail.