Here's the deal... Team..........PL...W...D...L...F...A...GD...PTS Celtic.........5...2...1...2...6...4...+2....7 Anderlecht.....5...2...1...2...4...5...-1....7 Lyon...........5...2...1...2...4...5...-1....7 Bayern.........5...1...3...1...5...5....0....6 The status of the game was in some doubt due to flooding in the Lyon region, but UEFA announced today that it will go ahead. We are missing; Agathe (hamstring), Thompson (suspension), McNamara (shoulder). Tighter than Mother Theresa's t**t. Celtic are home free to their first visit to the knockout stages since 1974 with with either a win or a draw. And that my lads scares the bejesus out of me. How tempting will it be for O'Neill to play a defensive game and hold on for the draw? All the other teams in the group have everything to play for. Anderlecht MUST win and will come at us with everything. We need to play as if a draw is as good as going home for the year. In the US we have this quaint saying related to American Football, "The Prevent Defense only prevents you from winning." 'Nuff said.
Re: My prediction. What makes you so sure ? You are aware of Celtic's record in their last five Champion's League away matches aren't you ?
Im not greatly confident, from what I saw at celtic park Lyon like to keep the ball and pass it about, teams like that usually kill us away from home, when it comes to a bayern or a juve we always get cheated or one horrible mistake loses us the points but teams like lyon and porto just rip us apart, best I can see is a draw, which would be enough due to our positive goal difference IIRC. I fear MON will start us playing for a point or worse we are just as toothless and uncreative as we were against bayern, John Hartson should not start up front ahead of sutton.
Ok, just wishful thinking. Now that the Rangers are out of the CL, CFC are the only Scottish club left right? I think this CL is very interesting with Bayern playing like duty, Man Utd not dominating every match. Should be quite interesting over the next few months.
Also guarded in my optimism, and i'm really interested to see the approach taken, personally hope we don't come out too conservative, but I trust in MON either way. Taking off work for tomorrow for this one :!
1-0 Lyon after 6 mins, Elber the scorer. Looks like it could be another bad night for Scottish/Irish/British/wherever there from now football.
Told ya, and as im trying to avoid this score till the highlights come on later I really shouldnt be here!!
well you guys have been screwed big time, by one appaling peice of refereeing... and I thought it was just the italians and russions that bribed referees... personally... as a liverpool fan... that was an absolutely ludicrous penalty decision.. i hope martin oneill gives the ref a bloody good slap afterwards, even if it does mean a ban...
That's bullsh it for a ref to give away a deciding game like this one with a penalty 5 minutes from time. Not to mention Hartson was taken down in the box towards the end of the 1st half and he did nothing even though it was much worse than Bobo's handball. Well it looks like the bhoys got screwed, although no points away from home put them in this position.
Celtic blew it against Anderlecht in Brussels. You cannot lose against a ten man team in the Champions League and expect to get away with it. And judging by the match report of the Bayern game, they might have been lucky to even get the UEFA Cup place for 3rd. It was a dodgy penalty in that match and Khan pulled off a great save in the last minute to prevent it being a draw, which would have pushed Celtic down to 4th. Anyway, I hope someone else will see the irony in Celtic fans moaning about being hosed by a dodgy refereeing decision.
Like I said there was also a clear penalty for Celtic in the first half. And the ball barely brushed underneath the players arm. If Bayern had given up a tying goal they would have been the ones to finish in last (7 pts. and 0 GD vs. Celtic's 1) and Celtic would still have gone through to the UEFA Cup. Like I said they didn't get the job done on the road, but I still think it was a bad call to give a penalty.
Heartbroken. When's this team going to learn to win away matches that take place outsidethe British Isles?
Twice equalizing only to come up short due to a dodgy decisioin by the referee. This one's gonna sting for awhile
Arggggggggggh! Crap, crap, crap! Seems like the penalty decision was dubious. During World Cup 2002 the referee swallowed the whistle in the Germany vs. U.S. match when a German's hand prevented the ball at the goal line from entering the goal. The inconsistency baffles me. If the ball hits the arm then bite the whistle, that's what I say. Still, the Anderlecht away match sticks out in my mind. We should have won it.
Re: Arggggggggggh! a man playing the ball deliberately is different from a ball bouncing up and hitting someone in the hand (al la germany in 2002) if balde handballed deliberately ( ive no seen it) then fair enough, but you cant give penalties willy nilly for balls playing the men, thats just......silly! Anyway it cant be any worse than the penalty given against us away to juve two seasons ago, that was just a joke of a decision to let the italians win, also put us out that year too.
Saw the score... flashed along the bottom of the screen @ Ginger's Ale House in Chicago while watching Arsenal vs. Lokamotiv. DAMN! I am still stunned that Lyon beat the bhoys. Does this mean Celtic is out of the CL and the UEFA Cup?
I noticed from one of the goals from Celtic how they stole the ball from a defender and it rebounded and they scored. I watched their match on tv agaisnt boca from the champions world tour. Seems to me Celtic is copying Boca's tactic of tough pressure on the opposing defense. In that game Boca did this to Celtic and stole it like 10 times from Celtic they could have won the game 4-0.
That's wrong. In European competition the first tie breaker is the results of matches between the teams that finish level on points. Bayern beat Celtic 2-1 at home and drew 0-0 in Glasgow, so they had that tiebreaker. So when Celtic went 1-0 down last night early on (while Bayern v Anderlecht was still goalless) they were effectively in bottom place.
I don't get this comment. They've won such a major game quite recently: UEFA Cup semifinal 2003, second leg, 1-0 against Boavista in Porto. And that's not to mention both away legs in the CL qualifiers, each of which Celtic won.