Celtic took a giant stride towards capturing an eight consecutive league title yesterday with a last gasp victory over lowly Dundee at Dens Park.
To say the least this was not vintage Celtic – indeed it’s difficult to remember the last time we saw anything I’d call vintage Celtic – and we were seconds away from recording one of our results in years but in the end we prevailed with a last gasp winner which is something we’ve made a habit of recently.
For 90 minute we toiled against a Dundee team who were very blatantly set-up to defend, absorb pressure and try and hit us on the break when they could.
Our passing was slow, our build-up play unimaginative and we seemed to lack any real hunger or energy for the game. Considering that we’d had an eight-day rest since the last match and had only played two games in 15 days there really is no excuse for this.
Dundee posed little to no threat and were happy to sit in which we should have expected considering we are 8-0 up against them over our last two encounters and their precarious position at the foot of the table.
They actually had a few decent opportunities in injury time which was a mammoth six minutes. However, both of their breaks led to nothing via poor final balls and indeed with literally seconds remaining it was the men in hoops who prevailed as record singing Odsonne Edouard played a one-two with James Forrest who had rampaged to the byline before cutting it back to the big Frencham to place it home with side foot finish from close range.
I celebrated wildly with my customary St.Paddy’s Day pint of Guinness in hand as we extended our lead at the top to an almost unassailable 10 points with only eight games to go but that acute moment of joy covered up 90 minutes of sheer frustration. We just weren’t at it and that’s been pretty much the case since Lenny’s arrival. The performance mirrored our displays away against Hearts and at home to Aberdeen last week. Insipid and uninspired are just two of the words that come to mind when describing it.
We toiled but got the result in the end.
We had actually won our previous 35 straight meetings with Dundee and hadn’t recorded two back to back 0-0 results in a decade so if French Eddy hadn’t slammed home late then it would have been safe to put the result in the disaster category.
But it’s done now and we won. There isn’t much more you can say about it.
The international break now looms this weekend and with the Old Firm game taking place the following Saturday fingers crossed we get through the Euro qualifiers with our squad largely intact.
Good news is Callum McGregor was back and for the first 20 mins of the game at least he certainly seemed to make us tick again. He really is a vital player for us now and of that, there is no denying. Big Filip Benkovic also appeared off the bench and he’s a class act and easily our best defender so hopefully, he’s raring to go in a fortnight. Word is that Tom Rogic could also be returning too and all that married to Kieran Tierney’s recent return to regular first team action we should be in far better fettle than we were for the last encounter with the light blues at Ibrox back in December.
It was another blue day for Stevie G.
Of course, we gained the opportunity to go 10 points clear due to Rangers’ latest slip-up as they made it no wins in three via a 1-1 home draw with Kilmarnock. Literally, in the space of eight days, their season has imploded thanks to draws at Easter Road, a cup exit at home to Aberdeen and yesterdays result. Steven Gerrard continues to try and deflect via claims that his players need more protection – as do the Killie players also it would seem going by Connor Goldson’s scything late challenge on goalscorer Conor McAleny – and a hammering against us at Celtic Park in 12 days would really turn the screw.
That aside the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts continued to slip up throwing away the chance to close the gap on the Ibrox men and improve their chances of European football next year in the process.
Anyway, the first Euro match for Scotland comes at 3pm on Thursday in the footballing hotbed that is Kazakhstan and in the surroundings of Astana a ground we are pretty familiar with having played the local team there a few times in Champions League qualifiers in the past few years. Fingers crossed the national team transfer their Nations League form into the qualifiers and that our Bhoys get out unscathed.
Celtic exited Europe last night with a 1-0 defeat to Valencia in the Mestalla.
There was little surprise. Few if any held out any genuine hope of our progression last night after a pretty disastrous 2-0 home defeat at Celtic park eight days ago.
But in fairness, we did gain a fair amount of redemption for our disappointing performance in the home leg. Last night we approached the game with some belief, quite a lot of it actually and a plan. Unlike the first tie, we showed we are a capable passing team with decent game management and for most of the first half controlled the ball and looked the more likely to score. On 37 mins though Jeremy Toljan got his second yellow card and any flickering hopes of an unlikely comeback were more or less extinguished. We came under the cosh for the rest of the half and it took some fine saves from Scott Bain, who is now really starting to look the real deal, to prevent our hosts from scoring and the floodgates from opening.
Bain looks the part.
In the second half, Bain again was called into action though we began to grow into it again and Kristofer Ajer miscued a header from a freekick into the box that could have put us right back in it and the cat really amongst the pigeons. Alas, it went high, wide and handsome.
Substitute Kevin Gaimero tapped in the only goal on 70 minutes and that was that but we kept battling to the end determined to make sure we didn’t fall to an undeserved heavy defeat and when the whistle went we departed the continental stage at the Last 32 round with our heads held high.
In truth, we didn’t create much in the way of clear cut chances. Oliver Burke was deployed up front by himself in the first half and though his pace hurt the Spaniards his lack of a first touch certainly didn’t. Jonny Hayes had a good far post chance but scooped his effort over the bar. In the second half, James Forrest was inexplicably moved into the middle as the lone striker whilst Odsonne Edouard and Timothy Weah looked on from the bench most likely perplexed. Why French Eddy wasn’t deployed from the start with Burke out wide in his natural position only Brendan knows but a combination of lacking faith in his own convictions as well as just overrating Burke’s abilities as a finisher are the leading candidates.
Personally, I thought it was a missed opportunity last night. Valencia looked a little bereft and the home fans were on their back pretty quickly. Our passing game was much sharper with Mcgregor and Brown in particular far better than they had been at Celtic Park. With an actual striker on who knows but I guess that’s neither here nor there because Toljan getting his marching orders pretty much torpedoed our hopes anyway. The German full-back was naive but at the same time, it was the sort of sending off you get against bigger name opposition on the continent that you just know the ref wouldn’t give against them. He wasn’t shy to flash yellow cards at us all night whilst giving out warnings to the men in white shirts for identical fouls. But it’s always been that way in Europe and will never change.
No chance he’s doing that to the number 5 in white.
Looking back we’ve played a mammoth 16 games in European competition this season. That’s far more than the nine we played to win the European Cup in 1967 or even the 15 we played in the 2002/2003 season when we reached the UEFA Cup final after a Champions League play-off defeat. So the most in one season in our history. Of those 16 ties, we won seven, drew three and lost six. A mixed bag.
The highlight was undoubtedly the 2-1 home win against RB Leipzig at Celtic Park on a night where we defeated a team who have been sitting in fourth spot in the Bundesliga all season.
The lows were…….well take your pick basically. The Champions League elimination to Athens, drawing away in Suduva, being bowled over so easily away to Salzburg and in Leipzig or the anticlimactic displays at home to Salzburg and Valencia.
Scottish football as a whole has also seen its stock risen with the Scottish league’s coefficient rising from 25 to 20 due to this season displays. A draw last night would have actually nudged Scotland slightly ahead of Serbia in 19th spot so, on the whole, it’s been a beneficial season for everyone with not just Celtic actually delivering some points for once.
Brendan’s European record still isn’t great. 16 wins from 40 games with six draws and 18 losses isn’t horrific but could and should be better. With only 12 wins from 32 European ties Neil Lennon’s record was actually worse but his win column included the victory over Barcelona and also saw us progress to the Champions League Last 16 with a Scottish record for a club from these shores in the Champions League of 10 points, something which is unlikely to be repeated any time soon if at all.
Gordan Strachan’s also wasn’t great either with only eight wins from 26 but those were, of course, the days when we hardly played any qualifiers and, as a result, minnows, and were generally straight in with the big boys. He also took us to glory nights against Manchester Utd (1-0), AC Milan (2-1), Benfica (3-0), Donetsk (2-1) and back to back Champions League Last 16 qualifications which once again will unlikely happen in the foreseeable future.
He is of course way off Martin ONeill’s ledger which includes an incredible 26 wins in European competition from 53 European ties and had far too many glory nights to mention with the greatest of his achievements being leading us to our first major European final in 33 years.
Anyway, this seasons is done and playing in Europe after Christmas is no mean feat. That’s only the eight-time we’ve done it in the past 39 years which should put our European expectations into some kind of perspective. That and the fact that Kevin Gaimero who came on as a sub to score against us last night has won the competition we were playing in an incredible four times which shows you what we are up against.
Onwards and upwards domestically starting with a revitalised Motherwell on Sunday.
It’s not ideal to be writing two post-match reviews several days late but alas I’ve been floored by a virus so have been bed bound up until today.
I didn’t fancy writing anything in the wake of the Valencia defeat anyway. Negatively abounded online and in Celtic cyberspace in particular. Ultimately it’s the sort of performance on big European nights that we’ve become accustomed to not just under Brendan but over the past six years full stop. I plan to write a preview tomorrow of the second leg anyway so will touch more on that there.
On the night itself, our passing was poor, our movement lacked conviction and after a good opening ten minutes spell we lost our way and allowed our opponents to grow into the game and ultimately take over. As a result, they scored in each half via strikes from Cheryshev and Sobrino with both goals totally preventable and born out of unnecessary mistakes on our part. That aside Scott Brown struggled badly but in fairness so did the whole team. Even the ever dependable Callum McGregor had an off night something you can rarely say about the 25-year-old. We were well beaten by a team who had extra quality but who also did the basics right.
All that being said at European level we just can’t afford to not have players the calibre of Tierney, Rogic, Benkovic as well as Ntcham and Griffiths available to us. The first three would be automatic starters and the other two would be at the very least be in contention to start and even if they didn’t would be quality options to bring on from the bench.
Anyway, it’s done and Thursday gives us a chance, however unlikely, to redeem ourselves. Like I’ve said I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
Valencia makes it two.
As for Sunday well it wasn’t the best performance but we got the job done and in doing so go eight points clear at the top.
Killie haven’t lost to us at Rugby Park since Steve Clarke’s arrival – indeed they’ve beaten us on each of our last two visits – and up until recently were even considered title challengers so strong has their season-long form been. They are hard working, determined and well organised. They are also capable of some decent passing movements in tight situations which they really don’t get credit for. In players like Jordan Jones and Eamonn Brophy, they have genuine attacking threats who come at you with pace.
In the early exchanges, we dominated though created little in the way of clear cut chances and then as the match progressed Killie did what they do and began to ease into the game and created opportunities of their own.
In the second half Kirk Broadfoot went in rashly on Brown with the type of challenge refs just don’t stand for these days – well most refs anyway – and got himself a straight red. It didn’t really change the momentum of the game though as Kilmarnock were already pretty adept at sitting in and frustrating. We struggled to create much as we often do when faced up with defensively minded teams down in numbers. It was kind of playing out just like it did against AEK Athens in the home tie of our Champions League 3rd qualifying round match against them at Celtic Park back in August where despite our numerical advantage when they had a man sent off we basically refused to adapt, kept recycling the ball and passing it around in front of them and refused to improvise. Then veteran defender Alex Bruce came on, we won a corner, it fell to Boyata who headed it down to Scott Brown who was just inside the box and launched one – which may have been row Z bound – and Bruce threw himself at it, with the result being it deflected off of his outstretched arm and into the net.
Broonie went delirious and after pondering it for a second decided to run into the fans who invaded the pitch and the Scottish press prepared to mount their moral collective high horse. Nobody got hurt though, it all appeared to be pretty good-natured and Brown paid the price with a second yellow and red card which actually saw us having to hold out for the last few mins.
All’s well that ends well.
But hold out we did and what with Rangers being held to a surprising 0-0 draw against St.Johnstone – who we had decided to let out of our pockets for the afternoon – at Ibrox we stretched our lead at the top to eight points with all teams in the league having played 26 games.
Kris Boyd got pinged with a coin whilst warming up for which there is no excuse and he was decent enough not to make a big deal of it during the match at least. He’s been pretty vocal about it since and there’s no point in trying to deflect here. We are quick to point the finger when other clubs fans do it and our players or staff are affected so have to hold ourselves to the same standard. Late afternoon or early evening games always have that extra potential for stupidity from the stands due to the increased likelihood of prematch drinking and continued actions such as these bury any arguments to allow alcohol sales into Scottish football stadiums for the first time.
Anyway, we now have a healthy lead up at the top. That plus we’be now gone eight domestic games without conceding a goal, scoring 22 and winning every one. We also got to see Bayo for the first time and first impressions are he looks pretty composed but we will, of course, need to see a helluva lot more.
On Sunday after our Europa League campaign is likely finished we will face a very much inform Motherwell team at Celtic Park. Like us, they have won their last six consecutive league matches and have young players like Jake Hastie, Allan Campbell and David Turnbull on fire. Whilst we are looking to tie up our eight consecutive league title they are rampaging towards an unlikely top six league finish with the gap on sixth-placed St.Johnstone now down to only two points – it was 13 points only four weeks ago -and their free-flowing style should make for an entertaining match. After that, we’re at Tynecastle to play Hearts midweek which is always a pretty raucous and competitive affair. Get through these two and the schedule gets a little kinder for us and less so for our closest rivals. So basically what I’m saying is win these next two league matches and we can only really throw it away.
Anyway, it’s been a mixed bag these last five days. Hopefully, the next eight are full of positives and my cold goes away.
I never got an opportunity to write an analysis of the Old Firm match which was a week ago on Saturday. To be honest there wasn’t much to say. I wrote in my preview that if we turned up then I believed we’d win. We didn’t and Rangers were clearly in fighting mood and contested vigorously every 50/50 and created far more and better chances. They deserved their victory.
We badly missed Tom Rogic and benching both Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard was a strange call especially as it led to Callum McGregor playing at left-back which was quite frankly bizarre and young Mikey Johnstone was effectively thrown to the wolves being played up front on his own.
On the whole, Craig Gordon kept us in it with some excellent saves and he was one of our few players who deserved pass marks especially in the first 45 mins. In the second half, McGregor was pushed forward into his more natural position which helped greatly though at his side was Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham both of whom struggled throughout.
First-half injuries to Mikel Lustig and Stefan Benkovic pretty much confirmed that sneaky feeling that it wasn’t to be our day.
That was reinforced by referee John Beaton’s anomalous decision to ignore three definite yellow and potential red card calls on Alfredo Morelos fouls as well as a Callum McGregor’s second-half goal being chopped off for being marginally offside.
The fallout since has been significant with Beaton unsurprisingly coming under intense scrutiny for his lack of action against the Colombian striker with his decision to go out boozing on the very night of the game in the Crown Bar in Bellshill where he happily posed for pictures with delighted local punters not helping his cause.
Good night John?
Just about everyone and their dog believed there would be some form of retrospective action against Morelos but apparently, it’s at the referee’s own discretion if he wants to reassess his original conclusion and low and behold Beaton still believes he was spot on.
Yeah, I’ll bet you do John.
Anyway since then some moronic Celtic fan put Beaton’s number out on social media and he has been subsequently inundated with friendly requests from other Celtic fans wishing to meet and greet him in person or words to that effect.
In no way can this be condoned and whoever it is who has threatened him should be publicly outed and banned from any involvement with the club for life as they are clearly not of sound mind nevermind intent.
Though it has been amusing seeing some elements of the Rangers support expressing their moral outrage online with the irony of the fact their own fanbase launched an online petition against the SFA back in August 2017 in the wake of what they felt was inherent anti-Rangers bias after John Beaton himself had sent off Ryan Jack during their 3-2 home defeat by Hibernian.
There was also the small issue a few years back of some of their fans sending parcel bombs to the then Celtic manager Neil Lennon as well as players Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt and even a few known Celtic supporting MSPs but hey………….short memories.
All that aside both Celtic and Rangers are now neck and neck at the summit of the Premiership table on 42 points with Celtic leading due to a superior goal difference and we also have a game in hand.
Both clubs return to domestic action the weekend after next in the Scottish Cup but the league action starts up again two weeks on Wednesday and we’re at home against lowly St. Mirren with Rangers visiting third-placed Kilmarnock. The weekend after that we entertain third bottom Hamilton Accies whilst Rangers visit Livingston at a ground where they have already lost this season against a team with the third-best home record in the division. We then play our game in hand at home against St.Johnstone the following Wednesday.
So there’s a pretty strong chance that come early February we could have a decent points advantage over them all things going well.
Until then we must content ourselves with non-stop transfer innuendo as every club in the Scottish top flight and indeed many in the lower divisions try to rebuild, reassemble or reinforce in preparation for the second half of the season.
Thus far we’ve added Scotland internationalist winger Oliver Burke or ‘Super Olly’ as I’m hoping we come to know him by. However, the signing has been met with lashings of pessimism in some quarters amongst our own support and whilst it’s true the kid failed to make much impact down at West Bromwich Albion it wasn’t so long ago he was tearing it up in the Championship with Nottingham Forest which led to Red Bull Leipzig parting with ÂŁ13 million for his services. After a year and 25 appearances in the Bundesliga, he returned to the UK via a ÂŁ15 million move to WBA. He’s 21, 6’2 with 80 first team appearances under his belt – 40 of which have been in either the Bundesliga or English Premiership, eight goals and five Scotland caps. That’s pedigree.
Olly Burke in the thick of it in Dubai.
I expect his pace and power will do well up here and I’m actually pretty excited about the signing. He can play on both sides with the right wing being his preferred domain and at the very least it should see both James Forrest and Scott Sinclair upping their games.
Also on the cards are precocious 18-year-old PSG striker Timothy Weah on an apparent 18 months loan as well as 23-year-old Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo in a ÂŁ2million move from Slovakian side Dunajska Streda where he has hit 18 goals in 23 games and provided seven assists going by my always on-point online research.
Bayo scores. Hopefully, he’s doing this for us very soon.
Both will hopefully be wrapped up in the next few days barring any last minute shenanigans ie: the sort of nonsense that harpooned our apparently inevitable move to sign John McGinn back in the summer.
Weah is, of course, the son of the legendary George who’s skill and talent I could rave about all night having been lucky enough to see him star on ITV in UEFA Cup matches for PSG and in Serie A for AC Milan on Channel 4 back in the ’90s.
He has little to no first team experience but has just signed a new contract with the Parisian aristocrats so is clearly highly rated and a similar move for Edouard last season worked out pretty well so fingers crossed he can make the same impact.
“If he’s even half the player his father was……………”
Bayo is also an unknown quantity having plied his trade in his native Ivory Coast and now in Slovakia and even with such impressive stats you always wonder if he’ll be the next Moussa Dembele or the ghost of Mohammed Bangura come back to haunt us again. Whos’ to say but hopefully, on this occasion, the scouting network have found a gem on par with Wanyama or Van Dijk as opposed to duds like Teemu Pukki or Derk Boerrigter.
Meanwhile over at Castle Greyskull Rangers have also pushed the boat out by bringing in the pairing of Southampton’s Steven Davis and Bournemouth’s Jermain Defoe both on loans. Neither has had much game time this season and they have a collective age of 70 and I can’t help but remember how we were lampooned back in the day when we brought in the likes of Ian Wright, Carlton Cole and Freddie Ljungberg at the midway points of our seasons with all three faded veterans failing to make any kind of impact but hey-ho. Stevie G knows best.
They’ve also tied up Jordan Jones and Glen Kamara on pre-contracts apparently being unselfish enough not to prize them from their respective clubs with transfer fees right now and preferring to allow them to see out their current commitments. Aye. Right.
Motherwell have also been able to secure the services of Ross McCormack which could prove the move of the window or might make no difference at all to their struggling season.
Oran Keaney is also attempting to undo the work done by his predecessor Alan Stubbs in the summer at St.Mirren by more or less releasing a whole team’s worth of players pretty much all of whom were brought in by Stubbs.
It’s only the 7th of January and there’s a long way to go in the window. And let’s not forget it’s also a time when players can be sold or released too. Personally, I’m hoping we part company with the likes of Cristian Gamboa, Nir Bitton, Scott Allen and the ultimate wage thief Marvin Compper who has done precisely nothing since his arrival at the club exactly a year ago outside of collecting the empty water bottles at the end of training.
We don’t have to sell though so don’t expect to see any of our assets leaving. Elsewhere though it might be a different story. So watch this space.
A wee preview of Bayo below and I’m hoping we actually see him the Hoops now or it’ll be more transfer window egg on our faces and calls for perennial panto villain Peter Lawwell’s head. Apologies about the music in advance.
Oh, and I hope you had a Happy New Year. I know I did. Though not as good as John Beaton’s.
On Thursday night Celtic will travel to Trondheim for the third time in nearly 16 months and the second time in less than four months to take on Norwegian Champions Rosenborg.
I’ve used this title before but it really is apt. It most definitely is ‘do or die’ as anything but a win on Thursday will see us relying on results elsewhere and no longer having our destiny in our own hands in regards to qualifying for the Europa League knockout stages and seeing European football post-Christmas.
There are various permutations to going through but I’ll look at those later on in the article. For now, I’m going to concentrate on our opposition.
As stated, in the beginning, we know them well. Almost too well. Indeed when I heard we’d been drawn with them in the group stages I was, to say the least, a little underwhelmed considering how many times we’ve played them recently. We do of course have a pretty good record against them having not lost one of our last five encounters with them which have seen us beat them three times and draw twice. One of those wins was also at their home ground in Trondheim when James Forrest smashed in a solitary winner against them in August of 2017. Overall we have a 5-1 lead in terms of goals as well with the two draws both ending goalless.
They have just wrapped up their fourth consecutive Norwegian title –Â which is a record 26th overall – after completing the season with 19 wins from 30 games with seven draws and only four defeats.
Champions of Norway again.Â
Since playing us last on the 20th of September they have played 10 domestic matches – eight in the league and two in the cup – and have lost only one which was a 1-0 defeat in the league to eventual runners-up Molde. They have however also drawn three games, have only scored 15 goals and have conceded seven in that time.
Their main goal scoring threats are veteran strike pair Alexander Søderlund and the mercurial Nicklas Bendtner. They have scored 24 goals between them this season though only four in Europe. Bendtner though hasn’t seen much football in recent weeks which is something he’ll have to get used to as he’s just been convicted of assaulting a taxi driver. He’s due to return to his native Denmark to serve a 50-day jail term at an as of yet undetermined date. In recent months their veteran midfielder Mike Jensen and young Nigerian forward Samuel Adegbenro have stepped up to the plate with some important goals though neither are in double figures.
Bad boy Nicky outside court.
In the Europa League groups stages this term, their record has been pretty woeful having lost all four matches thus far conceding 12 and scoring only three. Last time out they entrained Red Bull Salzburg and were ripped apart 5-2, scoring both of their goals when already down 4-0. This came on the back of a 3-0 hiding in Salzburg and to be honest their record in the Europa League group stages full stop pretty awful as they have only recorded three wins in their last 22 and haven’t played in Europe beyond Christmas this century.
All that being said we struggled to break them down in the home leg 10 weeks ago and it took a late Leigh Griffiths header to gain the victory. We also really struggled away against them in Trondheim back on August 1st in a stale 0-0 game where we only created one real chance.
But let’s also put our last two encounters against them into context. Backing August that was the second leg of a tie in which we were already 3-1 up from the home leg so it was natural that we would defend what we had and in the end we got the job done. The Norwegians were the better team on the night but they really didn’t create much and on reflection at least it was a nervy but ultimately pretty professional job.
In the September game, we still dominated and us struggling to break them down was a general issue at the time. Indeed the following weekend we lost 2-1 at Kilmarnock and as the talk of crisis loomed we began to get our arses into gear and subsequently have gone on a nine-game unbeaten domestic run with eight wins scoring 28 goals in the process and conceding only two. Europe has of course been a different story but after disappointing away performances to Salzburg and Leipzig we produced a stunning 2-1 win against the Germans on matchday four to keep our hopes of qualification well and truly alive.
The last time we went to Trondheim needing to win was in August 2017 during a Champions League qualifier. Having drawn the first leg 0-0 at home the pressure was all on us to produce and produce we did as we dominated the game with 63% possession of the ball. As mentioned earlier James Forrest scored on 69 minutes and not long after raced through on goal to score number two but fluffed his lines. It was one of the most comfortable nights I can remember Celtic having on the road against good opposition in Europe and we simply have to replicate it tomorrow evening.
Tom Rogic will be back and Filipe Benkovic will hopefully make a rare European away start for us also. We missed both badly the last time we ventured abroad and having them back in is a huge plus point.
Benkovic needs to bring the power tomorrow night.
Interestingly both clubs have major cup finals on the Sunday following the match. For Celtic, it’s a chance to win seven consecutive major trophies in the League Cup final against Aberdeen whereas for Rosenborg it’s a chance to a secure a rare domestic treble as they go up against Strømsgodset– the team that Ronny Deila came from – in the Norwegian Football Cup final.
Despite losing all four matches thus far in the group stages incredibly they still could technically make it to the last 32. They would need to beat us by two goals or more and then hope Leipzig succumbed to Salzburg before then going to Germany on matchday six requiring to beat their hosts by three goals or more whilst hoping that Salzburg defeated us. So it’s to say the very least a long shot and perhaps with that in mind players may be more focused on the big domestic cup match three days later. Some online Celtic sources seem to believe that they could even rest half of their usual starting eleven but what the actual basis for this claim outside of sheer conjecture is anyone’s guess.
Of course our own cup final is pretty important too but I’d say it’s trumped by staying in Europe beyond Christmas.
As for the rest of the permutations we basically need Salzburg to beat Leipzig which would see them qualify as group winners with a game to spare and if we beat Rosenborg we’d only require a point against the Austrians at home in the final group match to secure qualification.
A draw between the two Red Bull sides would also be pretty good news as we’d then face a likely depleted Salzburg side – owing to them having already won the group – in the final match requiring a win unless Leipzig somehow drew or lost against Rosenborg.
Defeat for us and Leipzig win then it’s over. A draw and Leipzig win and it’s as good as over. In fact, a draw for Leipzig and we lose and you’re still clutching at straws. So really we need to win and that’s all there is to it.
But here comes the back down to earth with a bump bit and it’s our away form in Europe. I know it sounds like a broken record pointing it out but it is awful. We haven’t won any of our last five which indeed includes trips to face Rosenborg as well as away to Suduva in the footballing hotbed that is Lithuania. We’ve also only won two of our last 11 away. I could extend the record even further back under Brendan and it shows only four wins in 19. Do you want to hear the goals for and against on the road in Europe too? Na. Me neither. Safe to say it’s eye-watering stuff.
There’s no doubt we struggle badly on the road but maybe on Brendan’s 20th sojourn to the continent we can get arguably his biggest win yet. And a hungover weakened Rosenborg team with one eye on their national cup final on Sunday would definitely help.
On a final note, I’ve just seen the odds for the Salzburg vs Leipzig game. The Austrians despite being group leaders with four wins out of four as well as being undefeated in all competitions this season which has seen them record 22 wins and four draws are somehow underdogs for a home tie against a team they beat 3-2 away in the group stage opener. RB Leipzig start as 4/5 favourites with the home team as 3/1 outsiders. Mmmmmm. That does seem a bit iffy. Is a possible carve up in the offing between two teams with almost identical names and badges? Surely not.
Anyway, we have our destiny in our own hands. Let’s hope we take it with both.
....Always A Tim! 