Tag: 2018

Celtic go down meekly to Hibs. Meanwhile, it’s Valencia in the last 32.

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First things first and that’s Celtic’s performance away at Easter Road yesterday. Truth be told the team looked exhausted –  not surprisingly after being run ragged against Red Bull Salzburg during Thursday night’s emotional rollercoaster – and as a result pretty devoid of ideas.

I wrote a piece over a week ago about how the players looked out on their feet away against Motherwell. We dropped two points that night as we wilted badly in the second half but recovered pretty sensationally to bury surprise table-toppers Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park a week ago on Saturday.

Thursday night though saw us come up against easily our toughest opposition of the season and for me the best team we’ve seen at Celtic Park since PSG clinically dispatched us 5-0 in the Champions League group stages 15 months ago.

Each one of our three domestic defeats this season have come in the weekend after a midweek European game and all have been away. So the taxing effects of  European football definitely plays a part but our away record, in general, this season has been pretty awful with 15 points dropped from a potential 27 in the league and only two wins from seven away ties in Europe.

Hibs have themselves been struggling of late having gone through a period of no wins in seven league games which saw them lose four times. They arrested that decline with a 1-0 win away at Hamilton Accies last weekend but generally weren’t given much of a hope yesterday. So much so that their prematch decision to reduce the Celtic away capacity so as to allow more Hibs fans tickets looked utterly absurd as half of the stand where our support usually sits was left virtually empty.

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Another great call from Rod Petrie.

Brendan decided to really utilise the squad and even went for three at the back with Ajer brought into partner Simunovic and Benkovic. Kieran Tierney was rested and in came Emilio Izaguirre with Scott Sinclair being asked to cover a right wing-back role in the absence of the injured Lustig and Gamboa.

In midfield, Ryan Christie was missing after being stretchered off with an ankle injury on Thursday night and Tom Rogic was also left at home to recover from his recent exploits. In came Brown and Ntcham to replace them with McGregor, Forrest and Edouard all retaining their places.

The last three, in particular, were noticeably quiet and looked a little jaded.

Apart from the fatigue side of things the likes of Brown and Ntcham never clicked all day and Izaguirre, who had been so impressive when he came in against Kilmarnock, really struggled with Sinclair looking pretty lost in an unfamiliar defensive role.

Hibs hit a lot of cross-field passes and balls in over the top which cost us no end of trouble and we were ultimately undone by two excellent though preventable finishes from Slivka in the very first minute and Kamberi in the second half.

The introductions of Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnstone brought some urgency and penetration to the play in that second period but ultimately was too little too late. Johnny Hayes also appeared but did nothing of note which is pretty customary of his appearances in the hoops.

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Kamberi finally finds some form. 

The result meant that Rangers returned to the league summit due to a narrow win at home against lowly Hamilton and Kilmarnock also remain above us after a comfortable 3-1 home win against Dundee. We do of course have games in hand and no one’s really worrying especially as we can go top again if we beat Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and Rangers drop points at Easter Road which is as we’ve just discovered no easy place to go and get a result.

The likes of Boyata, Lustig, Rogic, Tierney as well as the inform Christie will also all be back soon – some as early as Wednesday night apparently – but even with that we clearly need reinforcements in January.  Up front plus at right fullback are two key areas we definitely need to address.

Earlier on today there was also the draw for the Last 32 of the Europa League. Being that we would be up against one of fifteen seeds we could only hope for something winnable and I think we got that when Valencia came out of the hat.

On paper, the Spaniards did well in their Champions League campaign to gain 8 points in a group that included one of the tournament favourites in Juventus as well as the once mighty Manchester United. But the truth is they were out by the time of the final group game which they won against a struggling Man U side who had already qualified. Valencia recorded a 2-1 home victory but for anyone who keeps up with English football that’s not that great an achievement these days considering the stumbling form Joe Mourinho’s side have shown this season so far.

In La Liga, they are struggling with only three wins from 16 matches and an incredible ten draws. Two of their defeats have been away from home and they only have two wins from nine home matches with six draws and one loss. They have only 19 points and are in 14th place, four points above the drop zone.  The goals have hardly been flowing either with only 15 so far in this campaign whilst conceding 13. In Europe, they have scored six and conceded six.

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The Mestella is where we are headed. 

All this after blowing over €126 million on players in the summer which included the €40 million capture of 21 -year-old Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from PSG and veteran French striker Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for a mere €16 million. Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi is also there on loan for the season from Chelsea and that deadly strike force has delivered a rather pathetic return of six goals in all competitions and their most dangerous marksman currently is, in fact, Spanish striker Santi Mina who has six this season and 35 in 114 appearances for them.

The other big summer singing was French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia who cost them €25 million from Inter Milan in the summer having previously cost the Italians €40 million from Monaco. He was injured at the weekend though and will be out for between eight to twelve weeks so there’s a good chance we won’t have to worry about him at all.

The star man is, or at least was, striker Rodrigo who’s 19 goals in 44 games last term earned him a place in the Spanish national side for the past summer’s World Cup. However this year he’s hit a measly two in twenty games and is bang out of form.

Backed by billionaire Singapore business magnate owner Peter Lim they could go on a spending spree this January in theory but based on their previous transfer dealings they have actually already spent double what they had spent in total over the two previous seasons combined plus they have only brought three players in, in total, during the past two winter transfer windows, two of which were loan deals.

All in all……….it’s doable.

There is a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and February 14th when they visit Celtic Park in the first leg but as of now, it’s a tie you’d take especially considering some of the Leviathans we could have drawn in the next round.

Let’s just hope that eight and a half weeks from now we’re top of the league, playing well with a stronger squad and that Valencia are pretty much in the same predicament if indeed not worse as they are now.

I guess that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for, for Christmas. Well, that, a pair of Diesel jeans, a significant financial windfall and a win at Ibrox.

 

Europa League Preview: Celtic vs Red Bull Salzburg. Win, draw or bust!

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Tomorrow night Red Bull Salzburg visit Glasgow and we find ourselves in a tricky predicament.

The results fell for us just the way we wanted them two weeks ago on matchday five. We did what we needed to do in Trondheim and despite surprisingly starting as underdogs Salzburg maintained their perfect record in the group by seeing off Leipzig 1-0.

So going into matchday six we sit second top on 9 points whilst Leipzig are on 6. Salzburg are of course already far away and over the hills having qualified with their win at home against their Red Bull counterparts and sit on 15 points.

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More of this will be required.

In theory, it’s all worked out beautifully for us. We need just a draw and a solitary point to progress to the last 32. Of course, if Rosenborg can do the unthinkable and hold out for a draw somehow over in Germany then we won’t even need that and the 9 points will do us but let’s face it….that’s not going to happen. The Norwegians have been pretty hopeless thus far having lost all five group matches as well as conceding 13 goals and only scoring three. In their home fixture against Leipzig, they were spanked 3-1 and now literally having nothing to play for as they were eliminated by us a fortnight ago.

Added to that their season ended a week ago on Sunday when they sealed a historic treble by winning the Norwegian Cup final so safe to say their players have been on both party and holiday mode ever since. There’s even a chance Niklas Bendtner might already be back home in his native Denmark serving his 50 days house arrest already after he was convicted of clouting a taxi driver.

Leipzig are struggling of late having lost two of their last three league games including a surprise 3-0 hammering away to lowly Freiburg at the weekend when they played a full strength team. They’ve actually lost four out of their last six if you include their last two Europa League games and all of this comes after they had only lost only one of their previous 14 matches in all competitions and had gone 11 straight unbeaten against domestic opposition. But even with all that being said I still fully expect them to hammer an unmotivated and potentially unfit Rosenborg side and if there’s an early goal it could be an avalanche.

Our destiny is in our own hands and we really need to just focus on what we need to do. It’s a daunting task as Red Bull Salzburg are the form team of Europe. Managed by the impressive Marco Rose they sit top of the Austrian Bundesliga with a 14 point gap over second-placed LASK Linz and are unbeaten in an incredible 29 games in all competitions this term. That does include being eliminated on away goals over two legs against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League qualifiers but either way, it’s pretty impressive. Slightly terrifying actually.

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Less of this is also required. 

I’m looking for crumbs of comfort here but having won their first 10 straight league matches they’ve actually drawn three of their last seven and were held to a 2-2 draw away at bottom side FC Admira Wacker Mödling on Saturday.

So there’s always that.

But then I remember they’ve also scored 75 goals in those 29 games. I mean we’ve been pretty free-scoring this season but even having played five games more – 21 domestic games plus 13 in Europe – more than them we’ve only scored 64 goals by comparison. They really are an awesome attacking team.

We are of course in pretty good form ourselves having only lost one of our last seventeen domestic games and haven’t lost any of our last twelve with ten wins. More than half of our goals have come in that time too so in actual fact our recent scoring exploits have matched the Austrians, domestically at least.

In the Europa League, they’ve scored three times the number of goals we have – 15 to 5 – which is telling but despite playing five games more than them we’ve actually only conceded 20 goals all season to their 22 in all competitions.

That last one begs the question should we defend and try and hold out for a point?

My swift reply would be ‘no’. Of course, we shouldn’t bomb forward and attack them relentlessly either. They are deadly on the counter attack as we found out over there and have pace throughout the team. Israeli international Moanes Dabour was scoring goals for fun this season but only has one in his last eight however his Japanese internationalist striking partner Takumi Minaminois has stepped into the void in that time scoring six and Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Xaver Schlager and 19-year-old Hannes Wolf have also all been in pretty hot form in front of goal of late too.

Even taking how good they are going forward and our impressive number of clean sheets this season into consideration the fact is we are just not built for all-out defence. And against elite European opposition, and make no mistake Salzburg are just that, we never keep a clean sheet so any notions of a backs to the wall job are fanciable at best.

This situation reminds me of when Maribor came calling in a Champions League play-off against Ronny Deila’s Celtic back in late August of 2014. We had, of course, gained a credible 1-1 away draw in the first leg and Callum McGregor’s goal would have been enough to take us through if we’d held them to a goalless draw at home. But a home crowd on a big European night at Celtic Park demands more than just holding out for scoreless draws and Deila’s side looked like they literally didn’t know whether to stick or twist all evening. In the end, we conceded late on and there was no way back for us.

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To quote the legendary Arthur Montford: “The faces tell it all.”

I’m stating the obvious here but our game plan on Thursday needs to try and get the balance right between defending when we need to and attacking when we can. It’s easier said than done and we may need to carry a bit of luck. In fact, the chances are we definitely will.

I’d definitely like to see the in-form James Forrest get at their veteran 33-year-old left back Andreas Ulmer as much as possible with both Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair also needing to effectively exploit the space given up by the attack-minded right-back Stefan Lainer. At the same time, Kieran Tierney needs to replicate his awesome display against Leipzig and Christie, Benkovic, McGregor and Rogic all need to translate their incredible domestic form into a continental affair.

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How we’d all love to see this again. 

Salzburg, in theory, could write the game off. They’re already through and have a home tie on Sunday against third-placed SKN St. Pölten which is their final league game before a two months winter break. But with only two games before such a mammoth domestic break the chances are they are unlikely to rest anyone or to drop down through the gears as they have a chance to complete the first half of the season undefeated.

As much as we may be up against it maybe we should have faith in our own form and let’s not forget the Celtic Park factor. Far bigger and well-resourced sides than Salzburg have visited Celtic Park in the not too distant past and come away with only a draw or worse. We are also on an unbeaten home run of seven games in Europe with six wins which includes the notable scalps of Leipzig and Zenit St.Petersburg.

Fingers crossed for the right result and a memorable night that will exceed anything we’ve achieved since defeating Barcelona on that famous night back in 2012.

Ryan Christie & co….it’s over to you.

Oh and don’t forget the disco lights. They’re guaranteed not to disappoint.

International round-up: Scotland 3 – 2 Israel. James Forrest Ballon d’OR.

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James Forrest, sorry Scotland picked up from where he/they left off on Saturday night and captured a vital win that propels them into Group B of the Nations League as well as securing a play-off place – and at home none the less – for the Euros against Finland in March 2020.

Ex-Celtic Beram Kayal buried a wonder strike from about 25 yards that gave Allan McGregor no chance on the 9 mins mark. The keeper’s namesake Callum McGregor could have shut the Israel midfielder down earlier but there’s no way anyone could genuinely have expected that.

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Kayal isn’t messing around. 

The goal aside Israel dominated the opening stages and it looked like Scotland’s destruction of Albania three nights previous had perhaps been more down to the Eastern European sides ineptitude as opposed to a resurgence from the Scots.

However, the men in navy blue gradually got back into it with McGregor almost scoring with a fantastic drilled volley from distance that was well saved by Ariel Harush and had begun to pin the visitors inside their own box by the time James Forrest lashed home the equaliser not long after the half-hour mark.

From there on the hosts dominated and a wonderful passage of play saw Steven Fletcher nod onto Ryan Christie who raced down the left flank before lobbing over to that man Forrest again who took a steadying touch before side-footing home the second.

Going into the second half it felt like there was going to be only one winner and Forrest collected from Ryan Fraser in the box before a deft chip left Ben Harush on his arse and set him up to place it in for number three and his hattrick. Similar in execution to his second on Saturday though not quite as spectacular.

Simply put Forrest is on fire right now. So hot indeed you might be able to genuinely light a fag off him.

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They don’t like it up em’.

Of course, Scotland always has a tendency to push the self-destruct button and duly obliged as Eran Zahavi was given acres of space to steady himself and blast home a possible reprieve for the Israelis with a quarter of an hour left.

Much fingernail biting ensued and I thought it only right to put a fiver on Israel to draw as it was sitting at 12/1 – hey if we’re going to blow it then I may as well make a couple of quid – and it almost paid off with McGregor having to produce a fabulous reflex save in the dying embers but Scotland held out and secured three more precious points to top the group on nine.

For Alex McLeish, it was a reprieve. His hand was forced somewhat by injuries into playing a 4-5-1 with Forrest and Fraser on the wing, a recognised left-back playing in position and in-form players getting starts as opposed to the old ‘going for experience’ chestnut. That and James Forrest effectively saved his bacon.

Christie and Armstrong’s energies were boundless and Callum McGregor continues to look very comfortable in a holding role and considering this was a squad with players such as Mulgrew, Griffiths, McGinn, Naismith and Tierney absent it’s difficult not to get excited about possible future prospects. For a start, the football over the past two games has been unusually dynamic and free-scoring for a Scotland team.

The draw for the Euro 2020 qualifiers takes place a week on Sunday – December 2nd – in Dublin and Scotland now know they will be in Pot 3 and that if one of the two tops spots in the group is not secured then they have the play-off match with Finland to fall back on in 16 months time due to their Nations League success.

That’s a long time away and a lot of water can go under the bridge between now and then. But Scotland now have both something to build on and no matter what happens in the qualifiers something to look forward too and a genuine chance of a first major tournament qualification since 1998.

Scotland actually won something last night. It might not have been much but they won something. That doesn’t happen much. So you know, let’s enjoy it as it’s inevitable calamity and disappointment is coming in the post somewhere in the not too distant future.

 

Europa League preview: Celtic vs Leipzig. It’s do or die time.

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Tomorrow night Celtic will limber up for a Europa League clash with Leipzig, or Red Bull Leipzig to give them their full moniker or even RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. if you’re going to get technical.

Whatever the hell you want to call them the fact is that it’s a ‘must win’ game if we want to maintain any hopes of  European football after Christmas.

There has been a general malaise about Celtic in European football so far this term. Indeed you could’ve said that about the season as a whole but since thumping St.Johnstone 6-0 just over four weeks ago we seem to have kicked on big style domestically with five straight wins scoring a pretty incredible 23 goals in the process with only two conceded. That’s made even more impressive by the fact we’d only scored 10 in our previous eight matches on domestic soil.

We are in another League Cup final and are just one point behind Hearts at the top of the League with a game in hand.

So safe to say the worm has turned.

Of course in Europe though, it’s another story. Having cruised through the first few Champions League qualifying rounds we were disappointingly eliminated by a pretty bang average AEK Athens side and then struggled away against Lithuanian champions FK Suduva before a comfortable win at Celtic Park secured the group stages.

It was a tough draw but after squeezing past Rosenborg on matchday one we have looked decidedly uninspired on the road in our two away games against Salzburg and Leipzig.

So uninspired in fact that we now require a win tomorrow night to stand a realistic chance of continuing onto the Last 32. Indeed a defeat and we’ll be out if Salzburg win or draw in Norway – which let’s face it they are pretty much guaranteed to do – as that would put the Swiss on an unattainable 10 or 12 points whilst we could only match Leipzig’s 9 points but would be out on the head to head.

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Brendan has to get it right on Thursday night.

It’s pretty incredible that we find ourselves in this situation of possible Europa League elimination after only four group games. I mean I’ve grown accustomed to us getting skelped in the Champions League but there you are up against top quality in the likes of PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Financially they exist in a different stratosphere and although we are still somewhat outgunned by the two Red Bull teams the gap shouldn’t be unbridgeable. But in the two games, we’ve been up against them so far we’ve been pretty easily swatted aside.

Against Salzburg, we played the perfect European away game in the first 45 mins as we scored early, looked difficult to break down and almost had another on the break just before the half-time whistle. In the second half though we inexplicably changed it and lost 3-1 going on five or six. Away in Germany a fortnight ago we similarly looked decent for the opening half an hour and could have been in front before capitulating just before halftime and from there we meekly saw out the rest of the game.

Brendan’s record in home competitions is of course sensational. Only six defeats from 108 games with every domestic tournament he’s entered ending in victory.  He has an 84% win ratio which is pretty incredible. However, on the continent, it’s been a different story.

Very different.

Brendan’s current record stands at a mere 14 wins from 37 matches with 8 draws and 15 defeats. A 38% win ratio. Quite a drop.

Yes, the standard in Europe is better than domestically. We know that.

But as Red Star Belgrade proved on Tuesday night against Liverpool there are ways of taking down a financial leviathan.

The problem is we try and apply our domestic tactics to our continental opposition and that’s the equivalent of taking a knife to a gun fight or in the case of the Champions League a sword to a nuclear arms race.

Just look across the city as a pretty bang average Rangers team have gone unbeaten in 11 matches in Europe and though I suspect that record-breaking run will be ending pretty soon it just goes to show that with the right tactics good results are possible.

Tomorrow night will see the return of several key players such as impressive central defender Filipe Benkovic, James Forrest – who’s already racked up nine goals this season – and most importantly midfield playmaker Tom Rogic. All three were desperately missed in the away game and will be vitally important against our German visitors.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room though. That being Leipzig themselves. They were in impresisve form coming into the last match and since then…….well they’ve continued to do pretty well with two back to back goalless draws away to Augsburg and at home to Schalke 04 followed by last weekends 3-0 away thumping of Hertha Berlin. As a result, they sit in fourth place in the Bundesliga only one point behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach and five behind unbeaten leaders Borussia Dortmund. They also won 2-1 away to Hoffenheim last week in the second round of the national cup and have suffered only one domestic loss all season, that coming in the opening day to Dortmund.

So that doesn’t bode well but there is salvation and it’s the fact that their three best players won’t feature as according to the Bundesliga website Forsberg (groin), Poulsen (muscular), and Werner (foot) all won’t make it. The thing is though that none of those three featured in the home match either and it made little difference but we were of course shorn of the three I mentioned above.

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Timo floats off injured to the sidelines.

In summation, we’ll be stronger and they’ll remain without their three-star players with Werner missing being a particular bonus as he’s scored four times in his last two matches.

Our record at home in Europe recently has been impressive – five wins and one draw in the last six – but the record against German clubs on the continent is pretty horrific winning only three of  23 encounters and none of our last 10 (D3 L7).

Scary stuff, however, I take comfort in our recent form, our returning players, the personnel they’ll have out and if we can deliver anything like the kind of intensity we produced against Bayern Munich this time last season which was the last time a German club visited Celtic Park then maybe just maybe we can win this one and resurrect the Europa League dream.

It’s a big night for Celtic but an even bigger night for Brendan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSFPzYanCI

Post-match analysis: Red Bull Leipzig 2 – 0 Celtic. More misery on the road and rumours off the pitch abound!

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A depleted Celtic side were easily dismissed by a more or less second string Red Bull Leipzig.

For 30 mins Celtic looked okay and Odsonne Edouard nearly even scored but thereafter it was the usual as we were battered senseless in the last 15 mins of the half conceding two goals and it could have been more.

In the second half, Celtic played to keep the score down looking passive and content with it staying at two-zip. Leipzig accommodated us by and large barring a Konrad Laimer run where he skinned half of our team whilst running from midfield before shooting just past the post and a moment when Augustin cracked a long-range shot off of the same stick.

Ntcham broke through on goal late and if he’d passed to his right to McGregor it was a certain goal but he went for glory and cannoned it off the keeper’s legs. Even if it had gone in there is little to no chance that we’d have equalised as the Germans would have just switched on again.

Right from the off all looked lost as we were without the suspended James Forrest, injured Scott Brown and in the days leading up to the match, Tom Rogic and Filipe Benkovic were also ruled out. Added to that Leigh Griffiths still isn’t available and Mikel Lustig was deemed not fit enough to start.

This meant starts for forgotten men Cristian Gamboa and Eboue Kouassi as well as the rarely seen Lewis Morgan and serial bench warmer Ryan Christie.

All that combined with our long-standing, pretty atrocious away record on the content meant that our chances were pretty much slim and none and slim had just left town.

Leipzig themselves were without their injured midfield playmaker Emil Forsberg as well as star striking duo Timo Werner and Yussuf Poulsen who were rested on the bench but still had far more firepower on the pitch.

Of course, we helped them with an awful attempt at a clearance from Kouassi resulting in a fresh air miss so bad it also confused Boyata whose own attempt also missed and it fell to Matheus Cunha who couldn’t believe how much time he had to control it and lash it home.

The second saw Marcelo Saracchi dart down the wing after a wild suicide sliding tackle from Gamboa was skipped over with ease and his resulting cross saw another woeful attempt by Kouassi to clear once again befuddle Boyata and resulted in Bruma lashing it home.

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A familiar sight on the continent as our players trudge back to the centre circle after conceding another goal. 

It really was comical stuff. Kouassi had a blinder in just how bad he was though incredibly John Hartson labelled him as one of our better players at halftime. I actually kept an eye on him and he was passive throughout with his shoulders dipped and looked lost. Basically a carbon copy of his display earlier in the season against Hearts.

Boyata was also awful in the centre of defence. In the second half, he needlessly gave the ball away on numerous occasions, something he’s well known for, and was left in the wake of the rampaging Laimer when he nearly scored which saw a pretty pathetic attempt by Boyata to stop him.

That aside just about everyone in a Celtic jersey struggled with McGregor, in particular, going missing for much of the game.

It’s really all we’ve come to expect away in Europe under Brendan. Nothing changes tactically and his record now reads 4 wins from 19 away games with 10 defeats and an incredible 38 goals conceded.

We can’t keep a clean sheet away from home against anything resembling quality from the continent and outside of Edouard don’t to appear to have much of a goal threat on the road either.

The loss of some of our best players was definitely a factor and was felt sorely but it somewhat negated by Leipzig resting so many of their top performers yet still looking streets ahead.

The mistakes at the back happen time and again and the players brought in are clearly not good enough. Not only that but most are also Brendan’s signings.

Tactically we are way too open and the moment we concede panic sets in and our shape collapses.

Leipzig visit Glasgow in a fortnight and it literally is a must-win game. If we lose and Salzburg win in Norway as expected then we are out. That’s right we’ll be out with two games still to go from Europe’s second-tier competition. That’s the same competition where Rangers have gone unbeaten in 11 straight games so there really are no excuses.

Inevitably in the fallout, more rumours have surfaced about Brendan’s relationship with the board which seems to be par for the course after we record a negative result.

One of the main fuels to the fire was this tweet by BBC correspondent and self-confessed Rangers fanatic Richard Wilson:

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If there’s any truth in this then next week should be interesting. I mean what else could ‘serious upheaval’ mean other than heads rolling and whose heads would they be?

Thes semi-final of the League Cup on Sunday against Hearts now takes on even more importance as a negative result will likely lead to further rumours of things coming to a head.

There seems to be an attitude prevalent amongst Celtic fans that Sunday was the priority which I found a bit incredible considering Europe is where we want to be but maybe shows the mentality that has crept in in recent years. That being that Europe is perceived as a pipe dream where making any significant progress is fanciable and we are almost willing fodder for the big clubs.

Anyway onto Hampden we go and on and off the pitch I think we can expect some fireworks in the coming days. Should be interesting at least.