Tag: Salzburg

Post-match analysis: Red Bull Salzburg 3 – 1 Celtic – The same old story!

wayofthecass

Sometimes it’s great to be proved right.

This isn’t one of those times.

As predicted Celtic were pretty emphatically swept aside by Red Bull Salzburg in the Red Bull Arena last night.

Like most, I had approached the game with little to no belief that we could get something due to a combination of our opponent’s red-hot form and our own indifferent performances thus far this season. That plus the fact our record away in Europe is generally God awful.

So I was pretty shocked when after about 90 seconds Odsonne Edouard got the better of Andre Romalho and then finished expertly after a hopeful ball over the top from McGregor.

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French Eddy wheels away.

Thereafter we actually played the game pretty well with a good defensive shape and looked pretty tasty at times on the break.

We reduced Salzburg to some speculative shots from distance and right before half-time we looked to have increased our lead after another stampeding run at their goal from Edouard ended up with the same player scoring again after Salzburg keeper Alexander Walke saved well from a James Forrest effort but alas French Eddy had strayed offside.

Then came the second half and well…………….as the title alluded to we completely capitulated.

Salzburg went through the gears and we got deeper and deeper with Craig Gordon saving well from Dabbur and you hoped we had weathered the storm but then bang on 55 mins the same man was left standing alone in the box and with Jack Hendry marking thin air five yeards away he received a cutback from Hannes Wolf and swept it home for the equaliser.

From then on out there was only one team in it and wave after wave of attack resulted in a second Salzburg goal as Japanese internationalist Minamino almost waked in with Boyata missing wildly with a sliding challenge and Hendry again taken to the cleaners.

An inevitable third came when Dabbur swept home a penalty after Forrest was adjudged to have taken down Andreas Ulmer with 18 mins to go. It looked harsh, to be honest, but what the hell Forrest was doing in that position in the first place is anyone’s guess and it very much was a winger’s tackle.

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Forrest sees red.

Substitute Junuzovicat smacked one off the post late on and Celtic provided little to nothing going forward in the whole of the second half so it was a relief to hear the final whistle. 

Performance wise Leigh Griffiths was an empty jersey all night, Ntcham was absolutely wretched, Lustig continues to add weight o the belief that he is a spent force and Hendry as previously stated is lost in a Celtic jersey.

We desperately need Benkovic back in defence and sorely missed both Rogic and Brown, the latter especially in the second half as the team looked absolutely rudderless.

Yes, we didn’t expect a win or even a draw and yes Salzburg now remain undefeated at home since November 2016 in all competitions – which included rattling Lazio 4-1 in the quarter-finals of this very competition last season – so on the face of it, there is no disgrace.

But they were nowhere near the level of the Champions League teams we’ve faced in recent years ie: Barca, PSG, Bayern Munich etc yet in the second half we folded against them in almost identical fashion.

Brendan’s record in European football at the club is pretty poor, to say the least.

It currently stands at 14 wins from 36 matches for a 39% win percentage with 14 losses and 8 draws. In those 36 matches we’ve conceded 55 goals and scored 54 but it’s away from home where it really comes eye-watering.

You see on the road that was our 18th away tie under Brendan last night of which we’ve won four with five draws and nine defeats scoring 18 and conceding a pretty remarkable 36 so an average of two a game.

Too often we looked disjointed, confused and hopeless at the back and it’s been going on for three seasons now with no end in sight.

Our next two Europa League games are a doubleheader against RB Leipzig with the first game two weeks next Thursday so three weeks to try and get the likes of Benkovic, Rogic and Brown back and try and find some form as well as an actually feasible gameplan for playing away in Europe.

This really is turning into one long hard season.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 1 – 0 Rosenborg – The Hoops leave it late.

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Just to begin with the vibe of this post would be very different if Celtic hadn’t pulled this out of the fire via a fantastic Leigh Griffiths headed finish in the dying embers.

This was, to be honest, more of the same from what we’ve seen by and large this season from the Hoops.

Despite having scored 27 goals in an unbeaten 10 game run which featured nine wins Rosenborg did what every team seem to do now when they play Celtic – with the notable exception of the elite – by sitting in and letting us play in front of them.

Brendan Rodgers commented afterwards that the Norwegians surprised Celtic by sitting in and playing a diamond formation which they hadn’t attempted before in any previous games they had studied.

That may be so but Celtic are nothing if not predictable at the moment. As was the case in last Friday’s game against St.Mirren – and just about every other game bar a few this calendar year – we continuously pass back with an instinct to constantly recycle the ball showing little to no width outside of Tierney on the left-hand side and trying to ominously play through a packed middle where both Rogic and McGregor appear to contradict each other with their similar playing styles.

In fairness, Rosenborg gave nothing past the halfway line. They were blatantly here for the point and would have had the team coach parked in front of the goals with all of the players on board if it was allowed.

The last time they came to Parkhead they went a goal up and were the better team for 20 mins before we went through the gears and proceeded to rip them apart for the rest of the game-winning 3-1 when it should have been far more. So you argue they had learned their lesson but still, considering how dynamic they are in their domestic league their total lack of ambition here was pretty disappointing. Thye it almost worked. Almost.

Celtic created chances with Rogic gliding through the middle in the first half and setting up Edouard who fired over the bar and not long after the visitor’s goalkeeper made a wonderful double save from both the Australian and the Frenchman.

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In the second half, Mikey Johnston spurned a great chance as he fired over the bar shortly after coming on a sub. Scott Sinclair, who’d also come on a sub, also went inches wide. But it just didn’t seem to be our night until another sub, Griffiths, popped up in the 88th minute to head the ball intelligently down off the turf and past stranded keeper AndrĂ© Hansen after a diagonal high ball to the edge of the box from Brown had been won superbly by the towering Boyata which placed it into the danger area and Leigh nipped in like only he can.

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LG stoops to conquer.

It had been a frustrating night for the home crowd as an air of expectation – understandable considering we battered Rosenborg here only two short months ago on a balmy summers evening – turned to frustration as much fuelled by the lethargic and monotonous passing game as opposed to the lack of finishing.

Indeed many had departed the scene or were in the process of doing so when Leigh scored leading to streams pouring back into celebrate. You’d think with Celtic’s history of late goals folk would have learned their lesson but alas.

Anyway, it was a vital three points if we are to maintain any serious ambitions to qualify. Especially considering our next two games are away against both of the Red Bull clubs because let’s be honest expectations will be pretty minimal for both of those trips, Salzburg in particular.

Tierney was the star of the show. I used to think the comparisons with Danny McGrain were somewhat unrealistic but he really does look an increasingly impressive talent.

Edouard needs to pull his socks up. The guy cost us over ÂŁ9 million – confirmed by the new financial results for any of the doubters – and one goal in six and looking generally ineffective just isn’t good enough.

One major plus is new singing Benkovic. He easily looks a far more composed, dominant and complete defender compared to Jack Hendry, Ĺ imunović and young Ajer. Admittedly there wasn’t much coming at him but there were no bomb scare moments.

Anyway, five clean sheets in a row. That’s good. We just need goals and to stop passing the ball to death endlessly as part of a cunning plan to bore our opposition to sleep.