Tag: SPFL

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.

Weekend review. Celtic rip Hearts apart and, Boydie goes crazy and it’s raining coins in Paisley.

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A belated review of Celtic’s weekend performances against Hearts due to circumstances and by circumstances I mean a Saturday night Halloween party and being away from the house for a few days.

Celtic had their third meeting with league leaders Hearts on Saturday at Celtic Park, coming a mere six days after seeing off the same opposition at Murrayfield in the League Cup semi-final.

It was really as you were as Hearts tried to sit in and defend and just ended up getting ripped apart as a ravenous Celtic team tore into them from the first whistle and ended the half 3-0 up after Odsonne Edouard cracked in a beauty off the underside of the bar from the edge of the box followed by Filipe Benkovic rising high to power in a header from a corner – yes you heard that right Celtic scored a goal from a corner kick – and French Eddy added his second as he directed a Tierney cross home after the latest fumble from Hearts calamity prone keeper ZdenÄ›k Zlámal who for some reason is now just referred to as ‘Bobby’.

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Benkovic rises high to head home imperiously. 

It should have been much more with other chances going a begging including Ryan Christie clipping one just past the post from close range in the opening minutes and then hitting the post as he tried to slide one home soon after the second.

Callum McGregor nearly scored one of the goals of the season in the second 45mins as he ran from his own half into the Hearts goal and rounded a couple of defenders before striking it just past the far post.

James Forrest did make it four after some nice intricate play on the edge of the box from that man Edouard again resulted in the winger turning and burying it past ‘Bobby’ with aplomb.

Forrest then was taken down in the box by Hearts striker Craig Wighton as Celtic terrorised the Edinburgh clubs goal once again and Ryan Christie stepped up to make amends for his earlier misses and stroked home the fifth and final goal sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.

All in all a resounding victory which takes us within a point of Hearts with a game in hand.

Craig Levein later admitted he’d played it safe and it had backfired though I think even if they had been more adventurous things might actually have been worse as his side went back to the capital with their tails firmly between their legs. Even Steven MacLean kept his hands to himself after the scandal of the recent ‘bawsgate’.

So now Celtic go into this Thursday evenings match with Red Bull Leipzig in pretty incredible domestic form though I’ll reserve any talk of that for another article.

Elsewhere Rangers ended their three-match winless run and once again underlined the managerial genius of Steven Gerrard as they scored twice late to rescue three points against a struggling St.Mirren at New St.Mirren Park in Paisley.

Loveable rogue Alfredo Morelos was lucky to survive a 50 pence piece being directed at his genitalia  that he didn’t seem to notice and after the game St.Mirren keeper Craig Samson had collected enough coins in his goal to afford a Big Mac meal en route home as Scottish football fans continue to show amazing financial frivolity in the face of the oncoming Brexit.

Kris Boyd also got a rare runout at home for his beloved Kilmarnock against Aberdeen and scored a penalty midway through the first half which led to him losing his mind and going crazy in front of the Aberdeen support as he goaded them with reference to his weight before an off the cuff dance resulted in a five pound note being hurled at him. He later used this to purchase a lasagna and two bags of monster munch at a local Tesco express.

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Boyd goes bananas. 

Clearly, motivated by Boyd’s banal celebration Aberdeen went onto win the game 2-1 with Barry Ferguson’s nephew Lewis curling in a late free kick in front of the travelling faithful who celebrated wildly though Boydie had long since departed to purchase his aforementioned post-match meal by that point.

Just another weekend in the mad, mad world that is Scottish football. Just remember no matter how all of the results turn out every club brings it upon themselves.

 

Post-match analysis: Dundee 0 – 5 Celtic. A massacre at Dens while it kicks off big time elsewhere.

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Well, I think it’s pretty safe to say that we’re back to being in fine fettle now.

Domestically at least.

A rampant Celtic tore hapless Dundee apart on Halloween with four goals in the first half all started by a beautiful strike from star man Tom Rogic on the 20 minute mark followed  by a penalty conversion from Scott Sinclair just after the half hour, James Forrest finishing off a sublime passing move with a neat finish on 38mins and then Odsonne Edouard tapping in the fourth just before the half-time whistle blew after some fine wing play and a cut back from Forrest.

The second half saw Celtic predictably drop down a few gears whilst Dundee put on their best guiser masks and started hammer throwing as they committed to keeping the score down.

That didn’t stop Ryan Christie bursting through on goal to finish expertly on 48 mins and Kieran Tierney should have made it six when he placed it past the post when it seemed easier to score after a fine low cross to the back post by substitute Daniel Arzani.

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Arzani wishes the Celtic support a hello and a goodbye. 

Incidentally, we finally got a glimpse of the highly touted Man City loanee Arzani who looked a little off the pace but still pretty tasty all before he went down in a heap on 78 mins before being taken off on a stretcher. Sadly early reports indicate ligament damage and that he’ll be out for nine months so safe to say we won’t be seeing him again. Thanks for the memories, Daniel. We’ll always have Dens.

The performance was a continuation from what we’ve been seeing from the Hoops since the mauling of St.Johnstone at McDiarmid Park nearly four weeks ago and saw us rack up our 18th goal in four domestic games.

Yes, Dundee are pretty much on their arse at the moment with their shellshocked new manager Jim McIntyre probably wondering what the hell he’s has got himself into and gave nothing going forward all night incredibly registering no shots on goal. But Celtic still put them to the sword in impressive fashion none the less.

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Who’d be Jim?

Let’s hope we can continue this on to our top of the table clash with Hearts on Saturday with victory seeing us close the gap to 1 point with a game in hand over the jam tarts.

Over at Tynecastle last night they played out an eventful 0-0 draw with city rivals Hibs that saw their keeper smacked in the chops from a Hibs fan – no way it was a punch but still was uncalled for – and Neil Lennon got coined by one of Hearts more impassioned supporters who our ex-manager would now like to meet for a friendly one to one over a cup of tea or words to that effect.

Elsewhere crisis continued to envelop Rangers as they dropped points to Kilmarnock – who in fairness are no mugs these days as we found out to our own detriment earlier in the season – just as their financial figures were released revealing trading losses of over ÂŁ14 million to the year ending June 30th.  Interesting that they decided to release the figures just before a home game kicked off. It’s almost as if they are trying to divert attention. Still, Dave King is very confident things are moving in the right direction and he looks pretty trustworthy.

I’m told that Europea League qualification will sort all things financial out. Strange how it’s been painted as financial salvation over in Govan yet our elimination from the Champions League and subsequent qualification for the very same Europa League has been painted as a near financial disaster. Funny that.

Anyway, it’s all going well on the good ship Celtic for the moment and there can be no doubt that the team has their swagger back.

Let’s hope the re-established domestic dominance can be translated into a positive European result in one weeks times as we desperately need to beat Red Bull Leipzig at Celtic Park next Thursday.

Anything but victory effectively eliminates us and defeat combined with Salzburg winning in Norway would confirm it.

I was disappointed we prioritised the weekend’s cup semi-final against Hearts over last Thursday nights away game against the Germans.

Europe for me is always where good Celtic teams and managers really prove their worth and by and large in the past three seasons we’ve been found wanting.

I guess I can delve a bit deeper into that quandary next week so for now, let’s just enjoy our continued return to form whilst all of our rivals faltered on Halloween night.

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.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 4 – 2 Hibs. That’ll be the crisis over then.

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What a game that was.

Celtic and Hibs played out what must be undoubtedly the game of the season on Saturday afternoon.

As expected ex-Celtic manager Neil Lennon set-up his team to attack and as a result, a very open and free-flowing game occurred with Celtic’s superior firepower seeing us emerge with three points in a spectacular end to end game.

In total there were 30 shots on goal between the two teams with 12 of those on target as well as 12 corners shared and Hibs even had 46% of possession which is highly unusual for a domestic team visiting Celtic Park.

But despite the stats looking fairly even the reality was that this would have been a travesty if Celtic had not emerged with the three points. Along with the four goals the Hoops hit the post three times and the opposition goalie Adam Bogdan had one of the games of his life.

Tom Rogic gave Celtic the lead as he played a one-two with Forrest, the man whose goals he had mostly helped conjure up at St.Johnstone a fortnight ago, and lashed a curling left-foot drive past Bogdan on eight mins, a goal highly reminiscent of his strike against Rangers at Ibrox in the 3-2 triumph last season.

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“How’s about that for a strike?”

Then on 19 minutes, Olivier Ntcham doubled the lead with a fine sweeping low finish from inside the box past Bogdan after a lovely pass from Rogic.

This was no more than Celtic deserved considering that in the first seven mins alone Edouard had crashed one off the post after chesting down a clipped cross to the back stick from McGregor and then McGregor himself nearly caught Bogdan off his line with a free-kick from distance just going over the bar.

Celtic really should have made it three and finished it off in the first half when Scott Sinclair cracked one off the post when it seemed easier to score after being the first to meet a save from Bogdan who had denied the oncoming Edourde. The rebound came to James Forrest but the less said about his attempted finish the better. Needless to say, he scuffed it a mile wide from close range.

With it all being such one-way traffic it was easy to forget that Hibs have actually been in great form this season but they served up a sharp reminder when ex-Celt Efe Ambrose floated a cross into the box that was met perfectly by Martin Boyle requiring Craig Gordon to produce a wonder save to put it past the post.

Into the second half and Hibs continued to threaten and credit where it is due as Florian Kamberi produced an absolutely wonderful finish from just inside the box to reduce his side’s deficit to 2-1.

Odsonne Edouard was determined not to be outdone though and rampaged forward, skinning three Hibs defenders in the process before his curling finish came back off the bottom off the past with Bogdan well beaten.

But any doubts it wasn’t going to be his day were erased when James Forrest burst down the left wing towards the byline, leaving Mark Milligan in his wake before cutting back for Edouard to finally deliver a well-deserved goal and restore Celtic’s two-goal cushion.

You’d have thought that would be all she wrote but Hibs were never going to throw in the towel that easy with Neil Lennon as manager and again they broke away with Martin Boyle bearing down on goal before clipping it over the despairing Craig Gordon to make it 3-2.

Frenetic stuff.

The game continued to rage from end to end and Bogdan made several excellent saves before Celtic put it beyond doubt on 88 mins when Tierney passed it forward to Edouard who backheeled it on the spin beautifully to the onrushing McGregor who floated it back over to him in the box and the Frenchman brought it down before finishing superbly past the Hibs keeper to seal the three points.

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Brendan tells French Eddy he’s worth his weight in goals whilst KT does that pose with his hands on his hips pose that he often does. 

What a performance and there is no doubt that an ambitious and high flying Hibs team brought out the best in Celtic. Let’s not forget that Celtic could only record one win from four league meetings against the Edinburgh side last season and even that was only 1-0.

It really does look like we’re back to where we were for the first season and a half under Brendan with a pace and tenacity about the play as well as some absolutely wonderful combination play at pace as Celtic constantly looked to go on the offensive.

When you play like that the opposition will always get some chances but in fairness, both of Hibs goals were top drawer finishes the likes of which we will seldom see from visiting teams in any season domestically at least.

It would appear that we are now back to our best and that all of the nonsensical talk of divisions in the dressing rooms etc is just that. Scott Brown going off injured is definitely a blow as we clearly missed him away against Salzburg and will again on Thursday in Germany if his injury is as bad as initially feared but with the likes on Edouard, McGregor, Forrest and Rogic in red-hot form who knows.

Anyway, a review of Thursday nights opponents will follow tomorrow but at the very least we are definitely back at the races domestically.