2013/14 Champions League Qualification

International breaks are absolute *

Can't wait to see the next chapter in our Euro adventure.
Imagine the joy if we made the last 16 with some great results?!
I'd still be happy with the Europa League... the alternative wouldn't be nice.

 

No shame in finishing bottom of this group if we do, was always going to be a mini transitional phase this season

 

* *, its going to be Christmas again soon. Madness

 

Hold yer horses! Got to get my Halloween costume sorted first.

Yeah no shame finishing 4th but we need European football past Xmas to keep things fresh and interesting!

 

Ajax are open to the counter attack, the weakness is the midfield three leaving the back four a wee bit exposed.

PSV matched Ajax with a 4-3-3 formation and destroyed them and a few things can be spotted straight away. The keeper is very dodgy on crosses, and they most certainly do not like playing against a big physical striker who has a bit of pace or an attacking midfielder with similar qualities.

Ajax look fairly beatable both home and away. The key is getting the midfield right and playing Balde and mixing it up through the middle on the counter attack and always having a player out wide who can deliver a good cross.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFL6zp0LBBA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFL6zp0LBBA[/ame]

 

I can't wait to see Ajax. They play fantastic football. Far too open though, but they have their philosophies and fair play to them for not changing them.

 

Their home form is excellent. I can't really see who can play Scott Brown's position in the team, that's the concern and the temptation is to go with a ridiculously attack minded team that sits quite narrow, with Stokes, Balde, Boerigter, Sammy, Commons, Lustig, Ambrose, Van Dijk, Izzy and Mulgrew.

 

Or just play Kayal Ledley and Mulgrew

 

Kayal's pace and energy might be necessary, as long as he has cover behind him.

 

Nice to read this!

STAFF EDIT: All buying and selling of tickets is to be made in the ticket exchange section only. To post there you need 500 posts.

Regards from Amsterdam!

 

Well, Kayal, Ledley and Mulgrew is the kind of obvious choice. That's a safe bet. Maybe having Mulgrew in their can make that work.

Then i guess there is a selection headache between Sammy, Stokes, Balde, Pukki, Boerigter and Forest.

We need to find a system that blocks off all the possible passing routes to make the central midfielder hesitate and then have someone with the pace and tenacity to steal the ball and get the ball to Stokes and have Balde to act as a decoy, with Commons making late runs into the box.

Either way it's gonna be a great spectacle and an interesting match up.

 

if we draw on points with ajax does it go head to head or goal difference,for 3rd place?currently were 3 goals ahead on goal difference.that schone goal might bite us in the *,but great result tonight and well done to the team.

 

Only Barcelona & Arsenal have scored more than one goal at Celtic Park in the last 10 years in European competition. Great stat.

 

Milan will get beat in Barcelona. We are more than capable of taking a win of Ajax in Amsterdam imo. We could be going into the Milan game knowing a win would see us through into the last 16

 

To be honest I think 2nd will still be a big ask, but I'm very confident that we can see Europa league after Christmas.

 

Winning in Amsterdam is the next hurdle and it's a tough one. I hope we don't sit back like Ajax did last night, 3 points would be huge.

 

The importance of last night's game was talked about but I think this game is way huger. If we win this, we set up a home decider against AC Milan, which would be a * huge game, and an excellent set-up for the last home group stage game.

What if we draw in Amsterdam? I think it's safe to say Barca will beat AC Milan (we better hope so anyway or we've got no chance of making the last 16). So if we draw in Amsterdamn, then it'll look like this:

Barca 10
Milan 5
Celtic 4
Ajax 2

Then say we beat Milan at home in the next game, and Barca beats Ajax:

Barca 13
Celtic 7
Milan 5
Ajax 2

Hence Barca will have qualified already. A win for us against a reserve Barca team would guarantee qualification.Depending on our head to head with Milan, a draw against Barca could see us through too. *, Ajax could beat Milan and thus it wouldn't matter what we did at the Nou Camp.

After we didn't take anything from our first couple games, I lost hope a bit, but when you look at it, the last 16 is in our grasp.

 

Juve?

 

We're going to have to play better than last night to beat Ajax away.

If we do that or at least not lose no reason why we can't beat Milan and home and qualify for the last 16.

 

And Juventus... in the last 16 years.

We have also never conceded more than 3 home goals in the CL Group Stage over the 3 home games. The year Barca scored 3 and beat us 3-1, the other two teams never scored.

So considering we've conceded 2 so far this season, its massively unlikely than AC Milan will score more than 1 goal, as only 3 teams have scored over 1 goal in the last 16 years and we've never conceded more than 3 at home in the GS so a team scoring more than once and making it 4 conceded at home is unlikely.