Expectations in Europe

Sounds a bit like Liverpool under rodgers. I love the guy but he can be so naive sometimes and looks like he has a bit of an ego in the same way Wenger does im their unwillingness to change their playstyle to suit the opponent.

 

We are doing what's expected in Europe with slight variations here and there. Maybe people are just * because they look to MON's and WGS's era where we overachieved and want that to happen under BR, but I don't know.

Linfield 0-2 Celtic - Expected to win
Celtic 4-0 Linfield - Expected to win
Celtic 0-0 Rosenborg - Expected to win, so disappointing
Rosenborg 0-1 Celtic - Expected to go through, so good
Celtic 5-0 Astana - Expected to win and exceeded my expectations in terms of scoreline
Astana 4-3 Celtic - Expected a professional performance, and we had a wobble but was fine with this game as we got through

Celtic 0-5 PSG - Expected PSG win, but disappointed by how emphatic it was
Anderlecht 0-3 Celtic - Hoped to get something rather than expected and was thoroughly surprised by how well we won this
Bayern Munich 3-0 Celtic - Expected to get beat by more than three in all honesty
Celtic 1-2 Bayern Munich - Expected to get beat and hoped for something, and although we didn't get a result, the performance was decent
PSG 7-1 Celtic - Expected to get beat by four or five so wasn't surprised by how it went
Celtic 0-1 Anderlecht - Expected to win, and although I was disappointed with the game I was pretty relaxed about it as we got what we wanted

Celtic 1-0 Zenit - Didn't expect us to get through the tie overall. Thought it was a 50-50 game beforehand but with home advantage I was hopeful we'd win and we did, and put in a good performance
Zenit 3-0 Celtic - Thought we'd score but still expected us to go out and unfortunately we did go out

I'm under no illusions about where we are as a European team though, so that tempers my expectations.

 

I honestly didn't expect us to go through last night so I'm relatively not as gutted as I might have been.

I'm annoyed at how poor we were obviously, but I thought zenit would be a lot better than last week coming off their long break, and the way we controlled the game last week but only getting one goal, we really should have grabbed at least 2 or 3 more if we took our chances and had the job done, would have been a different game last night if we went into it with a decent lead.

 

Tbh I expect Group Stage of th Champions League and after last season I expected a 3rd place finish when I saw the draw.

I have to admit I never expected us to beat Anderlecht Away, give Bayern a real game or dominate Zenit at home.

But I also never expected to get absolutely tanned off PSG like we did, play like we did to Anderlecht at home and Zenit away.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

We can talk about what we expected in terms of results - which is a very important factor in determaning how well the team has done - and I'd imagine most fans would accept that results have been in line with expectations.

But I would argue that the performances in certain games have fell below expectations and that is also an important factor.

I expected us to lose the overall tie against Zenit, so therefore I accept the result for what it was - in line with expectations. But the performance last night was well below how I would have expected us to perform. All over the place in defence, very little creativity in the midfield and flaccid upfront in terms of penetrating the back four. There was also an air of inevitability about the game after the first goal and a lack of drive and urgency in the team to take get a hold of the game.

The performances away to PSG and at home to Anderlecht were similarly poor.

We have had some very professional performances we can be proud of though - Astana home, Anderlecht away, Bayern Home, Zenit at home. We just need more consistency and a belief that we can get a result.

 

Do you think Leicster would have won the EPL with that same thinking?

They went out and had a go at teams every week, beating the likes of man city in their own ground.

If you dont have belief then nothing would be gained. Football would be * with this kind of thinking. We have a better squad of players than our european results suggest.

 

C.L. Followed by Europa was the aim, this we got but it's the performances along the way that was the kick in the teeth in some of the games it was the way the self destruct button seemed to go off and the whole team lost their way.

 

Given our away record in Europe over the past 15 years, give me one good reason why I should EXPECT Celtic to do anything in Europe?

Under O'Neill and Strachan we at least had solid home form to fall back on but we don't even have that now. Face it, we are pish at this level.

 

Because under MON, GS and NL we made the last 16. With an organised team.

No we dont have it at the moment, but with a solid organised unit we can get there. Things can turn around fast in football.

Because we have shown what kind of performances we are capable of. Only at the start of the season people were fancying us to go on a run in europe. It didnt happen but if we can get the momentum and the performances back then we can do something.

 

Losing 5 of out of 6 games in the group stages certainly wasn't reaching them for me.