Expectations

Rome wasn't built in a day.

2 years ago we went through a full Europa League group without a win.

Since then we've qualified twice for the CL and while we've had a few nippy ones, we've also had some good performances too. Comprehensive victory away in Belgium, undefeated in 2 legs to a Man City side that was rampant in the EPL at the time and a draw away to Gladbach when we were unlucky not to take the win.

Admittedly It wasn't a vintage performance last night. We need to be more compact and have a better shape both offensively and defensively. However some realism is required, we're a work in progress and barring an absolute collapse at Parkhead we are in the EL group stages after Christmas. Every fan would've bitten your hand off for that when the draw was made.

Hopefully we get a wee run of games in the Europa picking up experience and strengthen in the 2 transfer windows til next seasons qualifiers to continue our progression.

It's never nice watching Celtic being beaten but you've got to look at it in context with the bigger picture. Our transformation in the last 16 months has been nothing short of incredible; inevitably there will be some who wanted even more.

 

I expect players who are getting thousands of pounds per week to be able to pass the * ball there was nothing that spectacular about Bayern yes they have really good players but there was no flashes of brilliance they simply worked harder and passed the ball better .
its baffling we play possession football all the time yet when we play in Europe we start hoofing the ball up the park

 

Pretty much sums it up for me we could have plsyed better and maybe still have walked away with it being 3 or more but id rather it that way and knowing we tried our best

 

Didn't expect any points last night though think we can play much better than that, but we knew it would be between us and Anderlecht in this group and we put in one of our best away performances against them and would expect the same against them at home. 6 points v Anderlecht and a shot at the Europa would be an improvement on last year and would show we're making progress. Would hope we give at better account of ourselves in the next two games but at the same time Bayern and PSG could easily pump us again regardless of how we play.

 

I'm a realist. If all our players played out of their skins last night, wed still have got beat. That BM team are outstanding and they didn't even have to break sweat. It is what it is. We take it on the chin and move on. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't wait for this game and I honestly thought we'd get something from it like I do before every team we play wether it's Barca, BM or Ross county. Listen, we move on. Well get a point or 3 of them at Halloween, if not, well get more points from the other teams and have European football after crimbo.

 

This is it, I compare this team to the one who played in that Europa group and it's night and day. It's our level, so I'm looking forward to us playing in it with this team tbh. CL (sadly) is just a competition we have to enjoy while we're there.

Also worth remembering that between qualifiers and league games that we've played a lot of football already this season. Players looked lethargic last night.

 

As many people said as soon as the group was drawn, can't reasonably expect to take any points from teams of PSG or Bayern's quality now, and the gap is getting bigger, a draw against either of them would be an upset nevermind a win.

It was always about us vs anderlect for third, and on that side of things we're doing better than I'd thought, before we played them who wouldn't have been more than pleased with an away draw?

I can't see them taking anything from their games against psg and bayern either, so as long as we don't make a monumental balls of it when they come to us, we've got third place, europa in the new year, and that's real tangible progress, and what we should be aiming for most seasons, unless we get a really lucky draw in the CL and it's an open group to shoot for second, third place and europa is realistically our level.

 

Yes, a mixture of Bayern taking their foot off the gas and our personnel improving with the sub's.