Back to back games against Astra Giurgiu

Rapid are a bigger name but when did they last do anything in Europe? they couldnt even beat Mowbrays team in Europe when we had players like Paul McGowan and Crosas playing against them lol

There Rapid's European results there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SK_Rapid_Wien_records_and_statistics#European_records

Last time they beat a decent European team was Aston Villa in 2010.

 

I mean that we qualified for the Champions League knockouts a couple of years ago, so that should be used as the measure of our league, not the fact that other sides in our league can't get through a number of qualifiers unseeded and then start picking up points. All the coefficient proves is that Romania has non-champion sides that can get through those qualifiers.

You can't exclude the achievements of the champions when measuring the quality of leagues.

 

But Astra playing in a stronger League against better teams means they should be more used to tougher games and playing football that can translate into European games fairly easily.

If 2/3 other Scottish teams regularly done ok in Europe then Celtic you'd imagine would be much more comfortable in Europe as those other 2/3 decent teams in our League would test us more often and have games against us similar to European games. Where as in reality the 2nd and 3rd best teams in Scotland play the same way against us as teams in the 2nd Division do, just sit right back.

 

We need 4 points to be safe in my opinion, let's not get ahead of ourselves they are by the looks of it the weakest team in the group but we have to still play with a degree of caution..
I'm glad we play them at home first and get a feel before going in to the.slightly unknown..

From what I've seen dinamo Zagreb will take at least 4 points off salzburg who will need to beat us at Celtic park to qualify and even when we go to Zagreb they and possibly us might already be qualified..

I am extremely confident though that we will qualify now..

Great position after these two games to be in..

 

Aye, that's true.

We've always done well in Europe despite that though.

 

6 points would see us through hopefully but we really need to win all 4 remaining games for the coefficient.

 

Wouldnt be too confident about that.

I think Soriano and Alan of Salzburg looked better players than Cop and Soudani from Dinamo. Those games will be a toss up but id probably put my money on Salzburg to win atleast one of them, id have them as the favourites.

 

We'll have to see but for me Zagreb were a far better side than salzburg..

I wouldn't be surprised if salzburg collect zero points from them..

 

We should be approaching these games like play-offs. Win them and we're through.

 

Just like we need to win against sides like Lech or Maribor, right? All I'm saying is the 6 points are not a given (as some seem to think).

 

We will only keep on improving I'm overflowing with optimism atm think we can go really far in this an other 4 points against theses and we have European football after Christmas. Even if we win this people will still want Ronny out so * em and just enjoy the ride

 

6pts points please.

 

The Astra manager conceded defeat after last night's game he basically said they have no chance of going through now so confidence won't be high as they come to Celtic Park, watched their highlights last night they really are a poor side and the crowd was only 5000 or so, Celtic has no right to be any team but we really should take 6 points from this, if we play as well as we can i think we will.

 

They have basically given up any hope of qualifying so hopefully they wont be too up for it .. We will beat them at CP comfortably , like an SPL game i would imagine as long as the players perform to a far standard it should be enough . Away from home i would take a point but we could get 6 over the two games . Beat them at CP and the fans will start to gather momentum behind this tournament ; get through this group we have another group and a guaranteed 6 games in europe.

 

If we beat them in the first game we might well be 4 points ahead of Dinamo Zagreb already. That will give us plenty of confidence going into the second Astra game, as we'll know we could be through with a win.

 

First match a home is good will enable us to properly scope them for the return leg if we play as well as we can don't see any reason we cannot win both but it won't be as easy as some may think

 

Eh? If we get through this group we go into the last 32 knockout stage do we not??

 

I think a win at home should be expected. Away from home well by the time we play them there, if we win at home, they are out. Thereby meaning virtually nothing to play for.

They are the weakest team in the group, there is no getting away from that. Of course we don't have a divine right to win but if we aren't expecting to win against the weakest team in the group then we have zero ambition.

 

If Lennon's Celtic played this team, we would've beat them heavily home and away. I really want to see Deila put his stamp on this team and make a statement of intent.