Champions League Celtic v Shakhtar Tuesday October 25TH Kick off 8Pm

Reminds me of Coman pace wise, still mind him absolutely ripping us apart with his pace on the ball.

This kid is even better as well. We should of smashed a few tackles into him early doors though, he didn’t like anything physical.

 

I’d like to know how many chances on goal we had come from set plays I feel as if we have neglected certain aspects of football to play a certain way when in cl you need to be good at everything


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All focus on winning the league now, if we do win the league another 40m banked and we’ll come back stronger next season in europe. Martin O’Neill didn’t get it right in his first 2 seasons. Hopefully we’ll be partying in may troops. * bless all who follow the Celtic.

 

PSG 74 shots, 46 from inside the box
Celtic 69 shots, 46 from inside the box

PSG 54 shots conceded
Celtic 54 shots conceded

PSG top of their group with +8 goal difference
Celtic bottom of their group with -7 goal difference

 

2 great chances against Madrid, should have the game in Poland sewn up after 25 mins , deserved nothing in leipzig , never seen the return , then tonight , as your stats say , we can't afford the fine margins in the CL , we will always get them domestically but it's a different level , and a different level from the 15 /20 years ago when we had a fortress , nobody fears our stadium now.

 

I’m a bit gutted with some of the posts in this thread if I’m honest.

If you can’t see what we’re building towards, or the bravery and confidence we’ve displayed in the games we’ve played, then there’s no point trying to explain it.

We created and missed a lot of chances in the group but let’s be honest, we’re not the first team that’s not taken their chances. Let’s not feel too sorry for ourselves as if it’s a unique situation.

I’ve seen more than enough in the games we’ve played to give me belief that we can match teams at this level.

 

Spot on. In the dying minutes of the game, you’re expect a team that needs a goal to punt balls into the box. Instead, we try to play out of the back. Modern football is poisoning common sense and decision making.

 

For me three things have stood out over the 5CL games

1- Defensively we are vulnerable to counter attacks

2- The intensity Ange demands domestically, which is often successful, frequently leads to us losing possession and spending long periods chasing

3- Need to be more creative/clever when teams sit in.

Hatate, O’Reilly and Mooy all did some great stuff last night when deep, but on the edge of their box it was inconsistent

In addition, as mentioned previously nobody appeared to take responsibility to to offer a defensive screen. Which leads back to point 1

That said, I’m sure this Celtic side and management will learn from this campaign and do better next time

 

We should have taken all 6 points off them.

 

I thought the team looked quite disjointed last night as if the morale was a bit low. Hatate and Kyogo looked half arsed at times, unless they are carrying an injury. We didn't look like we gained much confidence during this campaign, with any luck it will stand us in good stead for a crack at it next season

 

Absolutely missing Cal, surely anyone who though another player in our squad could do the job as good as, if not better, than him is put to bed now. He is our most important player

 

Well, where to start ? Just watched the game again.

We were in control of the game in the latter half of the match, however it seemed Shaktar were happy to have a draw, especially after that glaring miss from the Mudryk pass. Must say that lad is very fast.

Juranovic not aware were his winger was with their goal, almost a repeat of the situation against Real when Vinicius Jr exposed him. JJ should have hit in some raking crosses into the box, especially in the first half. Missed not seeing Ralston come on and the dynamic that he brings.

Giakoumakis needs to play smart and find space up front to do his magic. Note Timo Werner for RB Leipzig in the game against Real and his running off the ball to make space for himself to receive the killer pass. Again, he needs to stop marking the CB on him and find space ! The defender that whacked him in the face in the 68th min should have got a red card. At first I thought GG had clipped his heels but he was not even that close to him and had not touched him. The guy just swung back and hit him in the face and then pretended to stumble and fall, knowing the ref had his eye on Maeda with the ball. GG needs to make a big fuss with the ref and demand the VAR when that happens. He is a big lad but too soft for my liking when he needs to stand up for himself. He scored a good goal and hit a rare but great shot from outside the box that was going in but the keeper got a hand to and saved.

Haksabanovic hit too many low corners to the near post, when we had our tall lads on the other post.

I want to see more urgency from O'Riley, he seemed too relaxed for me in this game. Made some good passes, some bad ones too. Needs to forget about shooting from distance outside the box, he lacks the power to do so - Bobby Charlton he is not.

Shaktar played a 1-2-3 touch passing game and they all looked fresh and calm. We play our passing game but we also take too many touches on the ball on the perimeter of their defensive line, giving their defenders time to re-group and pick up our players. Also many times we passed laterally and back, when it should have been a forward pass in to the channels, but players were not offering themselves in space to receive the ball.

Looked to me that Hart could have parried that shot over the bar. Mudryk needed to be contained by a defensive mid-fielder when he came in from the wing. Too much for JJ to deal with him alone.

Ange needs to be more animated on the side line and show some passion and give instructions. It seems to me that tactically he seems out of his depth in these games and struggles to find a solution to win these games. He has some work to do if he wishes to have a winning formula in CL games.

I was expecting a better result. No one put their legs on the line to go into the box with the ball and win a penalty. Gone are those days, it seems.

 

Wow! That's just nuts man.

 

Replace our main striker with prime Henke and we could have topped this group

 

Very flat performance I felt. A bit of spark in us after going a goal up but flat overall.

 

Fair play on this and it does highlight how wasteful we have been in front of goal as well as how clinical Shakhtar have mainly been.

The other thing is when you see the three goals we scored they were all pretty easy finishes and a minor deflection when Kyogo was there to kick it in an empty net if needed. Beyond the shots on target we hit the post twice and the bar once across the games.

I think it sums it up, when you look at who the talisman would have expected to be before we played any games, Jota and Kyogo. Between them we have 1 goal, when you look at the other teams in our group or even the CL overall their main players all contribute a lot more. I am not blaming those two because GG, Abada, Maeda and others have all passed up very good chances but if we are going to do anything in these competitions we need our top players to stand out.

Kyogo hasn’t scored at all and Jota hasn’t done anything like what Mudryk done in either game for them against us.

I do think the last 3 games when we have missed McGregor and the last two games despite what I said above, Jota is still a big miss.

I have to admit although the opposition have been a step up I am not sure we have really pushed on that much from the end of our EL Group (thinking of Leverkusen away and the two Ferencvaros games.) The Bodo Glimt games were strange we got caught on the counter at home and again failed to take our chances. Away from home we just chucked it with the team we put in.

Last night I didn’t think we could argue the set up or tactics caused us not to win that game it was about the quality of performance. I actually felt we were better in the Leipzig home game than last night.

 

This is why I'm confident in saying we competed. I think people who don't think we did have let the media get into their head as people have said we were * to justify Rangers bad results.

 

I disagree, because the quality of our chances was not at the level needed to make them easy to score. A good defense gives away few chances that are also harder to score from, compared to a poor defense. We had only one big chance last night- the Kyogo one. There was a defender behind him, pressuring his decision making, and he took a shot with his weaker foot.

The absolute sitter of Danylo Sikan was the kind of chance we wish we had. Hart beaten, the ball ready for a tap-in.

 

A bit of a sub plot but how poor have the referring performances been in our last two games. Leipzig at 0-1 Giakoumakis clearly denied a goal scoring opportunity by a pull on his arm should have been a red card and a penalty around the 83rd minute. We score that to make it 1-1 the noise levels go up who knows.

Last night there were a couple of things when the boy slipped on his backside in the box he clearly handles the ball which stops it running away from him, it may have been harsh but it was a handball. The more clear one was when Maeda hit the byline Giakoumakis gets a hand in the face to prevent him running into the box to join the attack. The player who committed the foul was on a yellow so it should have been a second yellow.

My gripe with these are there is VAR in operation why aren’t these being reviewed properly especially the penalty in the Leipzig game and the second yellow last night? They are clear and obvious errors in significant moments of the games that the ref has missed, so are the definition of when VAR should intervene.

 

For me we have achieved this season in the CL so much more than I expected. 18 months ago we were a car crash of a club. Disjointed squad, boardroom and managerial issues and looked in danger of allowing our dominance domestically to be challenged.

The Eddie Howe scenario.

Our performances in Europe have been poor over the last few seasons. An understatement.

First we wanted the league, job done. Then into the CL. Job done. Getting in, we wanted to compete. And we have done. In no game have we looked out of place. What has done us is a lack of experience and naivete at this top level.

Ange needs to be allowed to progress and develop this side. We can't buy Champions League quality, but we can get the players we have to that level by giving them regular exposure against Europe's best. Our results probably reflected our current standing in terms of points, but we all know it could have been more.

If in another 2 seasons we haven't improved then we can ask questions but for now I'm delighted with the side. There are no passengers, no prima donnas and there seems to be a desire to move on to the next level.