Champs League Group, All Chat In Here.

Are Our Away Struggles A Thing Of The Past?

A lot of people hinted that after our performances away from home against Udinese and Rennes that our struggles away from home are now a thing of the past.

I think last nights performance really confirmed it though, we are now a team capable of not just winning but playing with a calmness and dominating teams that we should be.

Can we start looking forward to giving real quality teams a run for their money?

I fancy our chances against anyone when we're playing at home, Celtic Park can still be a very hard place to come and get a result. Now we don't seem unable to perform very well away, the mental block seems completely gone, I think this young team became even more exciting.

 

Think you could be right, showed signs of it last season.... let's hope so!

 

This was swapped to the CL thread mate

 

It is mental anyways. Hopefully get in some experience and push on from here!!!

 

Well, for the most part it's a completely different team from when we were losing constantly away from home, meaning that this fresh team don't have the same mindset of going away expecting to lose, ever since Lennon's takeover. This is evident when you look at last years Europa campaign, and the Helsinki game.

 

Think we have finally learned to adapt in Europe, keeping it tight early on in away games is vital, don't go out all guns blazing or we will get humped like in the past, always conceding an early goal and then having to chase the game, it was a pleasant surprise finding out it was 0-0 at half time, that made me think we would go through

 

It's certainly a start.

We didn't seem anywhere near as nervy, apart from the 15-20 minute spell after half time. We didn't panic as much and held on to the ball well at times.

The defensive organisation was better, and there we no costly mistakes or lapses in concentration.

Hooper scrapped well and held it up, before laying it off to a team mate. Brown and Ledley set the tone with their pressing from midfield which put the opposition on the back foot.

I still think we need to be more ruthless in front of goal, though. We failed to score when we were totally dominant in the first half which could have cost us.

I also think we need a bit more of a spark going forward. Someone who can make that killer pass out of nothing, and knit the play together from back to front. Commons is the right type but, sadly, lacks the quality for the big stage.

Very positive signs, though. Hope it continues.

 

Think we need to win more games away from home before we can really say that, we played really well against Udinese and got a credible draw, but we've also played well in the past against Villarreal and Benfica, Man Utd, Juve and lost by narrow margins, so the away "curse" has affected us even when we have played well, something seems to stop us getting something. The progress is welcome though, given that we are still evolving as a team, it will hopefully come in time. It could be one of Neil Lennon's great legacies as Celtic manager if he were to relegate this weird curse we have to the history books, that would benefit future managers.

 

Dont want to sound pessimistic but it was HJK Helsinki. Before we can say we have got rid of the away hoodoo we will need to do it more regularly. But take your point. Udinese and rennes was a start now i think we can if we can get a decent away record if we get some sort of consistency.

 

It is defo an improvement.....however "away struggles a thing of the past"....a little early for that.

 

I'm starting to think having less pressure to win games away (as at home there is so much pressure with the crowd, 'fortress celtic park' etc) is benefiting the players. We look better away just now.

Celtic Park is also a very large surface and with not a lot of electric pace in our team we find it easier to cover the ground quicker away from home.

 

nope not at all IMO i thought this was the case in the dinamo moscow game a few years back.

if we play a much better side then we can tell but untill then we will have to wait and see

 

I agree they're not a quality side however they did beat Schalke at home so it was still a very good result to win 2-0 and not concede. Lets hope it continues.

 

Apart from Utrecht and Braga, we played well away from home against Sion, Atletico, Udinese, Rennes and now Helsinki. Id say they were but id also say we're not as good at home as we were.

We're now like a more normal European team, capable of losing/drawing at home and winning/drawing away. Rather than before we pretty much always won at home and lost away.

 

Don't know about that in all honesty.

We definitely have some sort of mental lack of seeing out games away in Europe - if we are in with any chance of "breaking" any duct, then I would seriously hope Celtic have a good, quality sports psychologist working with ALL the players.

 

We're getting there. I like the fact that we can say it's a new team and they can now start a new record. Last 2 years though were very poor against Braga, Utrecht, and Sion, but once we settled last season we played very well in all EL games. Maybe it is time to change this "curse", and maybe we could win both legs in the play-off. Don't see why not. This is a great chance for us here.


Just to add, if we do make it to the CL then I honestly think we'd take a doin in most away games but maintain our great home record.

 

Unbeaten in our last 3 european away games.Been a long time since we could say that.Hope it continues

 

It's a good run, think they will need to improve to get through the next qualifier.

 

I think we're only get humped off of the pot 1 team in our group, if we qualify that is.

Unless we're really unlucky and our pot 2 team is Man City, in which case we'll get humped by them too, probably home & away.

 

Our struggles away from home have not ended, it depends how good the other team are, if you play small clubs like helsinki you really should win, if you play away to the likes of Barca or Milan we prob wont come away with anything.