Erik Sviatchenko

He's just * handsome.

 

Read him saying he's got his sister to move to Glasgow and join the Celtic Foundation, as well as his missus playing for the ladies team. I can see him being here for the long haul.

Brilliant player and a beautiful big *

 

BR on @eriksviat: "Erik has been outstanding. I've seen great improvements in him as he builds up his technique and tactical ability."

 

"I find your lack of talent disturbing"

 

Plus he just seems like one of those players who will sort of go under the radar for teams in England or wherever. He's not flashy like Van Dijk (or quite as good to be fair), just a reliable defender.

 

Hopefully your right, most defenders down there are dumplings though.

VVD instantly became the best defender down there when he left us.

 

Aye but as much as I love Erik, Virgil is a much better player. He absolutely strolled this league, and he has a lot more to his game. He's a unit physically, great on the ball, scores goals and can hit free kicks. Has a bit of everything.

Anyway, Sviatchenko gets the club. He's loving it here.

 

today's press conference
https://streamable.com/vedl

 

DESPITE the narrow margin of victory, Erik Sviatchenko reckons Celtic’s derby dominance in Sunday’s League Cup semi-final success against Rangers was around the same level as their 5-1 league rout back in September.

It took Moussa Dembele’s brilliant back-heel three minutes from full-time to seal the Hoops’ place in the first final of the season, but the Bhoys would already have been out of sight had goalkeeper Matt Gilks not made a number of superb saves for the Ibrox side.

Scott Sinclair also hit the bar from a free-kick and Sviatchenko saw a second-half header that found the net harshly disallowed for a foul. At best, it looked a soft decision.

But given his team eventually prevailed to earn the right to go head-to-head with Aberdeen for the first trophy of the season next month, the Danish internationalist was philosophical about his goal being ruled out.

He said: “It was a legitimate goal, but sometimes they don’t go your way and that’s alright we just needed to go on, and we got the goal.

“We are through to the final so that was our main target and I felt we played really well. There were a lot of spells in the game when we were dominant and they were struggling and it could have been more than the late goal, so we are very pleased.

“It was quite similar (to the 5-1 game), apart from the scoresheet, it wasn’t that different. I felt we were very good again yesterday. We had chances, we just didn’t get that goal we needed but in the end Moussa came and back-heeled it.

“We had chances before that where we could have gone on and scored early in the game. I haven’t seen the game back yet and I would like to see it again, we were pushing and pushing and dominating.

“I remember a spell in the first half, around five or 10 minutes before half-time and we got all the second balls and they were pressed in. When we play like that then we are difficult to play against and you just get the upper hand in the end and that means you can score a late winner and that’s what we did.”

Dembele, who scored a perfect hat-trick in league rout of Rangers was the Hoops hero again, and Sviatchenko was thrilled to see the talented French youngster maintain his fantastic form.

“He is growing as a player,” said the centre-half. “He is only 20-years-old so he is a player who still has a lot to prove, but he has proved that, although he’s only 20 years old, he’s a player that can make an impact in a big team and that’s really positive for him and the team.”

And while the defender is excited at the prospect of being involved in the first cup final of the season on November 27, he was adamant that Celtic will remain focused on the task in hand, starting with Wednesday’s league trip to Ross County.

“We were talking about wanting to achieve something and if that means we can achieve that first goal in November, then we will do everything we can to secure that,” said Sviatchenko

“Aberdeen will be tough one and we will do everything we can to prepare for it, but before that we have a lot of games which are equally important.

“It will be my first time up north,” he continued. “I have played Ross County three times now and they have always been good games and we have always given our best, so we will need to hit our A-game before we can talk about having three points.”

 

I think I love him

 

Great defender and a beautiful man.

 

Celtic Website Man Of The Match.

 

Class act

 

He was brilliant today even though he got booked after 40 seconds for a nothing challenge

 

Him and Jozo are rock solid back there, you can tell how much more confident Gordon is with those 2 in front of him first class

 

I was worried when he got booked so early. I needn't have bothered.

Strolled it.