Benfica v Celtic, 20/11/12, 7:45PM.

I don't know what im more concerned at, the result or the * pad that was attatched to Sammys head all game

 

I just think that Hooper gets very unfairly picked out a lot, especially when he hasn't scored. Just because he doesn't score it doesn't mean that he's not doing anything else and I've seen people label him as "lazy", which is complete bollocks because you just have to see the running around he does and the pressure he puts on opposition players.

I do think that if Watt was maybe brought on earlier then that might have caused them more trouble because of the pace Watt has. When he came on for Ledley he caused them a bit of trouble a couple of times - once when he ran in from the left and put a (albeit tame) shot in and then practically the final go of the game where he put in a shot/cross from the right that Hooper just missed on.

I agree. I think it's unfair to blame anyone for the loss. We can point the finger at Matthews and Wilson, but for me it was just a below par TEAM performance. It's just a pity that we didn't seem to push on when we scored because it seemed that we were actually starting to play better when we equalised. We just never really got going in the second half. I mean it wasn't a disaster of a performance but it was the poorest we have been in Europe this season.

I'm not sure it was any harder as such but with Barcelona you know what kind of football you're going to get (and not saying they are easy to defend against though :icon_mrgreen. You're going to get the patient, tiki-taka football that tries to scythes defenses open. With Benfica they can go to the air because of the big guys they have or they can pass it around. They also have a lot of players that hit the ground as if they have been shot and when they do this and you have a ref as inept as the one in last night's game, it disrupts the flow.

While in a way I can understand Lennon going for a 4-4-2 to try and get the win, I thought it would have been a safer bet going for a 4-5-1 because we only needed a draw to guarantee us a last 16 spot.

But never mind - it wouldn't be Celtic if we made things easy for ourselves :icon_mrgreen:

Bring on Spartak

 

probably our worst performance this season in the Champions League and considering it was a 2-1 away loss to a team that has been part of the European competition for the best part of the last decade and a half is not shameful.

nerves and fitness got the better of us. i wouldn't let Brown on the pitch now until he has his injury fixed. he has slowly digressed with it. the last month he hasn't been that great compared to the start of the season when featuring in Europe.

i think it's something that we're not celebrating having the Europa League to look forward. all eyes on the prize of 2nd spot. i can't see Benfica beating Barca at the nou camp, even if Barca put out a weakened team. if we win against Spartak, we'll go through imo.

we must not be nervous. what will be, will be. Spartak are there for the taking anyway.

 

They spend far more than us. That will make you better 9 times out of 10....well, when the expenditure is so much bigger.

We are in a fantastic position and we would have taken this at the start.

 

It's not that we lost though. It's the way we lost last night, it should have been an embarassing result for us, but somehow we got a bit of luck and the score stayed down.

It really has me wondering if the Europa league is better suited to us when you see such a distinct difference in technical ability. We can't compete with that anymore. If we do compete it means parking the bus for 90 mins, I don't want to watch anti football like that, I would prefer to go into a lesser tournament and actually see us try to play football.

 

When have we played anti-football?

 

To be fair last night we defended and kicked the ball away..

 

My fear going into last night was where our young team would be psychologically. I was particularly concerned because last night the stakes were the biggest yet, even though we knew we'd get another shot of sorts. I think we've played fearless up til now, but suddenly we turned around and saw ourselves in pole position, and the next round shifted from something we were striving for to something we might lose.

If you look at the way we played from the first whistle, we had little to no composure. We played like a team with everything to lose. We went in looking for a draw, looking to just hang on, and we got 90 minutes of it. If you play for a draw, you'll probably lose.

We've just gotta keep the faith that we'll see a completely different mentality v Spartak. I wouldn't trade places w/ Benfica, but I'm gutted we technically no longer control our destiny.

 

Our defending was poor last night. There was individuals making mistakes and we weren't organised well enough. It looked a completely different team from the one that played Barca.

I'm gutted but we still have a fantastic opportunity to qualify for the last 16.

 

agree with this.

 

Exactly. I also worry about the attitude for the Spartak game as well .

 

You've got a good point here but I also believe that fitness and niggling injuries have had an effect on last night's performance.

 

Can scrutinise it, analyse it, dwell on it and not move on or we can just 'we were utter *, it happens to everyone' and look forward to Saturday knowing we still have a better chance of progression than Benfica...

 

Disappointed about last night,second half performance was gash. Pretty much went out to defend the draw which aint very clever against equal/better opposition.
Another learning curve for Lennon to gain from for future games.
Wasn't happy to see Mulgrew come off,thought Brown shoulda been taken off...
Anyhoo we should beat Spartak since i think it'll be a fringe team they will bring and Barca love us so they will do the right thing.

 

I don't think we went out for the draw,we played a 442 formation and that was one of the problems.Should have gone 451 with sammy on the left wing.

 

I will be * it anytime Spartak have the ball next game hope Barca play a strong team

 

Mulgrew come off due to illness mate. Brown shouldn't have needed taking off because he shouldn't have started.

 

Was wondering, didn't think he was any worse or better than anyone else

 

While it's not all down to us, it's still great to be in position to fight for 2nd spot with a team that has very little experience in this competition.

It was always going to be tough playing vs Benfica away, they're still great despite losing some main players. However, they are the ones who have tougher job to do, even with youngsters Barca are favourites.

Special mention to Forster and Samaras who have performed so well in big games so far.