UCL Last 16: Celtic v Juventus Chat

well, I've never seen before a player that do what Hooper and Brown did yesterday on corner kicks...so you can understand that a defender can use a non conventional ways to not allow Hooper to score...

 

I respect your right to an opinion, but that is a lot of nonsense.

Barcelona play some of the best football the world has ever seen. Spain play the exact same way, because the spine of Spain's national team is also the spine of Barcelona's team.

 

In that case, would Buffon be justified in running forward (as he is expected to do) and collapsing in a heap once he hits Hooper who is standing right in front of him? Wouldn't that be a foul?

 

We should have got a penalty, we didn't though. At that point the players should have just battered into them. They didn't, though. They stood like little girls being bullied.

 

The thing about one off games (as opposed to leagues), is that the best team often loses. We all know Barca are a better team than us, we'd have no chance of beating them in a league. Maybe you had an off night, you certainly have mostly better players than us, but if last night is typical, we are the better team.

Normally I'd agree: you lose 3-0, you shut up. But that's because you've usually been completely outplayed when you lose 3-0. Not the case last night. Nobody serious thinks we deserved a 3-0 loss last night.

 

Not in UEFA rules case though

 

I say that if we can play like barcelona i'm happy, but if we can play like barcelona and loose a match 3-0 i'm not happy. The important thing is the result, not the way we play. I hope you understand my English
However, I have to go now.
Enjoy this 3 pears

 

More than happy with how we played except for our defending which was out of character, and mainly because Ambrose must have been mentally and physically drained.

You're delusional if you think your team is even close to Barcelona. The last eight will be a step too far for Juventus.

 

Knowing that referee though, he would have simply given them a free kick had we started barging into them.

We all know what Italians are like. Feel the slightest bit of contact and go down like little *.

 

Standing in front of the keeper is completely legal thing to do, if Hooper bashes into Buffon then the foul will rightly be given, that didnt happen once last night so no its not understandable that for a defender to keep doing what the ref has warned him not to do.

If we did this to juve you would be * raging.

 

I think if you keep your core players and Lennon then last 16 is less of a hope and more of an expectation(within reason). A few of my friends who are man utd fans belittled the victory saying "it's only celtic" but I think any coach of a top team would be glad they didn't have to take their team there last night. I said from the beginning I wanted arsenal over celtic and people called me crazy.

Well juve haven't got a goal scorer so we are not a top top team yet, but the next 2 years I expect us to be challenging bayern, Man U etc. You can't say any team can win it as barca are around but the English media (Townsend) just annoy me so much.

 

I noticed a lot of your players were standing in front of ours at corners as well... if Lichtsteiner headed the ball away from in front of Ambrose at a corner, for instance, would you find us complaining about him standing in front of him to stop him reaching the ball? No, it's called marking, you see it from every team when they defend corners, so you can't complain when a team does it to attack corners against you.

 

I can and actually agree with that. You'll notice I haven't accused you of cheating (fouling, yes; but not cheating). I do, however, expect the referee to know the laws of the game. If he gives one penalty (like the referee in 2001) it stops.

 

You say you've never seen what Hooper and Brown supposedly did that was so wrong before in a game...yet in the same game your players do 10 times worse. Blinkered isn't even a big enough word for that *. And non-conventional...you mean illegal in the game, which should result in a penalty.

 

The English media annoy everyone mate, they are diabolical.

Aye, last nights performance aside, you usually are a capable attacking team just without a 25+ a season striker. It's glaringly obvious the rest of the team is good enough.

And as for your mates who belittled the victory, they obviously didn't watch the game. At least you and those who were there know it was not easy at all. You're right to prefer Arsenal over us as the easier draw, and we would have fancied our chances against Arsenal as well :smiley-laughing002:

 

Celtic made 12 fouls, and Juventus made 11. Then there are the incidents that the referee didn't give. Hooper stood near Buffon, and SL - not once looking at the ball - continuously grabbed and pulled and fouled.

I think you have a slightly skewed view of the game last night. Juventus were certainly no angels.
I was told they were unlike the traditional Italian teams, but that's all I saw. You won comfortably in the end, and I respect the fact that Conte game with a plan and his players executed it well. But it was by no means an attractive, attacking display of football.

I don't blame Juve for trying to neutralise our threat from set pieces. Yes, they defended aggressively, but it's up to the referee to do something.

 

Thanks. Sad thing is that Hooper and Wanyama (definitely) and a few others (maybe) will be going to the EPL in the summer. So we start the building process again.

 

If you think so you must have a problem with the referee...not with juventus players...or you expect that Lichtsteiner tell the referee that it was a penalty?

 

I really do take some of the blame for that, I didn't expect a counter attacking performance at all, it's just not Conte's style. I assure you I based it on having watched virtually every game this season, they do attack more than the stereotype of Italian teams suggests. I actually think they were playing better last season than this, despite not as many draws they have lost more as well.

Guess it is a sort of compliment that he felt he had to play a counter attacking style against his own usual style to combat us. Certainly no underestimation of us from them anyway.

 

Well Man Utd failed to win at Celtic Park in the Champions League, so that argument is void. 3-0 at our ground is a great result for any team.