UCL Last 16: Celtic v Juventus Chat

Still absolutely gutted.

 

You would normally say this with a 3-0 defeat, but I don't see where we defended all that badly. An individual made two errors and it cost us two goals, the 2nd was class, sometimes you can't help that. They had 5 shots the whole game, if someone told me before tha game they would have 5 shots all night, I would have snapped your hand off for that statistic.

 

Are those tweets from official accounts?

 

I'm pretty sure they are, only the real Joey Barton could be thick enough to fail to see the irony in him complaining about dirty tricks :smiley-laughing002:

 

That's what annoys us so much over here, the difference in cultural beliefs and standards. We honestly would prefer it if someone was a * like Barton and openly punched someone. Yeah he'd be a * but you can get it over and done with, send him off, everyone gets mad, but then the game and life continues.
But you Italians, and the Iberians as well, are so, so sneaky, bitchy and underhand in the way you cheat. It's less "dirty" in terms of actual physicalilty but SO much more frustrating. Little pieces of diving, time-wasting, accosting the ref, manhandling opposition players ect. Over the course of a match, and indeed many seasons, it * us the * off!

You call our team physical, butchers ect, but our players did very well to stay calm. Look at Brown, he's always criticised and called a hatchet man but he didn't react to Pirlo lashing out at him, nor did he react to Lichsteiner pushing him over. Hooper should have * punched your defenders for grabbing him like wrestlers all game, but he didn't. All Celtic players got on with the game in the appropriate manner and tried to just attack and play football.

You were the negative ones. The sneaky, cheeky, dirty cheating tricksters and this is why we're angry. We weren't beaten by the better side or by one bad decision or anything, it was consistent, calculated annoying cheating!

 

I would argue the very opposite, especially in terms of the situation at corners. Celtic's strategy at corners was to place Hooper in front of Buffon in order to impede him and gain an unfair advantage, with absolutely no intention of going for the ball. Hooper's task was to obstruct Buffon, there's no doubt about that. In my view, that is the very definition of sneaky, underhand cheating. It's a Sam Allardyce/Tony Pulis tactic that, in my opinion, is horrible, ugly, unfair and needs to be stopped. I genuinely don't understand why Celtic fans feel aggrieved because Lichsteiner did what Hooper tried to do, only better.

Juve didn't cheat. No Juve player dived. No Juve player tried to win a penalty illegally. No Juve player handled the ball. You weren't beaten because of cheating, you were beaten because although you are a good team with some good players, you also have some weaknesses that were exposed. You were beaten because you made more mistakes than Juve did. You were beaten because Juve are a very good team with a good manager who got his tactics spot on. You played very well and didn't deserve to lose so heavily, but this talk of Juve cheating is nothing more than clutching at straws.

 

Can't disagree with that, sadly.

 

Gary Hooper regurarly scores from the position he was taking up, as all predatory strikers do.

The grabbling, shirt pulling and pushing at corners are all agaist UEFA's rules, hence it is cheating. The ref wasn't strong enough and didn'y pick up on it, so you got away with it but there's no doubt in my mind that is cheating

 

And the last part is spot on but I do feel it would be different if a proper referee was in place.

 

Hooper never touched Buffon though, whereas Lichsteiner was literally all over Hoops. He even wrestled him INTO the actual goalmouth at one point ffs! You're comparing them but to me there is no similarity in their actions.
Apparently it's a British thing to stand infront of the goalkeeper, although i've never noticed it particularly before. And clearly it's an Italian thing to make overt homosexual advances in the form of bearhugs to the opposing strikers.

We are both biased towards our teams and will never agree but I don't understand how you can think a player standing still not touching anyone, is the same as a player physically grabbing another - consistently through the whole game.

I agree we were beaten ultimately because of naivety. You annoyed us, and we let you annoy us. A more experienced side, a more cosmopolitan side, would have remained calm and probed you carefully rather than playing into your hands by going gung-ho.

Still, from our point of view it is great to see a Celtic, infact a Scottish or even British side, actually attack and control a European game. For too long now we have had this inferiority complex where we automatically assume we are the weakest team, and so can only defend and hope to draw or * a win.
Yes, in retrospect it would have been better to do what you did, sit back and park the bus whilst looking for breaks. But I am proud Lennon set us up offensively, and hopefully in a few years our players will be old and confident enough to do this successfully. We'll never reach the level Barca are at, but I think the foundations have been laid.

 

I know that what Hooper was doing is allowed by some referees, but technically it's against the rules of the game too. FIFA's rules state that "it is an offence to restrict the movement of a goalkeeper by unfairly impeding him e.g. at the taking of a corner kick", and that is precisely what Hooper was doing.

I've heard a lot of people here defending Hooper by saying that it isn't illegal to stand in front of the keeper, it's up to Buffon to move around him etc. Well, that's just not true. It is against the rules, and Hooper was trying to bend the rules to his team's advantage. Likewise, Lichtsteiner was also bending the rules in trying to protect Buffon. The referee was right to book both of them. Perhaps he should have gone a step further and sent both of them off. But give a penalty? Not in a million years.

 

You can't be breaking a rule for standing your ground? You can stand as close to any other player on that pitch, keeper or not. Unless Hooper pushed Buffon he is doing nothing wrong, its Buffons problem how he comes and catches the cross with Hooper there.

 

No, you can't. That's the point. If that were true, why would the obstruction rule exist in the first place?

 

Obstruction is blocking a player who is in control of the ball, when you are not.

Standing near a keeper at a corner is not obstruction. Or else everyone in the penalty box is obstructing him.

 

Obstruction would take place if the player was making a move, mainly a run, and said other player deliberate moved into there path to prevent them gaining any advantage. The ball wasn't even in play. It was a set piece, we were the attacking team, we have the right to stand anywhere. If Buffon ran out to catch it and one of our players THEN ran into his path with no attempt for the ball and stopped him getting it then that would be a different story.

Plus brave keepers can just plough through players and catch the ball they hardly every get done for it.

 

Hooper standing in front of Buffon and not touching him is against the rules? :smiley-laughing002:

If your players stood off Hooper and Buffon was impeded when the ball was crossed in THEN it is against the rules and not a second before.

The only bending of the rules was the greco roman wrestling going on from Juve defenders.

 

What about all your other players in the box? Grappling and pulling players shirts? It wasn't just Leichstiener on Hooper.

 

No, the opposing player doesn't have to be in possession for it to be obstruction. Again, according to FIFA "Impeding the progress of an opponent means moving into the path of an opponent to obstruct, block, slow down or force a change of direction by an opponent when the ball is not within playing distance of either player"

Which is precisely what Hooper was trying to do.

 

Standing in front of the goalkeeper is not unfairly impeding him. Unfairly impeding him would be doing what Lichtsteiner was doing, grappling with him to stop him getting away. The correct decision for the referee to make would have been to have a word with Lichtsteiner about the grappling, warn him that he was watching him and blow for a penalty after the wrestling continued when the kick was taken. We saw the ref have words with the players a couple of times but for some reason he then allowed it to carry on after the kick was taken. It wasn't just Lichtsteiner trying to stop Hooper standing in front of Buffon either: