Elfsborg vs Celtic,Wed 7th August'13 KO 6.45pm (BBC Scotland)

I think when even players like Izzy and Commons are struggling to control the ball, you know something is badly wrong with that pitch. It's probably no coincidence that Lustig was far and away our man of the match- I imagine he's played there a few times before. Great performance by Lustig and an OK petformance by Izzy and Wilson. The rest of the team were poor, but I blame the pitch for that. A few more moments for Ambrose, worrying; but I still think there's a world class defender in there waiting to be drawn out by our coaching staff, so I'm going to continue to back him. All in all they were one of the dirtiest sides I can ever remember in that game in Glasgow and that pitch was shocking in this one. I think they are nothing like as good as the Helsingborg team we played last year (who I felt a wee bit sorry for- were a decent team) and seem to rely on a combination of that pitch at home and fouling like * when away from home.

Gutted Wilson is leaving.

 

nat...sorry.

I actually said to my mates, "we'll pick it up after 20 min". and we did. Started to get our foot on the ball, even had the best chances of the game.
But after that was utter *. Second half was rank. We got trounced on for a fair whack of the second half and also had no shape or strategy by the looks of it.

Feel free to think we done better. But for me, that was nothing short of *

 

Fantastic performance tonight, I really thought Elsfborg's physios were again spot on.

 

Brown was * pish.

 

They actually did.

Poor performance but the tactics from Lennon were fairly poor too. No point dwelling on it either, artificial surface against a strong side at home half way through their season against a rusty Celtic was always going to be hard to watch.

We need our new signings up to speed and we need more players before the playoff

 

Did not see that one mate! Had a banner myself but it was just a tricolour with the Celtic crest

 

Fair play to you. I understand this feeling.

 

Job done, it's obvious were not firing on all cylinders at the moment and match fitness and sharpness against a team who are well into their season. Least we have european nights to look forward to. a couple of additions and we will be fine.

 

Must have been when I went for a *, can't remember a save, it was all about the result

 

Forfar would have beat that team the night(-:

 

We did enough to get through thankfully,but to all the people saying Izzy was great * he as horrific at times,Sammy was'nt at the races possibly due to lack of fitness and when he was replaced by Stokes/Elbows i feared the worst Balde shold've been put on just for presence we were confident enough about the guy to sign him,Commons was dire and Brown was a non entity.

Don't get me wrong I'm delighted we're through but the performance was very poor,If Elfsborg had anything about them we probably wouldnt be but hail hail mon the hoops.

 

The team in 2nd gave Hibernian a hiding of the highest order but Forfar would have succeeded where the Swedish Champions failed? I dont think so

 

Go away.

 

Mikael Lustig described the performance as "DREADFUL" and he wasn`t far off the mark. Other words could include-"Shambles","Pathetic","Amatuerish","Woeful"

The pitch appears to have had some sort of influence, amazing the number of times players from both sides seem to run the ball out of the park(side closest to the BBC Camera position). So that`s the pitch dealt with!!

Elfsborg (as many had said after the 1st leg) didn`t have much more in the locker than what we saw at Celtic Park. Apart from a few more divers than Bangura (Hedlund and Jonsson). Bangura again showed a bit of strength and some quality but no end product.

Celtic- I`ll save the positives to the end. First off, we were lucky that Elfsborg were an average side. Not since Arsenal, have I seen our players physically bullied off the ball throughout the 90 mins.

Central defence was disjointed, Ambrose and Wilson both guilty of not attacking the ball when it was played forward to Bangura. Both did improve slightly at this in the 2nd half but time and time again it was misjudged.

Midfield- Brown and Ledley never imposed themselves on the game and struggled, although not many can say they did. Brown`s night was summed up by the thrown in incident in the 2nd half. Ledley had a good chance in the 1st half but struggled. Commons was non-existent; poor distribution and awareness with the ball. Forrest produced little, but does his best work with the ball and we never had it long enough. Charlie Mulgrew offered little down the left and may have been tactical to get Izzy going forward instead. Would have got the nod for his ability at the set-piece but all were poor deliveries.

Sammy and Stokes- They had little to no decent ball to deal with, Sammy had our best chance with a free header which he should have at least got on target. The lack of decent/any possession made it difficult for Sammy to bring in his team-mates. Stokes had one great opportunity in which he made a complete mess. After some good work out wide, how he managed to hit the Elfsborg defender and neither of the 2 players (Commons and Another) was indicative of what had played out the whole night.

Positives- Mikael Lustig was impressive for me not only on the pitch but in his description post-match. Defended well and covered for Ambrose on more than a few occasions. Izzaguire also played well, defended better as the game went on.

Finally and eventually- we`re in the next round.

 

stage 2 complete hahaha:icon_mrgreen:

 

Some of you lot spend too much time on football manager

 

Ja ja, flott. Vad tykker du om kampen?

 

Nope... just a few Magners!

 

neils negative set up almost cost us, we didnt play to our strengths tonight and that made elfborg look a far stronger side than they actually are