Champions League: AC Milan vs CELTIC, 18th September 19:45 kick off, live on SS2

They still have a player that costs more than our entire starting 11, plus subs and squad players, and reserve players. We cannot expect to beat teams like this, especially away from home. I hate how lightly we are taking AC Milan, they are still a really good side.

We will do well to tread water in our league. We just don't have the money or the attraction anymore.

 

Bollox mate, i'm sorry. 1) we spent much more than 3 million this year, we spent that on Derk alone. And 2), the fact that we only lost against Barca - we only ever seem to lose - in the final minute does not * comfort me.

It is the very source of my frustration.

Seriously, how many times in your lifetime have you seen Celtic lose a European game through bad luck or misfortune or a jammy last minute goal? * free kicks, penalties, deflections, OGs, bad decisions, cheating. I'm sick to death of it because I see it coming every fecking tiem.

Surely it annoys you too?

 

The ac fan done himself an absolute belter :smiley-laughing002:you keep going on about how your team was weekend but you've just stated yes "2 of our best players left" it makes us more inexperienced and more weaker you've just made a * of yourself

 

Really hard one to také. We deserved a point atleast. I know its all well and good saying this in hindsight but maybe Lennon should have put Biton on for Commons instead of Pukki for extra protection and just played for the draw, then Zapata might not have got a clear shot on goal.

What did Brown do to give the freekick away? RTE didnt show it very clearly. And also, I could have imagined this, but after Milans first goal I could have sworn Balotelli was at Brown 'sshhhing' him as he came back. The camera was far away though so Im not sure. I thought when Brown gave the free away on Balotelli it might have been a sly elbow in retaliation...

 

I must admit I got carried away at HT,I really thought we could murder them in the second half.

However if you start going for it then youplay right into Milan's hands and they would have picked us off.

We done absolutely the right thing in keeping our new - more attacking - players at bay for the time being.

Pukki and boerrigter will have a huge part to play this season no doubt, but they got just the right amount of time tonight, imo.

 

I agree with all of that. My point is that we did all we could but that Milan were essentially saved by Mexes and Zapata. We couldn't get through them. We didn't have one actual, solid chance except from Stokes. They had the Balo volley and the Muntari header. Then they had a lucky break. I think this talk about our domination is a little misleading because Milan ceded possession to us, they never attempted really to maintain it, yet they still had about 50% of the ball. They had an awful game from Muntari, (more or less) Balotelli, and Birsa - but that was also due to Brown and Mulgrew (for Muntari and Birsa) and Efe/Virgil (for Balo). Neither side really threatened that much, but they had marginally the better chances, so in a match like that lucky breaks are often the decider.

 

We have * all up front. Even with Hooper in the side we didn't look like scoring that much in the CL so why do people think any different WITHOUT him?

I'm just * off that Milan were there for the taking all night and we didn't use that to our advantage. Would like to see us score more in this competition.

 

It hit the top, it was closer to not hitting it at all than going in. But forgetting Balo, I'd say the Muntari chance was by far better than Stokes'.

 

Yes am annoyed sometimes. but to say more or less that we can go head to head with the Milan's Barca's Bayerns and compete everytime is laughable..with their resources they should be making more chances.scoring more goals etc etc..Beating Barca was the highlight of many fans years supporting celtic.

 

Good point, highlights something which I haven't seen mentioned too much tonight- Lenny got his tactics spot on tonight. Milan set up similar to Juventus last year, but we didn't play into their hands as much. We attacked, but didn't leave ourselves exposed, pressurised the ball without losing our shape and moved the ball about very well. Lenny's been criticised a fair bit for his tactics, but that was a very good managerial showing tonight.

 

I thought Van Dijk and Ambrose were solid tonight. Looking forward to seeing them with another few games under their belts playing together.

 

That needs to be said more. Lennon did everything perfectly tonight.

 

Think about it this way:

We've qualified for the (as it's now called) Champions League last 16 three times.

The first two times we lost away from home in our first game, and last season drawing at home to Benfica was our best opening day result from the times we've qualified. Although given that it was at home it might be equal to or worse than an away loss depending on how you consider it.

The second last time we made it through we lost 2-0 to Shaktar Donetsk in our opening game, in a group that also included Milan and Benfica.

I think we're still in with a shout this season.

 

All of what you mentioned it used to be early goals aswell! We have cut this out or game we no longer lose goals in the first 5 mins it took then 80 odd mins to score to me that's impressive

 

Indeed. Hooper is a good player, but we're a Michu or a Suarez away from beating teams like Milan and Barcelona with a few goals. As I said Hooper is a good player, but he went to Norwich for a reason, he wouldn't have made a difference tonight.

 

was impressed with Boerigter when he came on against shakter. played really well v hearts..forget hooper things look ok with the flying dutchman and pukki...but they will need time to settle and play our way/style.

 

At home though we will be playing players more used to converting those kinds of chances though.

It will leave us more exposed defensively but that's what you do at home.

 

Where did I say that? I never said we SHOULD be doing anything, i'm not suggesting we're bigger or better than the true megastars like Bayern and Barca and be competing with thim.
But I think a lot of Celtic fans sell us short too. We have one of the biggest stadiums in Europe. One of the biggest fanbases in Europe. Arguably the best single atmosphere/crowd in Europe also. We are the biggest club, in the biggest city, in possibly the biggest football-mad country in Europe.

We're not as small and insignificant as many like to think.

I just hate to think that 2 or 3 great home wins and the odd last 16 appearance is the pinnacle of what we can achieve. Surely we can reach the top, the very top, once again?
And we'll never do it with our current attitude. We are mentally weak and naive. We looked like we could have played for 6 hours tonight and still not scored, whereas the Milan's and Barca's play with an arrogance (reflected by their fans) because they KNOW they are going to score, no matter how late or flukey.