Celtic vs KR Reykjavik - UCL Qualifier, Tuesday 22nd July @ 7:45pm

This thread went from Alan to war zone quickly.

 

Griffiths had a few howling touches in the first half. Sometimes you have to question how hard it is to become a "professional footballer".

 

I see there's the usual pessimism and negativity going about after last nights WIN.

Last night was just one of those games where it just seemed that we wouldn't get anything no matter what we did. Even the goal was helped with a deflection. We controlled the game, weren't in any danger of conceding, battered them pretty much continuously - especially in the 2nd half - and scored only one, BUT at least we came away with a win. Have to give credit to KR Reykjavik because they defended in numbers and were organised. Hard to break down a wall of 10 defenders as well.

Onwards and upwards as they say, though, and here's hoping we can put a few past them next Tuesday.

 

A left footed striker playing on the right wing its not hard to see why he might of been playing not too well !!! he did have a poor game but was playing out of position

 

Thought Griffiths played well actually.

 

I thought Big Derek was decent when he came on put a really good ball in and seemed to be pushing them really wide which what I thought was lacking ..End of the day they are only going to improve its not like we have ever come across a much better team and shut the door and payed defensive football which has made it hard for other teams to break us down

 

who can we possibly get drawn against in the next round? if we get debrecen I might go

 

This thread is depressing. How some people can draw so many negative conclusions about certain players, our CL chances and (in one case) even Deila from our first game of the season in which we achieved exactly what we set out to is beyond me.

Anyone would think they'd already made up their minds and were just waiting for the season to begin so they could get start telling us all.

Edit: in fact, judging by the Stokes thread, that's exactly what happened. At least in some cases. As if last night tells us anything at all about whether Stokes is CL quality.

Honestly, I felt really happy when last night's game finished.

 

Great reading,to think its only the first game,should be an interesting season on TC :bbpd:

 

It was only the first competitive game of the season and we did after all do the business but the performance was flat against a team who lets be honest are as bad as any we're likely to face in European football.

Need players in...

 

The following teams are unseeded for 3rd rd so our possible opponents.
Results shown are after 1st leg 2nd rd. Winners of 1st leg are in bold.

Maribor or Zrinjski Mostar- Currently 0-0 after 1st leg
Legia Warsaw or St Patrick Athletic - (Played this evening)
Partizan Belgrade or HB - Currently 3-0 after 1st leg
Debrecen or Cliftonville - Currently 0-0 after 1st leg
Slovan Bratislava or The New Saints - Currently 1-0 after 1st leg
Aktobe or Dinam Tbilisi - (Played this evening)
Ventspils or Malmo - (Played this evening)
Quarabag or Valletta - Currently 1-0 after 1st leg
HJK or Ranotnicki - Currently 0-0 after 1st leg
Aalborg - Automatic 3rd rd qualifier

All of the above teams are possible 3rd qualifier opponents as Celtic are seeded and they are all unseeded for 3rd round.
We also avoid unseeded teams who have already been allocated 3rd rd slots in the league route and they are currently

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Pananthinaikos
Feyenoord
Grasshoppers
SEL Limassol

 

BBC's match stats have us at 75% possession and 28 attempts on goal. I wouldn't have even thought it was that one sided but just goes to show we dominated and could've/should've scored more.

 

The biggest thing I learned from last night's game is that it's a crock of * us having to play three qualifiers to reach the Group Stage. Last year we played Cliftonville at this stage and this year KR Reykjavik. No offence to any Cliftonville fans on here but both of these teams are so far beneath our level we should not have to be playing them.

We should be playing one or two qualifers max.

 

Quite a few poster thought we were dire last night and that things look bad for the forth-coming season at least as far as Europe is concerned . Are they serious , or are they been sarcastic.

 

I think it's good getting these early competitive matches. We were all the better for having the Cinftonville matches last year when we played Elfsborg.

 

I know were in the champions part but id say we could beat all them teams in the league part which is normally much harder

 

Cliftonville and this lot are good warm up games for the proper tests ahead they pose no real threat and are just happy to be playing a team of our calibre

Then again the same could be said for karagandy

 

Karagandy were actually a good team though, just people never knew it. I think 3 Karagandy players scored in World Cup qualifiers, they had a few Internationals I mostly from Kazakhstan but some for other teams like Albania I think and possibly another country or two. They also took the lead against all 6 teams they played in Europe last season - BATE, Celtic, Skenderbeu, AZ Alkmaar, PAOK and Maccabi Haifa.

Most other wee diddy teams dont have any International players and do really heehaw against any half decent side. Shakhter managed to go in the lead against BATE, Celtic, AZ Alkmaar, PAOK and Maccabi Haifa all decent European teams.

They can be compared to Artmedia who everyone thought was a wee diddy team who then went on to beat us, Partizan Belgrade and go unbeaten against Porto and the Old Club in the Champions League, even finished above Porto.

 

Thought we played alright last night for our first competitive game of the season, don't know what people are complaining about? I also don't get why having to play three qualifiers is so annoying to some people, its either playing some absolute * in a meaningful game or playing the same * in a friendly, id take this every time.