Celtic v Internazionale (Thursday 19/02/15, K.O. 20:05, BT Sports 1)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpNW_GmYzVQ[/ame]

Came across this, seems pretty good, they have a few vids up.

 

I can't believe the number of people who have left out Armstrong, I thought he was one of our better players last week. Mind you it would be hard to find fault with anyone in the midfield...the back four on the other hand, ugh.

 

Not sure if this has already been posted but found this a great read. It's well worth having a look.

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blog...t-atmosphere-in-world-football-140304973.html

 

Good to see used to be a thing called celtic quick news that done the same sort of thing. This is he type of thing man united fan Andy Tate became an Internet sensation like watching stuff like this

 

What a game.

3-3 might not be an unfair result, but I'm kicking myself at only coming away with a draw after being 2 goals up after 10 minutes at Celtic Park. Small team-mentality stuff.

If we had a defense capable of, well, defending, I'd say we could go far in this tournament. But alas, a team is measured by the sum of it's parts, and as is, we're not a great team by any stretch of the imagination. Just shambolic all around, and Mancini has to take part of the blame.

Playing a high line against a british team was and will always be suicide, and we got punished for it. To your credit, I think you mixed how you played pretty well - there were a fair bit of long balls (not that that isn't a completely decent weapon to use, if some would argue not aesthetically alluring), but players like Mackay-Stevens and Armstrong proved to be perfectly capable of playing the ball on the ground, and playing well. So credit where due. We were lacking defensive cover from the midfield, and the left side consisting of Santon (who I've never been a fan of) and Kuzmanovic (who I've also never been a fan of) was just begging to be exploited. Which you did. It'd be a completely ball-game if we had D'Ambrosio and Nagatomo ready, but oh well.

I think your midfield did well enough, but we could've hurt you guys massively on the counter - and did. There were a couple of times when we got the ball past the first wave of pressure, were you were completely exposed. A player like Kovacic would've been immense with his runs from deep in that kind of situation, not so much when being subbed in and the rest of the team focusing on defending.

Amazing atmosphere. Seldom seen anything like it, so props.

Concerning diving and so on which a few of yous' have pointed out, I think the ref was fine, and we weren't particular villainous - Shaqiri was rightfully booked, and Johansen's booking was kind of a joke, but other than that... nothing to really point out. To be fair, I remember the free kick from just outside the box that led to Palacio getting booked was a clear dive (don't remember who, Armstrong or Matthews maybe?), and you committed a couple of 'studds-up' tackle that should've led to yellow cards, but the game was fine from a fair-play point of view in my opinion.

I feel comfortable in progressing though. I don't see you guys coming away with a win from the Meazza, but then again, if we defend like that... who knows.
We're certainly not going anywhere when we come up against the elite teams of this tournament, but it's a mute point.

Anyway, we're playing Cagliari away on monday (!), so only three days of rest, which is appalling scheduling from the FIGC. We'll defintely see some rotating and second-string players getting time. The question is if it's on Monday or against you guys. We'll see. Looking forward to Thursday, anyhow.

 

Looking back at the goals, that first one we scored was one of the best we've scored in Europe in recent years, a 15 pass move, starting with Bitton winning the ball in our box and calmly passing it instead of blasting it out.

 

Thank you my friend, good to get a view from the other side.

I thought we played the ball on the deck for most of the game and played very few long balls to be honest. I thought it was a very even game between two young sides taht like to attack.

Looking forward to round 2 on Thursday. :icon_mrgreen:

 

All 3 of inter's goals came through our own mistakes, there is no reason that we can't go to milan and beat them.

 

See, I don't really follow that logic? If anything, the reason you should be optimistic about getting a result in Milan is because of the way you played, not because you, in your words, were the main reason for conceding three goals.

What's keeping you from making those mistakes again (maybe not a comical error from Gordon, but your defense in general, like ours, wasn't exactly a wall).
I think people that make the case that our goals weren't really, how should I put this, earned...? in a way, forgot that one of yours was an own goal.

 

While we were somewhat lucky with our second , all the three inter goals (the second to a lesser extent ) where errors that would not happen normally , our keeper is arguably our best player but he picked Thursday night to have his worst half in a Celtic jersey in 8 months he's been here, he would not normally play like that yet even you said your defence is prone to defending badly like ye did on our second.

 

First goal.. 99.9% of the time Gordon just lets that go wide or palms it out for a corner. He had a howler and pushed it straight back to Shaqiri.

Second goal, Izaguirre goes to clear the danger. The ball,unfortunately for us, fires straight into van dijks chest and bounces PERFECTLY into the path of Palacio. Palacio then (maybe he aimed there?) shoot straight at the keeper and it manages to find its way through Gordon's legs. The through the legs thing happens all the time so I'm not saying that was VERY lucky but the way the ball deflected off van Dijk and straight to Palacio was so unlucky for us.

The third goal.. 99.999% of the time Gordon either lets it go out for a GK or doesn't make one of the worst mistakes of his career. Totally our own doing, a goal out of absolutely nothing.

Inter's OG was lucky for us but not as lucky as any of Inter's 3 goals. Armstrong and Matthews forced Campagnaro into making the mistake.

 

I agree with OC here in a way. The mistake on the first one was mostly due to Gordon being completely unaware that Shaqiri could make anything of that volley. He never sees that technique in Scotland. The second goal came from an unfortunately not-so uncharacteristic mistake. Poor clearance and a whiff by Izzaguirre. That's not so uncommon. The third was a howler, just like the second for us. To me, it was an even match with two normal goals each and a howler each. I think it's dangerous for us to think that this was an aberration and that on a normal night we would have been fine. The abnormal part is that we were punished, not that the errors occurred.

 

So Gordon pushing that save straight back to Shaqiri is normal for him? He's a great keeper and that was a truly awful mistake. Their other 'normal' goal was a clearance hitting Van Dijk in the chest and landing straight to Palacio's feet.

Our 2 goals were two moments of brilliance
by Adam Matthews for the first and Henderson and Guidetti for the third.

 

This is exactly the point I was trying to make. Not that any of the goals were in any way invalid or anything like that.

 

There first goals while they did get the chances because of a mistake , were fine finishes, the third was a complete howler from a harmless ball , the first goal could have been easily prevented on any other day so I would still have maintain that they scored a howler and two easily preventable goals while we got two good goals and an OG

 

Great post. Name me one player from an SPL team who can do what Shaqiri did for that first goal. Gordon reacted to the volley rather than anticipated for exactly the reasons you state and that leads to mistakes. Agree about Izzy and the second too. Our second involved several howlers from their defence. All in all I agree with everything you say.

 

Yes, it's normal. Not because of the mistake, but because of the way it was forced. Gordon is more likely to make a mistake when he is facing a ridiculous volley like that. It's not too complicated is it? In regards to the second one, as far as I remember odd bounces are quite regular occurrences. It's not as if it hit his head and ricocheted for an own goal. It was a simple poor clearance and deflection. I'm failing to see what was so stupendously unique about it all.

Our two goals were better than their three, style wise. But they only count for two all the same. To me, there's a bit of hypocrisy. We're slating McManaman for stating that we should have beaten this Inter side but then brushing off the draw as a fluke. If it's a fluke then we should have beaten them, no? I think it's just a dangerous game to play to have this sort of mentality - ah we should have won but they got some flukey goals. It was a hectic, back and forth game played at an incredible place. Yes, we made mistakes, but they were forced by the opposition. Nobody is going to make that initial volley in Scotland. Absolutely nobody. It caught Gordon by surprise and, yes, forced him into a mistake. The second was a poor clearance and a bad bounce, happens all the time.

These goals were not caused by meteors hitting the field and sending the ball into the net at a million miles per hour. They were caused by simple things that happen quite often. We can admit them as mistakes but we also have to admit that they didn't happen in a vacuum, that we have difficulty adjusting our pace to European nights and often get forced into awkward positions as a result of it. We need to focus on this and learn from it instead of just saying that they were flukes.

 

Tell me one place that could.match the noise of park head last night? Dortmund have great atmospheres but dont get the entire stadium singing and jumping. Also the Turkish teams have a lot of.noise but its.just a background hum. Its * compared to the intense and bpistrous celtic.park crowd. Thats why players who have played all over the world say about celtic park. Its magic. Absolutely electric. Especially celtic symphony. You cant get louder than the full ground jumping and screaming. Oh and all the colour and scarfs and the anthems and song.variety. its an occasion like no other.

 

It's not really a dangerous game because Ronny and JC won't have that attitude. JC said before the game that mistakes would be punished in a way they rarely are domestically. I doubt he'll have changed his tune after being spectacularly right on Thursday.

I had a similar discussion at half-time. Someone said they didn't fear Inter and I was amazed that they didn't fear a team so clinical that they scored 3 times from 3 chances our mistakes gave them, especially after Juve and AC Milan recently.