Celtic vs Malmö - Wednesday, 19th August Live BT Sport Europe

Say what you want about the result, but it was magnificent to watch the crowd that gathered in almighty voice to will the players on. Our fans deserve a lot of credit for putting on such a show against a relatively middling European side.

 

So? The Malmö team Celtic beat 3-2 didn't have their two best players. Injuries and red cards are a part of the game. We too have sold plenty of players.

 

That last minute goal was a right sucker punch.

We had been cruising up until then. We dominated them, making them look like an average SPFL side. * switching off in the final minute and letting them grab a second away goal made an otherwise convincing victory feel almost like a defeat.

Our main problem, in my opinion, is our lack of strength in depth. Armstrong goes off, Lustig goes off, we concede. It happened against Inverness at the weekend too, except we also subbed Brown off and then conceded two late goals.

Ambrose will never be good enough, that has been covered many times. Izzy is questionable at times, although undoubtedly more of a player than Efe.

We need a strong squad if we want to be taken seriously in the CL again, not just a strong starting XI. I hope more than anything we can cross the finishing line next week.

 

I am sitting here this evening with my laptop in my lap, finish off my second Canadian beer of the evening.

Although I watched the game late, I am glad I did, as it was thoroughly enjoyable. I am a happy and content man with this Celtic team as yet. Especially with Leigh Griffiths. How many people underestimated him?

That being said, we did not deserve that scoreline. Hard to believe that * Berget netted those two goals. I had almost forgot he even had a spell here. How many times did his feet actually hit the pitch playing for us? Three or four games? Anyhow, well in Celtic. Looking forward to the away leg now.

 

Definitely.

I remember he missed a couple of sitters against Maribor at this stage last season.

 

I guess the main point is Malmo are beatable and we will get chances. Griffiths has to start again. For a lot of the game we had a two goal lead so hopefully we can bring that confidence into the return.

Not offended. We play in similar leagues I've read before. It just feels like you have the confidence now after coming back from defeat. But of course the tie really is still in the balance. If you win I hope you win 4 3

 

When Guidetti got the last minute equalizer to make it 3-3 with Inter, the crowd went wild, the players did a lap of honour at the end, and we went to the San Siro confident of scoring and taking down Inter Milan after that result.
Now we have a 3-2 lead and have to go to Malmo (no disrespect to Malmo but they are a less intimidating prospect than Inter) and just avoid defeat, but the mood is somber as *. Goes to show the importance of getting on top at the right time over a 2 legged tie.

Hopefully when the team look back on it in a few days they can take confidence in our lead and go over there and get the job done. Come on Celtic, we are the better * team, and they still have to come at us.

 

You're right, it's the crazy thing about sports or most things in life, confidence makes 90% of a difference to the outcome. This is where Ronnie earns his crust, reminding the players they won the game by being the better team.

Love that Tommy Burns quote btw

 

From what I saw, we have a team capable of beating these mugs. The whole lot of them are arrogant * and I hope we totally humiliate them at their home. We totally dominated and they were lucky to come away with two away goals.

They were very average. In fact they were very lucky. We made silly mistakes and gave them half chances. We can certainly score in the second leg. We have played and beaten better teams and I am confident we can beat this average Malmo team. We just need to be more disciplined and control the game. Do not give the ball away and try to * an early goal.

 

Well, just finished watching the match. At a complete loss for words. Gotta be kidding me with that scoreline.

 

We outplayed them clearly, but they definitely have the psychological advantage now. They were on the ropes, nearly dead and buried, and come away with 2 away goals. Their best player is coming back into the team and they're at home.

All I can say is, if there's a goal at all in the next game, I sure as * hope we're first on the board.

 

That's the big thing here. You could see them celebrating with their fans at the end as if they won the game, while our players slumped off looking dejected.

Ronny really needs to get the boys in the right frame of mind going into next week's game.

 

Just noticed the * tags.

 

If you want the view from a Malmö supporter, here it comes.

This and last season I've seen Malmö getting worse results than 3-2 in the away games (4-2, 2-1 and 2-0). But not only that, Malmö was completely dominated in those three games.

I find it strange that so many seem to think that Celtic was dominating Malmö today. That's not at all what I saw today. I saw Malmö chocked in the beginning, maybe Celtic Park scared them and maybe they got out there a bit too confident from start. But as the match got came alog I thought Malmö was the slightly better team from the 30th minute an onwards. The 3-1 goal came right out of the blue during a period when Celtic had lost control of the game.

Possibly Celtic wanted to defend the 2-0 lead, that's why Malmö could slowly take over, but clearly Celtic was not good enough to do it.

I just want to point out that I thought Malmö was incredibly lucky to beat Sparta Prague and Salzburg twice, both teams where clearly better than Malmö. I do not think Celtic was nearly as good as that today. Just comparing the match statistics from these four games to prove my point, Salzburg and Prague clearly had a huge advantage over Malmo where as Celtic and Malmö where on par.

Shots on target (Shots on&off target)

2014
Sparta Prague v Malmö 10-4 (20-6)
Salzburg v Malmö 10-4 (27-9)

2015
Salzburg v Malmö 5-1 (18-4)

Todays game
Celtic v Malmö 4-4 (7-10)

So anyone who thinks that Celtic will win this because Celtic clearly is a better team than Salzburg who didn't have Soriano and lost half of their squad is clearly delusional. That said, Malmö has drawn or lost 4 out of 11 home games in the league this year. Obviously if these teams can do it, so could Celtic. We are by no means better than that.

But we do have two of our best players back in the next game and Celtic looked scared at the end and was not very good at defending a lead.

 

We've got a week to pick the mood up. Once the dust settles we'll realise a draw sends up through, and if we score (which we can definitely do) they'll need two. We showed for large parts we're the better team, we just need to remember that. And we're celtic, we don't do things the easy way.

 

Lustig came into the middle and Forrest was WALKING as the lad scored. Watch it again. Mess of a goal it was. 2nd goal GMS had the ball at their corner flag, had he won a corner or throw in the game ends 3-1.

We can still do this!
I read 80% of the comments. It's strange how some of us were saying good thing about a player only to say they were poor. The circle of the Footballing world

 

You and old wise Chinese man?

 

Imagine the 2nd leg went to penalties and we went through because Berget missed his. NOW THERE IS FOOTBALL IRONY right there. #JustSaying #HH

 

If I never hear that dude's name again, it will still be too many times.

 

We beat them. The game's gone. Now a draw is all we need. At the start of the qualifiers, i'd have taken that. The opportunity is still in our favor.

Two away goals, cancels out their away goals. A draw gets us through. It'll be tight but we can do this.

If we'd been offered this at the start of qualifying we'd have taken it. Away from home, run down the clock. Job done.

Problems begin when the midfield and the defense start making "clearances". If we can keep our composure and get at them early Armstrong, GMS and Griffiths can score goals against Malmo. It's a game for players with skill and pace, but the other option, which we could do, is really, really pack the midfield with goalscorers.

Possession is the key. As soon as we let the game descend into a game of head tennis, we lost control of the game. This should have been better, but as long as we go through any way will do.