Celtic in the UEFA Champions League 2024-25

Agreed. My level of confidence is highly dependant on him being fit. Kind of feel we should’ve recruited a top quality centre half so as not to be so dependant on him but can’t be arsed dwelling on that anymore. I think I’d be more confident without McGregor just now given our midfield options. Really hope he makes it. Heard on phone-in earlier he’s missed 5 of our last 12 CL games. We really need to find someone as good as or close to his level in January imo.

 

I’ve been watching Dortmund a long time and this side are probably the poorest they’ve had since the pre-Klopp era. Sahin was a weird appointment.

Still a decent side and a big ask to get anything away, but if there was ever a time now is it.

 

Tuesday night
Atalanta 2-3 Como

Tonight
Dortmund 4-2 Bochum
Charleroi 1-1 Club Brugge

Como were second bottom and winless before going to Atalanta.

Bochum in the relegation zone in Germany. They've been knocked out the German Cup by the club who are bottom of 2 Bundeliga. Bochum seem awful on paper yet were leading Dortmund by two goals.

Club Brugge had a man sent off not long after conceding. Brugge equalised in the 91st minute.

We seem to be playing Dortmund at the right time. We just need to actually play to our best ability for once.

 

Dortmund played last night(Friday) coming back from 0-2 down at home to win 4-2 V Bochum. Dortmunds sporting director Kehl on winger gittens …

Kehl is hopeful he(gittens) can recover for the test against Brendan Rodgers’ side, stating: “It shouldn’t be anything serious. So we hope that everyone will be available on Tuesday. Because we’ll need them.”
Marcel Sabitzer, who has also been playing in wide areas of late, was not fit enough to feature with Kehl explaining: “Marcel is injured and unfortunately hasn’t been able to train for the last one or two days. We still hope that he’ll be back in shape on Tuesday.”

* right you will

https://www.67hailhail.com/news/dor...g-director-delivers-honest-verdict-on-celtic/

 

Coming back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 gives me the fear

 

Especially being us how many times have we been 2-0 away from home and ended up losing the three points. Milan, Lille and Betis to name a few. We need to learn to kill games off. Bochum had a chance to make it 3-0 so we need to learn from this and of course our own experiences.

 

Dortmund 4-2 Bochum
Dortmund were 2-0 down. Bochum are second to bottom in the Bundeliga on one point.

Bologna 1-1 Atalanta
Bologna played 40mins with only ten men. Atalanta scored their equaliser in the 90th min.

Leipzig 4-0 Augsburg
Augsburg missed a penalty when 2-0 down. Augsburg are one point above the relegation zone.

Charleroi 1-1 Club Brugge
Brugge played 35 mins with ten men. They equalised in the 91st min. Brugge sit 3rd but they're closer to the second to bottom team than they are with first place, points-wise.

Dinamo Zagreb 5-1 NK Locomotive
NK are a point off bottom but have played a game more. Zagreb scored two injury time goals to make it comfortable in the end.

Young Boys 0-1 Grasshopper
Young Boys are a point off bottom of the league.

Ipswich 2-2 Aston Villa
Ipswich sit one point above the relegation zone. No wins so far.

 

I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic. Not getting carried away. No idea how many times I've got my hopes up for progress in Europe, for one of the richer teams to just turn up and dish us out a scudding.

 

Has CCV travelled?

 

I dunno if this is me clutching at straws or if this even makes sense, but I often feel like it would really help us to have a season or 2 in the Europa League for our players to cut their teeth against strong but not overwhelming opposition.

I always remembered the season before we beat Barca enroute to the last 16, we were in that Europa League group with Renne and I can't remember who else. I think it was Lenny's first group stage in Europe and they got some nice wins and really felt like it helped that crop of players.

I guess no one at board level would agree with this because £££, but I think it would be great to have a year in the Europa especially in this new format with more games. I think the core of the squad would benefit. Rather than year after year of raking in the CL cash but get absolutely spanked

 

I understand your logic but it never worked out for the huns who have largely had the same squad of players playing consistently in the Europa and not doing too bad. Then come the champions league they set a record for all the wrong reasons.

For me we need to play like how Bodo played against us, let the opposition have the ball all they want and then spring on the counter. Not quite parking the bus like the Scottish national team but somewhere in between. Even Real Madrid do that but we seem to need to play “The Celtic Way”.

I’d love to see us use a 4-2-3-1 in Europe.

 

Will give Atalanta a watch at 1745 away to Shakthar today.

 

And start to worry now Naw I''l give it a miss and try for the ignorance is bliss approach.

 

That's what oor Brendan will be doing too..

 

You're right. To be honest, Sevco's record breaking shiteness in the CL did cross my mind when I wrote that. Europa finalists the year before as well.

Lenny will have his detractors but he did what was needed to get those big wins in Europe, you could see in those games that he genuinely prepared the teams for the reality of what the games would be like. I

 

mate we only beat rennes in that group.
We lost to atletico twice, got 2 draws with udinese and a draw in France with a spectacular own goal from cha.

It was a pretty poor group, lennon just knew how to set us up away from home.

Brendan treats every game like we're playing ross county.

Time to stop getting hopes up and pretending were anything more than making up the numbers.

Desmond and lawell are happy to collect the qualification money and that's it, nothing will change any time soon.

 

Listening to ACSOM and i actually think John Hughes is spot on. Dortmund is not our competition. We will never, ever again compete with these teams And that is the sad truth. It is as unrealistic as Ross County competing with us. The mid to bottom CL clubs are our competition. We wont get far in CL, but if we played in EL we probably could as the big hitters that play in the EL don't really care about that competition so a upset there is 10x more likely. Do i prefer the CL? Ofc.

"Yeah but the huns could beat them". Yes, in EL but that would never happen if it was in the CL. The kind of disrepectful fact is that many of the big teams don't even want to be in the EL as it hinders their league progress.

Look what happened to the successful in europe rangers when they entered the CL.

This is how things are and unless we 10-15x our income this is how it will be, and that gap will most likely become even bigger. For this reason, i could accept parking the bus just to keep the numbers down vs the absolute best teams.

I can tell you one thing. I would Love to have a crack at EL.

 

One thing to consider as well, Young Boys, Brugge and Dinamo will be looking at us after last night in a different light and it won't take expert analysis on where they may be able to hurt us..

Emery, jeez.. he'll have a field day with Rodgers tactics..

The acid test lies after Atalanta.. but a more streetwise performance is needed there, as another pumping and confidence may be fragile for the rest of the campaign.