Champions League Atalanta V Celtic Wednesday October 23 kick off 5:45 TNT Sports 4

Too late, already spent it on a shipment of Auston Trusty commemorative alarm clocks. Available this Christmas for only £24.99.

 

I thought the main difference with us and them was their whole defence was like the levels of Carter-Vickers, they didn't need to care about being man for man at the back as was it Djimsiti, Kolasinac, Zappacosta were powerful defenders and the guy in the middle Hein looked an athlete.

When you think of our defence it's much weaker and not that level of physicality and pace.

There was no real hope of Maeda or Kuhn being able to run away from them.

 

Great result last nite watched it in the sun fantastic

 

Hopefully lasts night sets a president on how we setup away from home in the CL.

Especially against the big teams and even for the 'easier' ties, we should still setup that way for the first 20 minutes.

 

They're a cracking team. We were lucky they were a bit wasteful when they did get chances.

 

With weird accents too!

 

Obviously like everyone I am delighted with the point. I expected us to have 3 points after these first 3 fixtures long before we played Dortmund so to have 4 now we are IMHO a point ahead of expectations at this point. I think we rode our luck a bit in that spell in the middle of the first half when they hit the bar and had the chance where the lad shot straight at Schmeichel but what impressed me most was the longer the game went on the better we got defensively and the less clear chances they created. Rather than getting worn down we grew into the game and I think especially as the second half wore on we just grew in confidence.

 

With our current standings if we win 1-0 in next match maximum spot would be 10th place depending on other results.
To move up further than that we need to win next match by 6 clear goals.
This means we need to win both home matches to get into direct last 16 qualification spot with 3 left to go after that

 

Defending and shape was superb but my one critique is we need to be far more efficient in possession and attacking sequences. But Celtic showed us they can dig in and grind out a result which is not like Celtic and I'm loving it.

 

@Wee Baldy did you manage that strip?

 

Actually loved watching that game, especially against Italian teams it’s interesting to see the tactical side of a game play out

 

I certainly did but was told to put my clothes immediately back on by my good lady and "not to be so stupid"

 

Still buzzing with this result and performance.

It was just great to embrace the misery of defending and holding out away from home in the Champions League.

It was great maturity and a joy to watch us out Italian an Italian club.

We need to build on this. We're going to lose some but we should be looking to pick up more points away from home now.

 

That's how I feel. I mentioned after the Borussia game that I expected Celtic to be way more defensive in away ties and really make a go of it. I think that match showed we can do it, and I daresay we can do it far better.

I don't have any issues playing like this in these games to be honest. It's part of football. It would be an issue for me if we played like this all the time - of course it would, but in these games it's welcome and fun to watch especially when we're free flowing the other 95% of the time.

The one that always stuck with me is when Rangers (deceased) got to the final in 2008, they had five 0-0s in Europe that season. Four of them were at home, and four of them were in the Europa League. I checked it out of interest and they had 5 goals in 9 matches in the EL part of the run against pretty non-elite teams.

That's a great example of how I don't want us to be. To play cuntish football to that extent and still win * all isn't worth it, but being defensive and compact when appropriate is bang on.

 

Their knockout return was 5 draws, 2 wins and a loss. Would've been a robbery if they won the whole thing.

 

That was one thing and one thing alone, Walter Smith defensive magic. He knew how to set up and install a mentality of do not * give up chances, and even when they did concede chances, because how rushed the attacking team was they usually * it. And he generally had good keepers to rely on when they needed it. Zenit in the final had far too much quality for that to work, they had zero chance at it.


But Smith had that about him, * just look at how many times Tommys teams dominated, and lost. He just had that sorta *, the only other manager I can think of that has had that I’ve seen is Mourinho.

a style we’ve always slagged, it’s not fun, it’s not Celtic style and never has been even at our most defensive performances… but I have a grudging respect there. Was bastarding annoying

 

Are you pleased with Brest's good results in Europe?

 

Just the 6 goals for Atalanta in Bergamo tonight. What a job the bhoys done