Champions League Celtic v Brugge Wednesday November 26th kick off 8PM TNT sports 3

Aye folk around me going * mental at us actually keeping safe possession of the ball, was doing my nut in.

We were nowhere near our best last night and still got a point against a very good side, as much as we weren’t great youve got to give them a bit of credit for that. They sussed us out and didn’t let us play at all that first half. The boy Onyedika in the middle of the park was excellent, absolutely bossed our 3 in there until Bernardo came on and got a bit of joy.

I can see why engels got the nod last night, but in hindsight it was a poor call. He’s been off it for weeks now whereas Bernardo is looking sharp every time he plays. He quite simply needs to come in for a run of games now.

Before the game it felt like a massive opportunity however they were a far better side than they got credit for and in seasons gone by we’d have lost that by 3 or 4 tbh so we’re getting there. Especially considering their only goal was the worst we’ll concede for another 10 year. Take the point and move on, for me it’s definitely a point gained rather than 2 gone.

 

Totally how I see it as well.

 

Brugge were impresssive, I expected them to be decent. Think a lot of people expected to turn up and turn them over no questions asked. Just annoyed with our own performance, really thought we would have shown more. Gotta be happy with a point, we would have probably collapsed in the past.

 

Valle & Bernardo need to be first 11 now going forward.

 

I agree with this. The energy levels between the Leipzig match and last night were stark. This wasn't helped by their relentless pressing in the first half, but they got it tactically spot on and completely nullified us for most of that first half.

 

Oddly enough despite us being off form we would have won that game but for the OG. We would have had one of those winning ugly type of games. We're always going to get games like that over the season but we can't afford it to happen in these big games

 

Atmosphere is such a myth a CP these days. Worse than some PL grounds now.

 

Too many without wider footballing knowledge thinking Brugge were a Bratislava and we shoulda been winning 3-0 at half time

 

Agree completely on Bernardo but just can’t see Rodgers benching his marquee signing (that I’m sure he had to beg for). Engels needs a rest to acclimatise a little more I think, not because he’s a bad player or out of form. Being picked for Belgium shows his quality

 

Celtic always have that type of game in their locker reminds me of the time in quarter final against villareal …. Before villareal became known we were the favourites with the like of larsson in the side and we go and draw ..larsson missed sitters and lost game over their to go out for t was very much like that game so frustrating


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What upsets me about it is they pressed villa the same way they like to press sides who play out from the back so why did we play into their hands time and time again


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I’m all for keeping possession in these games in all honesty even if it’s passing back to go forward it calms the game down and gets the players confidence up with more touches of the ball

Saying that I didn’t agree with the way we were constantly passing between them with the keeper involved that’s what they wanted


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Could be an important point, but feels a bit like a defeat, as we were outplayed for most of the game..

 

We likely knew they'd press but seems like we felt our game was press resistant enough to deal with it and it would open up space further up the park. That didn't happen hence why we tweaked it at half time and we started to get a better performace, even if we still struggled to create many chances.

 

We were nowhere near our best, and we got a point.
When was the last time you said that about Celtic in Europe.

 

The fact we are disappointed at a point in the CL against a team that would’ve beating us 3-0 at home last few years shows the progress we’ve made in European football.

Other the other hand some folk think we need to be 2-0 at HT every game. Doesn’t work like that I’m afraid.

 

Was a good point in the end for me, they are probably a better team than us and more confident in Europe.

We were probably lucky they never scored any goals of their own and they sat in more in the 2nd half cause they had a lead, had they came out the 2nd half and played like the first we'd have been in trouble but it was more comfortable for us in the 2nd as they sat in and let us get out our own half lol

Good tactical battle against an evenly matched team in the end.

I never even thought we were bad, their tactics were just really good and made it very difficult for us. There was almost never any option to get the ball out of our defence the way they pressed and marked our players. Was only when they stopped doing that we were then allowed to get out our own half.

They played 4-2-3-1 which not that many teams do now and that big attacking midfielder was blocking everything off, then their two deeper never really allowed Engels or Hatate a breath was impressive from them.

Was a bit like how Dortmund got the better of us, although Dortmund had much more pace about their team and skill but they just killed off any hope of us getting up the park. We probably had to drop Hatate in beside McGregor and put Engels as a 10 to give us more options but we don't really change the set up.

I also thought we could have moved Kyogo deeper to get involved more as well, since he was high up the park but we had no hope of ever getting near him anyway so he was may as well around the midfield and then Engels and Hatate could have went wider to defend and Maeda and Kuhn could have been like the forwards on the break.

We should probably have tried something different as we were totally ruined tactically and you knew we weren't going to get over the half way line.

When a team does that as well then you need a dribbler really at the back to beat a guy or two and open things up, surprised me Valle never got brought on at HT as he can do that.

 

Too many of the CL games once the game has started the atmosphere that was there pre match just goes away and only a few hundred in a corner actually sing, don't really care if other disagree but the atmosphere at the European games was far superior before we had 'ultras' and most of the ground contributed to the atmosphere unlike now sadly!

 

It really just comes down to performance, if you start well the fans get behind you, if you don't they don't and thats how it's always been.

When fans are sitting watching for 5 minutes that you can't get the ball to your midfield and then its 10 minutes and 20 minutes and 30 minutes in theres never going to be any atmosphere.