My match thoughts...

I'll admit it, we were outclassed, Barcelona had us BUT we let them outclass us in the second half.. I'm not gonna single anyone out or be too critical But...

We played quite well in the first half, pressed them reasonably, took our chances. But in the second half, they were up for it, but we weren't... We should have been pressing more up the field IMO.... Samaras and McDonald hardly recieved the ball, we didn't even win a free-kick in a promising area...
But still you've got to hand it to Barca, * me, henry's goal was good...

Now for the 2nd leg, we've got nothing to lose so we may aswell go for it all guns blazing, I'd rather go out losing after giving our best than losing in a damage-limitation 1-0....

share your thoughts here lads...

 

Hail Hail - as much as I hate the thought, its bang on, they are fantastic side. and so they should be in the finanial sence.... Give them there due, they didnt do a play a draw away

 

Hail Hail... more of the same formation and style in the away leg. If we're going to go out, we may as well go out fighting. Who knows, if we score the first goal maybe it be interesting.

 

Caddis at RB was a mistake he got a roasting for 60 mins and then got put out of his misery. We can only hope the boy can shake it of and this game doesent have an efect to his confidence in future.

We got a footballing lesson tongiht and where lucky to lose by just 1 goal. IMO we comited football suicide tonight playing 4-4-2 as we had two decent Center midfielders up against 3 World Class Centre midfielders not a fair fight. The game was made far to easy for Barca tonight as their strength is ball retention and movement and we made the game far to open. They just found it far to easy to dominate the game from start to finish as we didnt deny them space.

Messi,Ronaldinho,Henry,Deco and eto´o enjoyed the freedom of Celtic Park tonight and were put under little presure when in posesion. Our midfield and full backs could not get near them as they where exposed far to often in one on one situations. All I can say is thank * for Boruc or we could have been beaten by far more.

I was also amazed at the subs WGS made as they did nothing to change the game. Wilson for Caddis like for like Samaras for JVH who was creating problems again like for like and Donati for Hartley like for like although like JVH I thought hartley was performing well as he was the only one who was making a challenge something Donati does not seem to have in his armery so this sub made little sense to me.

The bottom line is we are nowere near the standard of Barca and we cant realy expect to be so. However we can expect to make the game difficult for them something we failed to do and this was a major disapointment.
To look positvely we produced 2 moments of pure inspiration in 90 minutes of being given a footballing lesson.

For me it was obvious we needed to put another body in the middle of the park and try to get some posession to fead Aiden as far up the park as possible and inturn stop barca from finding so much space.We probably still would have strugled to contain Barca playing this way but at least we would have made it more difficult for them.

 

.... and I dont think there is any team in the world would have put 2 past Barcelona tonight the way they played

Every one of them on the top of their game, Rhonny, Messi, Henry, Puyol, Marquez, Deco the lot of them.

 

Well said lads, I totally agree with everything posted in this thread

Hail Hail...

 

GO OUT ALL GUNS FUKIN BLAZIN SECOND LEG, SAMARAS ON FROM THE START AS HE CAN RUN AT PEOPLE, BROWN AND BOB0 IN, PLAY WITH YOUR HEART ON YOUR SLEEVE AND LETS JUST SEE. WE ARE STILL IN IT, DESPITE TONIGHTS BOTTLE JOB.

 

we missed scott brown in the midfield immensely. and ffs we need to shake up that defense.

 

just in from the game * of same old story bottom line is we where outclassed big time easily the best team ive seen at cp for a long time saying that we where not at the races.The * was nowhere.Naylor was awfull Caldwell enogh said Robson caught in possesion to much imo the best 2 players where Jan and Hartley and they where both taken off .Another thing that got on my nerves was aplauding ther players that went of for barca after Henry scored he was signalling us to keep quiet then he gets aplauded off * him all in all a disapointing night aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg!

 

Looking forward to the 2nd leg. Although sometimes Strachan's tactics bemuse me so if his tactics don't include going all out for the win i'll be surprised. It's rather lose by 2 or 3 goals and at least be able to say we tried

 

Midfield was poor the night with Brown back we should be able to get a bit of dig into them. they looked a wee bit suspect at times at the back when put under pressure, which just did not happen enough.
Hope we can get in about them in the Nou Camp

 

2-0 in the nou camp - EASY hahaha

 

What I found really strange was the two full backs tucking in beside the CB's and leaving the two wingers as much room as they wanted. You cannot do that to Messi and Ronaldinho (Henry in the second half) and hope to get away with it. And as if Messi wasn't enough we allowed Puyol to come forward at will. I think we were scared of them and I'm so disapointed. Before the game I said anything we get is a bonus, I just so wanted us to play well. Sadly we didn't and I think we can lay the blame for this one at the managers door.

 

Stop critisizing!.

Caddis did no worse than the rest of the team. He was up against 2 barca palyers for the first 20mins, with no help from Naka. He did not hide and will only learn from this. there were more experienced players that were far worse. Lets just remember how good Barca were in the second half. not many teams would have coped with that, and also remember that we are the first team to put 2 past them this year. Lets get ovet to Barca and show our full support.

It was a strange game, we could have got humped but if we hadn't actually gifted them the ball for all 3 goals we could have come out with a win.

We are too quick to condem the players. We need to remember these same players have earned the club millions by continually playing at a higher level than they are used to. Last 16 of Champions league for 2 years now.

There is no them and us at Celtic. We are one. Lets forget the performance last night we have the rest of the season to go and our championship to retain after all we don't want to be lending it out to anyone. I honestly think that with the player we have at this club we can emulate the barca performance in the SPL AND WIN THE TITLE WITH STYLE.

Support the team, support the club!

 

Aye lets do that and get humped by four or five
The last thing we need is an even worse horsing than we got in the 2nd half.
Another embarassment like that could * up the players confidence on the run in to the league and cost us dear