[Matchday] UCL Qual R3: Celtic v AEK Athens Wednesday 8th August 7.45pm KO.....result 1-1

He's talking garbage in my opinion......when the Greeks won the Euros they nearly * killed football......my eyes were bleeding for a month and i was pleading for that tournament to end!!....it was like watching sevco's march to Manchester....utterly embarassing to call that football. As for last night, and i'll try and remove the green tints here, i didn't hear many walking away saying they're a good skilful side. Yeah they can defend a bit, although we played our part in that and the boy doing the shift up top did quite well but other than that....i'm struggling!!

Interesting to see how they handle this now.....form our point of view i'd be really tempted to go 3-5-2 as mentioned by someone above and go for it!!

 

They gave a dogged defensive away performance but to come out and try to make out as if they are far better technically is absurd. They couldnt get near Ntcham.

I would expect a strong technical team to attack and to hold on to the ball.
For spells of that game they couldnt keep the ball out of their half. Their center mids took Rogic and Mcgregor out the game with some pretty cynical challanges.

Their boy up top did okay but he was probably the bulkiest/heaviest looking footballer iv seen in a while and didnt have anything on Ajer or Hendry for pace.
iTheir goal was an absolute gift on a plate and was a result more of bad defending than good creativity on their part.

I know they will be 10x better in Greece. But on that showing, for the champions of greece, iv seen a lot smaller teams from around europe come to celtic park and play better.

 

Just what I saw. Same with the Hibs/ Asteras games. The Greeks are far more comfortable on the ball and have better first touches. Sure I could be wrong - many on here have said I am. Let's see how the second leg goes.

 

I think you need new glasses mate......i can't comment on either Hibs games as i didn't see them however what i do know is that the Hibs defence is probably dodgier than ours and they them a 2 goal start and still went through the tie. My 2 main concerns about this tie now are about our defence and the weather.......our CB pair are a problem and the heat over there could be a great leveller. I'm not overly concerned about anything i saw from Athens last night and i think the tie is still very much 50/50

 

And the one that flashed by every player in the box
And the one that was cleared near post as every one of their defenders closed near space - too obvious as we always crossed low

 

How does one quantify/qualify/define and most importantly measure Greeks being “far more comfortable on the ball”?

Do Greek training methods or the physical makeup of football players of not only Greek but of foreign origin who play in Greece allow them to be more comfortable on the ball and have better first touches than Scottish or foreign players playing in Scotland?

Just an honest question.

I didn’t see much of any great discomfort from anyone on Celtic when on the ball, especially in comparison to when AEK players were on the ball.

One other thing, one of my best mates is an Olympiakos supporter from Athens and I’ve watched countless Greek league matches with him over the years, and I don’t really see much of any difference with the players in Greece being more overtly “technical” than the players in the SPL, unless you count the South American players plying their trade in Greece and the South Americans in the SPL, being more “comfortable on the ball” than their European, African, etc. counterparts... and even then that’s highly subjective.

I would consider most every player on Celtic to be quite “comfortable on the ball”....they’re professionals, so they need to be, especially to be on a team like Celtic.

Just my opinion, but I find this “our league is more technical than yours” to be a very subjective and merit-less statement unless you can give me statistics of first touches resulting in completed passes, made shots, goals scored etc.

 

Just the greek players or the foreign ones as well?

Mate AEK had 32% possession, how does that equate to being more comfortable on the ball?
Im not saying AEK are a bad team but your making out as if Scottish football is a vastly inferior footballing nation, despite both Hibs advancing over Tripolis and Celtic dominating AEK.

Naturally, being the home team, I would expect to see a 100% improvement in the second leg.

AEK team put in an admirable defensive performance and got a result. But for me it was a case of Celtic underperforming rather than AEK being good.