Celtic In Europe 2025/26

Absolutely love the Scottish press and fan arrogance for Europe - aye, nae bother they are only from Kazakhstan.
Given our qualifying record, where does it come from?

Folks on here...

• Even with a weakened front 3 we'll still take goals of this mob
• We can save players for old firm game, etc
• I'd prefer a harder tie - seriously?
• The only decent team they've played is Red Star - eh, what about Ferencvaros who beat us and have a better coefficient too (how that happens, is another debate!) - then Dinamo Zagreb, that we couldn't beat.

Remember.....

• It took an injury time goal from Forrest to beat Karagandy after a very poor 2-0 defeat away.
• Astana was admittedly easy at home, but then we lost 3 goals away towards a nervy 6-4
• Kazakhstan humped Scotland 3-0 last game away
• We have lost to multiple so called 'inferior' teams - better squads than we have today

This is a huge game, the jeopardy is massive - any way we can squeek through by the odd goal is just fine.
There's no way we go anything other than full strength.
Complacency is the enemy.

 

There'll be nothing easy about this game, for several reasons, and anybody who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. Even with the squad we have we're capable of going through but only if we're at our best.

 

I am actually relatively confident of going away now in Europe. Our team (as much as we have lost a few key attacking players) is quite settled in terms of defence and midfield.

We are not going there with Nir bitton, Saidy Janko and Oconnel in defence. We have tried and tested players who know how to handle these situations. That doesn’t mean going away is without its dangers but in all seriousness if we can’t qualify over two legs against Kairat then * help us. This is an easier tie than Ferensvaros/AEK Athens/Midtylland or other more Central European teams that were genuine tricky ties.

We should be looking to put 3 past them at home and then be professional away. That’s not being arrogant it’s what we should expect to see. Even with our current squad we should have too much for them.

 

No matter the opposition, we can’t underestimate them, no doubt we can guarantee that we do it the hard way.

Celtic park 25 golden opportunities and we score 1 it’s how we roll.

 

This in a nutshell.

We should never underestimate our opponents, but some of the reactions to this tie are beyond embarrassing.

People go on about Astana, we still thumped them 5-0 at Celtic Park, the away leg wasn't great but we were never in trouble.

Karagandy, again, was a bad result away, but I've never seen a team as poor at Parkhead. I don't think they even had a shot on target.

If we did go out, the board would need to answer aye, but I would put a lot of Blame on Rodgers, he should never be losing this tie.

 

I don't mean gauging progress, it's clear we have gone backwards. I mean that I want a tough tie as a "we're not going to get horsed every single game" filter. One that shunts us into the EL if the team is of a standard where it will pick up zero points or only one or two or three points in the CL.

When I say hard, I mean it in relative terms. I certainly don't want a tie as hard as the Huns have. They have essentially no chance of getting past Brugge and frankly even we would be underdogs. I don't want a tie like that, one that even a good Celtic team might conceivably lose, because I do want a good Celtic team to qualify if that's what we are; but I want a tougher test than this one against Kairat. Because for me, getting to the CL and getting humiliated is worse than dropping into the EL.

I know we're weaker than last year, but just how much weaker? I think the addition of KT makes our defence a really decent CL defence with no glaring weaknesses. Is it as good a defence as I think it is? If it is, to what extent does that compensate for the attacking threat we have lost? The only way to find out is to play a decent team that will test that defence and I'd rather do that now and not find out away at Man City or at home to PSG or something like that.

 

UEFA have now confirmed the kick off times

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2045814--celtic-vs-kairat-almaty/


https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2045821--kairat-almaty-vs-celtic/

 

We could do with taking a decent lead over there 3 goals or it will be nervy..

And that's the issue, only 3 goals in 2, all from midfielders.

We have poor or unproven front 3 options and that brings jeopardy to what should be a decent draw.

 

2-0 at home and 1-1 over there I would take. As long as we get through without any injuries for Ibrox.

 

Almaty have conceded one goal in three and a half hours of football against Slovan.

You can say the Slovan strikers must be *, but so is Ideah.

It's terrible that we're going into this game without a first class striker, or a winger to allow Maeda to move central.

However if that is the case, then BR just needs to get on and do the best with what he's got.

To me that means Shin starts on Friday and Nygren moves out wide.

 

If they are camped in the box, we can move idah central and tierney can pass him it. Don't need wingers

 

Slovan are absolute muck. So are this mob..

They conceded 2 against some Finnish minnows the round before..

We're 1/6 on for the home leg. We'll win and should really be hammering them..

 

Itll all come down to when we score. If they Kilmarnock it, defend for there life's it could only be 1 or 2...


Score early and it'll be 7 or 8.

 

Hopefully take a five goal lead over there so I can relax for the game over there



Maybe 6

 

I agree.

While I completely appreciate and share the various frustrations with our board, scouting, lack of strategy, etc, it feels like that negativity is spreading to the point of some just believing Celtic are awful and the team that went toe to toe with Bayern last season are suddenly rotten and cant compete at any level.

We should be very confident going into these games

 

I do think we've not looked weak at the back, and I'm not sure that they score past us. 3 goals isn't great, but it's not bad either.

 

My worry is who do uefa want to see in that group stage if we and rangers both make it … it will be 8 teams from one tv market in the league


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