[Official TC Thread] Astana v Celtic Tue 22nd Aug 4.30 - WE'RE IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!!

Good result even though I was * myself when it went 4-1. I put it down to knowing theyd done enough to go through therefore lost concentration and also the fact Bitton is not a defender. Made it respectable with the late goals and hopefully get the defence sorted and we'll be fine

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/celticfc/status/900052919575248897/video/1

 

That was good as well, but the one I'm on about had footage from the 67 final and cl games fae years ago

 

You sure it was on BT sport and no a fan made one.

 

It was the very last clip from bt

 

My TV died so I missed it.

 

Theyre nearly home, must be mad getting a flight at what was it 11 or 12 over there and arriving back in glasgow at only 3 or whichever.

 

The things you do for kicking a ball.


Kick off was Half 9 local time.

 

That defeat was one of the greatest and most important things that could have happened to us in our quest for European glory. The lads needed it. What an incredible undefeated run, for the treble winners, and our champions league men. 6 games, injury crisis, Belfast hatred, strikers crocked, teenagers thrown in, midfielders at Centre half, Rosenborg away. Time zones to be crossed, plastic pitches and champions of oil rich Kazakhstan 35 games into their season. Incredible unbearten run we had, Immense achievement. As a fan, the moments with the moments where we destroyed them 5-0 will live forever in the scrapbook memories of glory nights in paradise. Hail hail. We've reached the group stage glory, the prestige. 8-4 aggregate demolition job. Excellent stuff.

 

Theyre just in now, some * trek.

 

Players with a few hours sleep then away to training.

 

Think we will learn a lot of lessons from this game. Most notably that you can never afford to switch off or take your foot of the peddle in Europe, not matter what the circumstances or opposition.

Yes, we got a bit of a scare, but we dominated the first and could have gone in 2 or 3-1 up.
We came out in the second half thinking the job was done, but then they got an early goal, then another in quick succession so they had their tales up and we were rattled a bit. Even when they got it to 4-1, they still needed 3 more to go through. Not gonna lie though, there was a few touching cloth moments after that.

But once we snapped back into game mode, after their 20-25 minute spell, we started to control the ball again and eventually got the second, which killed the tie off, settled us down and took the sting out of their tails.
In the end we could have even gotten away with a draw.

I'm hoping BR gave them a good stern word after the game and they learn from this, but onwards and upwards, and looking forward to the draw on Friday.

 

I agree with that but I hope it makes Brendan think about our CB situation. Jozo can't play on an artificial pitch, I doubt Erik will be back as a first team regular, Ajer is inexperienced and Bitton is no more a central defender than I am.

 

Glad that is over..

First half we were strolling it and should have been 2 or 3 goals to the good. from 45-70mins we were a shambles.. no denying that.
We didn't have our normal CB pairing but in saying that we didn't have them in the first half either and we controlled the game and were looking very composed.

Pretty sure our management will go over it with the players but we looked like we were rattled. In fact .. it is probably the best 25 mins of football that wee Billy is going to see this season

 

cool avatar M8

 

Hopefully paddy was at the airport to greet them with a cardboard cut out with TIERNEY scribbled in felt tip

 

This result will have given us a wake up call regarding defending at this level. I'm actually glad that we did conceded a few to stop us getting complacent.
We are hardly tested defensively in domestic competitions so this will have given us a kick up the *.

On the plus side it is great to see how effective we are in offensive situations even when we are under pressure. We stood up after getting a bit of a shock early in the second half to get a respectable 4-3 away defeat against a tough side in a difficult surface.

We can now have a party in the champions league

 

Wouldn't it be nice if next year's playoff was actually in the continent of Europe? Ideally no further than central Europe