Callum McGregor

* scandalous

 

I listened to it and don't think he said that at all. Said he should be in the squad, if not team. Early days as a pundit right enough.

 

I hope all our players do well but tonight, more so than most, I really do hope Cal has a performance that makes Strachan look even more silly than he already does.

 

He was awful tonight, rightly pulled off

 

Had a chance to do that, but pretty much justified Strachan's decision with his performance tonight.

 

Rogic is just a far better player. Should be starting over him every time.

 

Rogic is better but McGregor just isn't a #10, he's much better coming from deep

 

thought he started well but fell away like a lot of players

 

Not up to it when we step up a level. Can look good against inferior opposition, that's about it. Not a fan.

 

Onwards and upwards got a big fight at the weekend

 

IT was a mixture of delight and relief which greeted the final whistle in the Astana Arena on Tuesday night as Celtic secured qualification for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League for the second consecutive season.

Leading 5-0 from the first leg in Glasgow, the Hoops had looked to be in control of the game in Kazakhstan when the players headed for the dressing-rooms at half-time with the scoreline at 1-1. Within five minutes of the restart, it was 3-1 to FC Astana, and when they added a fourth goal with 20 minutes of the match remaining, it required cool heads within the Celtic ranks to deal with the home side’s momentum.

They did so, and scored twice in the last 10 minutes through the impressive Olivier Ntcham and Leigh Griffiths to reduce the deficit, with Brendan Rodgers’ side winning the play-off 8-4 on aggregate.

And speaking to the official Celtic website after the game, Callum McGregor described the sense of achievement within the squad at having taken their place amongst Europe’s elite again.

“It’s the second year in a row we have got there,” he said, “and all the boys are delighted to be in the best competition in Europe, as that is where you want to play your football and test yourself as a footballer against the best teams.

“We could have played a lot better on the night against Astana, but the main thing was we got three goals and killed the tie.

“We looked alright in the first half. They got the goal from a deflection and then we got an equaliser and it looked like we were fairly safe. But they came out with 45 minutes to go trying to save the tie and they got a couple of early goals and it makes us a bit on edge, but we had that attacking quality which allows us to go and score goals at the other end.

“There are big competitive games at this stage and everyone is still trying to find their match sharpness and there are 10 games in August as well. So it’s a big ask but we got there at the end and now we are in that big competition.”

The draw for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League takes place this Thursday and, like his team-mates, McGregor doesn’t really mind which teams Celtic will face. The only thing that matters is that the club is in the draw.

“The big games and the atmosphere at Celtic Park when the top teams come are what most excites me,” he said, “so it’s just more of the same of that, those big nights, and you want to test yourself at a good level.

“This is a big competition with big teams in it and the boys have been talking a bit about Real Madrid and it would be nice to go there, but we would be happy with anybody.

“We go into it a year better on than we were last year and we want to compete as well as we can this season, so we will take whoever we get in the draw and try put in some good performance and see where that takes us.”

 

There's only one Callum McGregor
And there's no player better
And he's gonna knock out Kenny Miller
So Kenny watch out cause the Celts are comin
You can talk all you want but you'll do nuttin

 

Lustig and Tierney look photoshopped to *...

 

Bad light.

 

Been reading through this thread and the range of opinions on McGregor have even more of a contrast than the opinions on Brown.

He's done well enough and often enough in big games to deserve more appreciation than he gets.

 

Thought he was pretty good in the first half to be honest, he's literally always in space to recieve the ball no matter how tight it is, and he has a very good habit of keeping it.

Like everyone else on the pitch at the time (bar ntcham) went to * and was taken off, but all in all he was decent enough I thought.

 

McGregor is always only 45mins of below average football away from getting hounded on here. Those that never rated him to start with seem to be ready to leap on his back at the slightest opportunity. The kid has proved a lot of people wrong (and will continue to do so) and shown time and again how valuable he is to this squad, I think he deserves a lot more leeway than he is often afforded.

 

Same with Forrest on here.

 

It's the high standard that's been set..

An average 45 minute's of football isn't good enough when you've got a guy like Tam Rogic on the bench..

It's harsh as McGregor is a good wee player, but for me, Rogic is just on a different level..