[Official TC Thread] Celtic v Barcelona UEFA Champions League 23rd Nov 2016 Kick Off 19:45- live on BT

I'm glad you used the word cynical because that's what a lot of your players are!!!

Listen, you're a great team with technically gifted players and a club with great fans and traditions!! For me, that is where it stops though!!! You will never win any fair play awards on the park!! To be fair to Barca you play in a league each week where these antics are commonplace so you have to adapt. 'Cheat' is a strong word but a LOT of your players are great artists of gamesmanship!! If i'm honest i'm just jealous but you're not the fairest lot that ever walked on to the park. Behave like that then they can expect to take the crap that comes with it!!

As for Neymar he carried on like that the last time he was here and he didn't dissapoint us this time round! Nasty wee sneak always trying to get other players in trouble.......he coudn't lace Henrik's boots and hasn't a ounce of class compared to him.

 

Barcelona win fair play awards almost on an annual basis, they are the least booked team because they don't go in for cynical challenges

I like Neymar's talent but you would get no argument from me that he isn't in the same class as Henke but who claimed he was?

Celtic gave a great account of themselves but the difference, as is often the case, MSN

 

Jordi Alba
“It was a tough match in a great atmosphere. It’s admirable that the fans kept cheering their team on when they were losing. The Celtic fans were impressive.”

Another quote we'll add to wheel out when we meet again.

 

@jocksteinupper I have to agree, Barca have a bad reputation but apart from Neymar can we name anyone who cheats on purpose as part of their game?

 

We better not meet again, I mean seriously, I love Barca but I don't want to see their team again because they are getting used to us now and know how to beat us at Celtic Park. I want new teams who still scare the * out of us but who haven't heard us going nuts yet, let them feel the effect full force full game. Not Dortmund though please ffs they just don't stop pressing. Bayern or Madrid, we might get beat but it'll still be a new challenge

 

Simmer down. He's not exactly name calling and slating us or even saying anything that isn't true.

It was a definite yellow card, messi called for it. So *. Don't like it when players (e.g. neymar) calls for a booking when they have dived, but credit where it is due, messi was spot on.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

Any of these from the Spanish League?? I think you've actually made my point.....they are 'clever' cynical....they are experts are creating 'decisions' for themselves and when they do foul it will be cute like a rap to the ankles/sly shirt pull rather than a full on Scott Brown. Were Madrid second by any chance because they are good at it too (and that's with Pepe)!! Like i said mate i'm just jealous but fair play awards...well that's a matter of opinion.

I only brought up Henke as a role model maybe Neymar model could himself on if he wanted to learn any class but i don't think he's got that in him......although he has undoubted talent!

Swerve-on your point- just off the top on my head.....Suarez is also pretty cute and let's say Ratkic's booking was very handy? I deliberately didn't use the word cheat and used gamesmanship but if you look at fairness in it's purest from then no they (Barca) don't cut it with me!

ps-we, ourselves, were far better at this under MON. I think we've been generally naive as a team ever since really. Hopefully change under Brendan though!!

 

I'd argue Barca don't get many yellows because they have so much of the ball.

They have plenty of fly *. Neymar, Messi, Alba, Busquets are all the best in the world in their position. They are also all diving *.

Mascherano can be as dirty as they come as well.

This myth about Barcelona being the good guys while Real Madrid are the arseholes is well played out by Barca.

 

Is it not bad enough we were up against arguably the best in the world but then have to get the most biased * ref. Neymar and Suarez especially bad for diving about, Neymar should of been off for constantly kicking and going into Lustig off the ball, Messi asking for the booking then the ref running off like a wee * to book Erik.

Will watch the game back since it was hard to tell whether it was a penalty. Players can hold their heads up high, what an improvement from the 7-0 game a few months ago then only 4/5 months ago we were beaten by the Gibraltan team. If Dembele sunk that header for 1-1 may be a different story but it wasn't to be, 40/60 possession in the first half and defended well but Messi just has world class quality to ghost in behind and finish like that.

Disappointing but a big lesson for a lot of players, Brown and Armstrong were superb.

 

Bet ya in training Moussa buries those efforts in the top bin that he had in the first half.

The header he was on his heels so not so easy to get the power in it.

Plenty positives as most people have said. Here's hoping we take heart from this and give the sheep a right doin on Sunday!!

 

You are right, it was a major improvement compared to our first game in the Nou Camp. If Dembele put away that chance then things might have been different. I'm wondering if he is world class now? I know he's only young but I think that's two big games he's had chances that top players have to put away. On the positive side, it means he'll still be hear next season and hopefully learning in the CL if we qualify again. It's a huge chance for him to learn football at the highest level. I just hope he does learn and scores the goals we need.

Hope Sinclair is ok too. Dunno what the tactic with McGregor was? I guess that's for another thread

 

Just need to get into pot one every season and matches with Barcelona will be a thing of the past

 

You've been smoking Pot 1 made of the 4 leaf clover How are we meant to defend like that?

 

Rakitic tried his best to get booked earlier by taking forever on a freekick so had to grab a shirt to earn it. It's a stupid rule and just about any coach/team will encourage their key players to do similar, like it or not.

Ideally, they should retroactively red card these sort of deliberate bookings but determining what is deliberate or not is not always clear enough

 

Nah Dembele still has a long way to go to be considered world class, a cut above the rest in Scotland yes but a lot to learn in Europe.

Thought McGregor done well, he was in there to cover the middle and keep us narrow then when they went wide they'd push out and press. Trouble is he never had enough pace to go at Alba and just lacks that level of quality like in the 2nd half he had the chance to run at the defender 1 on 1 or pass to Dembele and instead * about then had a shot.

 

That's one part of the explanation, the other is that they don't commit dirty fouls or hack to get into a match or gain advantage. That's been the case for more than a decade

Only player in the squad occasionally guilty of diving is Neymar

Letting personal bias get in the way of an actual assessment, no one has accused him of being dirty

No myth, reality

 

Ohh the irony Neymar, Suarez and Busquetes are all renowned for their diving.

 

That move when McGregor was through in midfield really disappointed me because I'm such a fan of his but it looked like he either had not the pace or the invention to turn that situation into a goal scoring opportunity. I also don't know if it's fair of me to judge a player on his performance against Barcelona. It's very rarely we'll play a team of that standard but I still want to be able to exploit their weaknesses. So I don't know what do expect from our team. I know the basics, we need a few midfielders and a right winger. We need players with confidence to be able to score against any team like Dembele. But we need that from midfield onwards. Our defence seems sound and can grow. Our forward line looks ok. We just need to provide it.

We better win the league and qualify next season because that is when we'll see the real Brendan Rodgers team and I think it'll be a brilliant team as long as it's given the challenge.

It'll be a real test if we don't qualify and the players have to go for the domestic treble with no European football. That would be interesting, the pressure would be immense.

Dembele and others can learn a lot with us whether we're in Europe or not, when every game has to be won it means every chance must be taken and chances must be created. Are players up for that challenge? I think Bitton lost his willpower, I think he seen the bright lights of England and they didn't come calling. We can offer that test to a player too, is he willing to give it everything even when he's getting nothing?

 

I thought we played great. Especially first half.

Created a lot of passes and created chances. Players like stuart armstrong were disppsessing messi.

Izzy defended great despite losing his place for a year now to keiran.

Eric done well to stop saurez throughout.

Sinclair having been dropped from the EPL was skinning them.

Rogic dibbled past players galore in the first half.

Gladbach looked far more dangerous, so it shows how well we played last night.

 

Watch Barcelona and you will see the cynical side them it might be the odd shirt pull near the halfway line, but mostly it is the diving and rolling about after a tackle and the constant appealing for cards to be handed out