Celtic v HJK Helsinki - Wed, 1 Aug K/O 19.45 - Live on Premier Sports.

Look im not jumping on the anti Samaras train...im the driver...he is brutal..has been far to inconsistant..got way to many chances to make an impression with this team..im not knocking his desire heart etc...put him on the bench and use him as an impact sub(if all else fails)
As for Brown..he is very very average..better to play him away from home in games where we have to grind out results...these games like tonight suit the footballers alot better...horses for courses in other words..

 

Except Matthews and Brown, the team looked REALLY unfit. Couldn't believe how tired and deed the players were after the FT whistle went.

Although I must admit Lennon's subs weren't the best at keeping the team as fresh as possible.

Thank * for Charlie Mulgrew, what a player! Time and time again he gets us out a tight situation, feel he should be handed captaincy as a reward for his effort.

 

Well that's what we need it for too... we've got a big squad to pay wages for and with rangers not being in our league anymore, we need something to keep our fans interested in so they keep showing up. I didn't see your players behave dirty or anything so if use do progress, which I am praying doesn't happen, use will have our support in your next games, you can count on that.

I'm off to bed now, been a long day with all the excitement of our season kicking off and the 2 hour round trip to see it. Cheers.

 

We need someone like Mulgrew in the team. He is a Celtic fan he represents all of us.

 

Matthews, Mulgrew, Forrest, Ledley, Samaras, Commons and Hooper all looked quite fit in my opinion.

 

Oh and their keeper must've had a heid like Gary Caldwell for the ball to bounce off it in that direction ffs! 99 times out of 100 it bounces off him and goes in.

 

As i'm Finnish and not a HJK supporter, I can maybe give a little more neutral view about the match.

Even though I'm not a HJK supporter, I really hope they can make it to CL or EL group stage, because it would be a huge boost for Finnish football. Today HJK played pretty good European away match, comparing to few last years matches (vs Partizan 0-3, vs Schalke 1-6). They did have luck in Schullers goal, but in my opinion it was well played attack. After the goal, happened that what is so usual in Finnish international football, both clubs and national team. They passivated, and you scored twice in 10 minutes. First of your goals started by a horrible pass by Mannström. Attacking wasn't really good from HJK, but they still got a good result. You had many chances to score more, and after the 2-1 goal I expected that you would score 2 or 3 more goals. Luckily you didn't, so we can except an interesting match next week in Helsinki. Anyway it wasn't very strong performance from Celtic, but I agree with you that it wasn't that good because it was Celtics first competitive match of the season.

I'm pretty sure that you will be in trouble with the artificial turf. I have understood that you don't have as many of them in Scotland as we have in Finland. Few years ago HJK benefitted it even in domestic league, but nowadays it is not that big advantage as many other clubs has it also. But in European football it has been advantage, as we saw last year when HJK beat Schalke at home.

HJK have now a huge chance, and you shouldn't be so sure about going through to the next round easily. So welcome to Finland and hopefully we will see a good match!

 

We don't need someone like Mulgrew in our team. We actually HAVE the real one .

I'd say Brown, Izaguirre, Ledley, Kayal, Hooper, Commons, Stokes and Forrest all have the same amount of passion as big Chic for our club. Maybe more. Could probably include Samaras in there as well.

 

No chance that guys like Kayal, Izaguirre et al have as much passion for the club as Mulgrew does. He's one of us. They're not. It's a club to them. A profession. To guys like Mulgrew it's more than a club. It's a way of life.

 

Our training ground has artificial turf so we should be ok with it.

 

Heid like a fifty pence piece :icon_mrgreen:

 

Also the only really good away european matches that we've won has been on artificial turf

 

Hooper? Are you kidding on haha? Could barely move after 65 odd mins he was delighted to be subbed and get a rest! Samaras also pulled up with crap toward the end.

Just felt the team wasn't sharp, seemed sluggish. No coincidence that Helsinki were first to every second ball as, in particular Ledley, was chasing shadows all game.

People seem satisfied with the result but I feel the team were poor and made a pretty * team look not bad.

 

Wouldn't want to be the kit man tonight then.

 

Ment to say play as if they have the same amount of passion. Soz.

 

Can only be a good thing but I've never seen a Celtic team so tired than I did tonight when they made the double change every player had their hands on there knees yet we still won

 

You're right, I take it back. Hooper wasn't fit enough.

 

Just remembered there about our set piece that almost came off in the second half, would have been a belter if that had went in. I looked over to the dugout immediately after and lennon had his hands on his head, must have been one of his ideas.

 

Oh yeah that was quality, would have been so special if that had worked, that was as complex as Barca's passing and movement!

See I think Lenny's a clever guy and he is learning and improving, he's still a bit tactically inept and needs to tighten up on things like subs but I do feel he gets slated a bit too much, things like that set piece tonight show he is a proper manager and getting better with experience, some people seem to think he's just a shouty wee guy but he is trying to become a top manager and I think we should assist him in that.