Celtic's Champions League season 17/18

I don't want be'er Sheva. We scraped through that round due to a late goal from broony and Gordon saving a penalty to keep the return leg 2-0 to them. This was also the current team under Brendan

Qarabag we played under diela and have strengthened so I'd prefer them. Hostile stadium environment though and 30 degree heat, won't be easy.

I'd lean for Slavia, get them pumped

 

No Rijeka, please. I want both my countrymen and Celtic to go to the group stage.

 

I've watched as much of these teams as I could and I think I agree with this ordering. They're all difficult ties but I think Qarabag gives us the best chance. Judging Rijeka from that 3-0 loss to Aberdeen is daft. Only 1 player from that game started against Salzburg last night. They're a different team and I'd like to avoid them. They can all hurt us if we're as sloppy as we were in the 2nd half last night. We continue to give the ball away under pressure which is fine against sevco and the sheep cause you get it back almost immediately but these teams have more quality. Need to step it up.

 

Forgot about the pen in beer sheva.

Longest last half hour of footie I've seen, behind the couch stuff

 

How do you rate Rijeka as a draw for us!!

 

It was torture. Also think we were quite lucky that Melikson went off injured early cause he was looking the part up to that point.

 

NK Rijeka? Are they a different side to the one Aberdeen disposed of, two seasons ago?

 

They have interrupted Dinamo's run of 11 domestic titles in a row, last season. While playing in a league whose refs are under the thumb of Dinamo's owner. Very solid defensively.

 

Cheers, are they made up of internationalists? Who's their starman?

 

Well, some of their former players have gone on to play for our NT. Of the current crop, Bradarić has got one cap, I think? Gavranović plays for Switzerland NT.
Star player with the most pedigree? Ehhh...maaybe Gorgon? Their best part of the team is the DM department though. Bradarić and Maleš just run and tackle all day. The team defends so well they don't need an attacking star.

 

Id take astana or qaurabag,despite the long flight we put them out recently and were a much better side.

Prague and rijeka dont know much about so will like too miss both.

Beer sheeva are the ones i want to avoid i know we took 5 off them at home,but we were really lost out in the desert players were pishing buckets of sweat.They slso done quite well in europa getting good results against inter and southampton,there a dangerous outfit whol want to make up for lastyear.

 

Cheers mate..

Sounds like they are best avoided then..

 

Qarabag or Prague for me. Don't know much about Rijeka and don't fancy Astana or Beer Sheva again

 

Carrier bag for me.

 

Always wonder what teams say about us when it comes to possibly being drawn.

I'd say we'd be bricking it at the possibility of coming up against us.

 

They probably are, we are in the Group Stages of European football pretty much every single year so they will all notice we are always in Europe and one of the most consistent teams compared to theirselves.

We look at other teams results and go "they are decent they knocked out Olympiacos". They will look at our and go "they drew home and away with Man City, away to Gladbach, they beat Barcelona a few years ago, beat Benfica, beat Ajax, drew away to Ajax won away at Spartak Moscow, they won the Treble last season unbeaten" etc

 

We would nearly certainly go through though.

 

I don't know about that tbh. Most of the opposition fans that come on here don't give that impression anyway lol.

If I was looking at us as an outsider I would definitely want to avoid: consistently in European competition; fantastic home record; unbeaten in the league; Brendan Rodgers as manager; most expensive squad (relative to the other teams in the qualifiers).

 

I am still confident of Celtic beating all five remaining teams, our sharpness and intensity will only improve, as long as Griff stays fit I am sure we will be fine. Please sign a centre-half though!
I always prefer being at home first though, not least for the advantage of the away goals rule running into extra-time. Anyway, imagine if we had that performance in Be'er Sheva first!?

I would prefer if we drew one of the two teams further west though. I know it was only a pre-season friendly and not much of a barometer, but I wasn't impressed by them and think it would be more comfortable than a trip to Asia.
I also watched Rijeka's away game at Salzburg , they set up a bit like Rosenborg but are much sharper on the counter, their passing is very accurate. In reality, fizzy Benylin should have taken a lead to Croatia, they missed a couple of great chances and I would expect Griff to have taken one of them. It certainly wouldn't be easy, it is worth noting here that PSV are currently on the verge of going out to the team that finished fourth in Croatia.

I think Qarabag are the weakest of the other three, based on performances over the past while and their squad on paper, but trips to that part of the world are never easy.
I would like to think we are better now than the team that made harder work than was necessary of Astana, but again, that plastic pitch and heat was a nightmare.

Be'er Sheva are the team I want to avoid most though, they are completely erratic in Europe it seems and that desert they play in seemed to make us completely useless. I couldn't go through another night like that one out there.

 

Mind our away European record used to be a laughingstock as well, we used to lose like 9 out of every 10. But look at it since Mowbray came in...

Beat: Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Rosenborg, Helsingborg, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Stjarnan, Cliftonville, Linfield

Drew with: Man City, Monchengladbach, Ajax, Udinese, Rennes, Fenerbahce, Hamburg, Rapid Vienna, Salzburg, Maribor, Astra, Qarabag, Astana, Elfsborg

23 away European games unbeaten in the last 8 year. Before then we were on a run of 15 losses out of our last 16.