Europa League Draw

Yeah, Giurgiu hasn't much to offer. The best thing is that it's close to Bucharest.

The Astra players live and train in Bucharest. They go to Giurgiu just for the games.

 

Hard draw we will struggle to come in the top 2.

 

Putting the Salzburg away game on the 18th September stinks of the underhand unionists trying to potentially get rid of 600 - 1000 potential YES voters.

#ConspiracyCSC

Who knows though?

 

If use win against Astra in the first game and we lose at Salzburg, all pressure will be on us in the 2nd match day.

 

Hard draw but I honestly don't see why we can't come 2nd behind Salzburg if we keep the current squad as it is and perhaps add another.

We're dross but I like to think we're better than Dinamo and Astra, no disrespect.

 

So we are playing Red Bull scum whos story everyone I am sure knows and a team from Romania who's owner upped sticks two years ago and moved the team to another * town nearly two hours away What exactly is the full story behind that with Astra?

Anyway a good draw for us football wise and, Red Bullshit Salzburg aside, a fantastic draw for us travelling wise. Pity it wasn't Zagreb up first though.

 

Aye even though you can vote 3 days before it

 

Where do Astra play now? Bucharest?

 

Moved from Ploiești went through Bucharest and ended up at Giurgiu, 125km away. Bucharest is more or less in between the two.

 

My replies use only the most reliable sources possible. These sources will remain anonymous but they are real and totally not made up as an unnamed source has told me that my sources are reliable.

 

Salzburg are scary when on form. Watched them a lot in the Europa League last season. Soriano, Alan, Kampl and Berisha are unreal.

Zagreb are decent, probably better than Maribor, but we can beat them.

Never heard of the other lot.

 

Definitely going Zagreb with a few mates, but struggling to find anyone to come Salzburg with me. Think I might just go alone as it seems like the pick of the bunch to me.

 

going by those stats well get ripped apart.this isn't going to be easy.

 

Hi all. I was curious about Celtic's fans reaction about the draw [I am from Romania], so I searched for a Celtic forum. So... Astra... good team, but without any kind of history whatsoever, from a really small town with a reaaaaally small stadium. Their owner is a very rich guy who decided he wanted to give something back to the town where he grew up so he moved[yes, moved] Astra from Ploiesti where it was based to Giurgiu. I am totally against this kind of things as I do not believe that a football club can "live" outside of the city/town it is based... However, in this case it was actually a good thing... you see, in Ploiesti everyone supports Petrolul [who were knocked-out in the playoff by dinamo zagreb], the "real" club of the city and Astra was pretty much a hated team due to their rich owner, while Giurgiu lacked a football team, so people in Giurgiu "adopted" the team right away... There’s nothing wrong with a football team being hated… rivalries are what they are… but Astra had no fanbase whatsoever in Ploiesti, while being hated; therefore I believe moving to Giurgiu was good. Imagine someone pumping lots of money in a team without any kind of history from a city like Aberdeen - I don't believe Aberdeen fans would be too happy about that [I hope I am not mistaken, but this is the closest comparison I can think of...]. As far as I can see you expect six points from Astra and rightly so... Celtic is a big club and its actual squad doesn't do your club justice; however I firmly believe Astra can take at least 4 points from Celtic, whether they will do that it remains to be seen... Their chairman said that he hopes Astra will get 3 points off Celtic. Here are highlights from Astra's matches against Lyon if anyone is interested [scroll down a bit for full highlights] http://tinyurl.com/pq54gge - first leg, http://tinyurl.com/kgo66ao - second leg. They have a good Nigerian forward, Kehinde Fatai, who will most probably give your defenders a torrid time. If anyone is interested, this is Petrolul's match against dinamo zagreb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWhJHy23Xiw [the tie was over after the first leg, so the second leg was irrelevant]. Petrolul and Astra are very evenly matched overall. Last year Petrolul finished second and Astra third, while Steaua comfortably won the championship. This year, they will challenge Steaua again and the three of them will finish in top 3 in what is a poor championship. Also Astra won the cup last season on penalties against Steaua, at the national stadium, which was packed with Steaua fans. As for the away trip itself... You will probably have a better time watching the match in a pub in Bucharest if you come to Romania. Bucharest is no Berlin but it will entertain you, I'm sure of that, regardless of what you seek. Giurgiu on the other hand is a very small town, without much to offer [Its population would fit into Celtic Park]... there's not much to do there... and the stadium is small. If you really want to come you might find better accommodation across the border, in Ruse, however I am not familiar with the border crossing there.
TL;DR: Giurgiu is a not the best town for an away day, you will probably dislike it, but Astra is a good team and you will be worthy of praise if you take six points off them, even though the British media will probably expect Celtic to win both games comfortably. Don't take them for granted. Good luck in Europe.

 

Don't think this group will be as much of a walk in the park as people are making out. Admittedly, we got the team from pot 1 most of us would have hoped for, but I still think they'll take at least 5 from us. Zagreb aren't the same beast we played in '98 (I think) and this Astra team are an unknown entity.

 

Greetings from Salzburg!

The Fans in Salzburg are pretty excited about the matchup against Celtic. Hopefully the stadium will be packed.
Dinamo has a pretty good team, but at their home games the average attendance is something like 3.000, because the supporters of Dinamo are boycotting the teams president.
I think you guys are underestimating the team of Rumania. They eliminated Lyon.
But one main obstacle Astra is going to face is that their home games will be played at Bukarest. The attendance will be pretty low.
If you have any questions regarding the city of Salzburg or about the Team, post them in this thread and I will try to answer them.

 

Nice post vishu47v, cheers.

Are there any other players we should be wary of?

 

We could probably all take points off each other, hard for Celtic fans to say anything as we basically have a new team playing in a new style so we know nothing about how we are going to turn out in a month or so.

I would guess Dinamo Zagreb are the worst team in the Group but probably not much worse, although we should all be looking to win our home game against them and the other 3 are similar in quality.

 

they cant take 5 mate 0 3 4 or 6