[Matchday] UCL Qual Rnd 3 AEK v Celtic (Tuesday - 14/08/18 - 19:00....result 2-1( 3-2 agg)

cheers.

 

I agree mate, a lo

totally agree mate, lot of Celtic fans think the Europa League is below them but if we are being honest it’s totally our level, actually enjoy playing the likes of teams of the level of feyenoord, Ajax , steua Bucharest who like ourselves are past winners but due to now playing in smaller leagues find it impossible to compete with the teams from the big 7 or 8 leagues in Europe
It said in the paper today “ due to Celtic s domestic domination, the only highlight for a lot of fans is the big champions league games “,
Enjoy getting the money which doesn’t seem to get invested anyway but last 2 seasons , Manchester City game aside thats about all I’ve enjoyed, don’t enjoy watching my team losing 5-0,7-0,7-1 etc even if it is against the world s best
There was a time just after the millennium for a good 12 years that it was” fortress Celtic Park “, beating the worlds best like Barcelona, Man U, Lyon, juventus, ac Milan and benfica, and hopefully get to that level again but at the moment the gap between us and the top dogs is a bridge to far , so hopefully looking forward to some good games in the Europa League when we hopefully get there

 

Point(s) taken littlekennie, and although I think we could have gone through even with our poor defence, as there was no real discernible gulf in class between us and them over the two legs, just different styles of play, in the end it was a team from what is probably a stronger league that progressed.

That the Greek league, a league in a country which is essentially bankrupt, is more than likely stronger than the SPFL , or at worst just as strong, is a sobering fact, or should be. In my opinion the underlying reason why the Champions of Scotland are even having to play four rounds to get to to the groups, is probably to be found in that fact.

Off the top of my head I can't think of one Greek club team ever to have won a European trophy, I can only think of one, Panathanikos, to have played in a European final. There may have been another, but I can't think who right now. Contrast that with the performances of teams from the Scottish top flight in days gone bye. In the 60's and 70's teams from the Scottish League were appearing in and winning European trophies, even the dobs had something to shout about. It wasn't even just us and them, teams like Dunfermline, Hibs, Dundee, and Kilmarnock were all going on fantastic runs, getting some amazing results. Same in the 80's with the emergence of Aberdeen and Dundee United, and that was arguably the high water mark for Scottish Football as far as European football goes. Yes there have been spikes, the great result here and there, and of course UEFA finals in the 2000's, but the general line of travel on the graph has been going in a steady downward direction since the last time a Scottish club lifted a European trophy. Since 2003 there have been some absolutely embarrassing results for Scottish clubs in Europe. After the close of play tonight, it won't surprise me in the slightest if we are the only club from the Scottish league left in Europe, and that'll be nothing new.

The performances of Scottish clubs in Europe in the past were always more or less a reflection of the strength of Scottish football, I think that's pretty much the same today even if there is a much less level playing field now financially, between the smaller leagues and the giants, certainly more than there was in the past, when we were competitive. Scottish football has managed to reduce itself to pretty much a backwater. That won't come as any great revelation to anybody. How it got to this point, and what can be done to turn it round, is moot, but I don't think anyone can argue anything other than it's in a pretty poor state.

It's natural in our frustration/ anger that we're all looking for someone to blame for the other nights result, be it the defence or Lawwell or whoever, but the real 'culprit' in my opinion is the pitiful state of the game here. I'm more than happy to win treble trebles and ten in a row, I'll be jumping up and down, singing, and getting pished with everybody else, bring it on. In the back of my mind though I'll know that success in large part will be down to the lack of meaningful challenge, and ultimately that will be bad for Celtic. A weak Scottish league, by definition, means a weak Celtic as far as competing in Europe goes, and that's where we've got to be competing.

The * in all this is that while there's no sign of Scottish football improving radically, the big European leagues and the big clubs in those leagues, the ones who actually run the show along with television, want to distance themselves even further from the also ran's, they are not going to stand still. They do not want their second and third placed teams having to go through qualifying rounds in ex Soviet * holes in the back of beyond, or in the Baltic or Balkan states etc etc. There's absolutely nothing in that for them, they'll be off at some point, leaving us and everybody else wondering, 'well what do we do now'?

This is not the time to be turning on the defence, Lawwell, the Board, the Manager, or each other. It's time for Scottish football to face up to reality, find solutions that are not based on parochial small minded self interest. Celtic as Scotland's top club need to be taking the lead here. That's my opinion anyway, for what it's worth.

 

Top post mate ,for me the answer lies in being very well drilled and a great counter attacking team ,when you have all the money like the top teams have ,they buy the best and usually attackers like psg ,imo you dont go up against them ,you squeeze their space to play in and nulify them and try to catch them with pacy forwards wen u can .

 

This is actually an excellent post imo.

Concerning Greece - football only fairly recently (in relative terms) has become the main sport of the country. Before that it was Basketball - where Greece are still one of the major nations in the sport. Now that football is dominating the country the last 30 years - the infrastructure is starting to grow. IMO the Scottish teams performed well before because other nations like Greece were stuck in the dark ages. Scottish footballing history and infrastructure was light-years ahead of most Eastern European nations and especially countries like Greece. I think if I were a Celtic fan - I would be pushing hard to join the Prem or Championship because the Scot Prem is not competitive enough for Celtic.

As for the game - AEK looked very fragile at times. They were missing 3 forward starting players and it showed. Also the loss of Lazaros (scored 4 goals in the last 2 Europa Quals for us ) has hurt them. IMO the Greek League (perhaps not AEK in particular) is a slightly more technical one than the SPL. It also benefits from the fact there are 4 fairly big teams in the league with loyal followings.

 

Couldn't agree more joemc..... and for it to work "well drilled" in defensive duties is where it starts.....it's not really the Celtic way, but we need to be pragmatic when we come up against the top sides in Europe these days....that is if we want to avoid more absolute horsings, which we surely do.