Pre-Season/CL Qualifiers 15/16 | Page 11 | Vital Football

Pre-Season/CL Qualifiers 15/16

Good defending so far, but not enough possession. We have lived dangerously a few times. Keep working, Bhoys!
 
Commons on for GMS, who has had a great game. But given how much he has run, he might be knackered.
 
Well, that was one nervy 95 minutes of Strachanball. WHew! Well done, Bhoys! Way to gut out a tough game in bad conditions. :emoticon:01 :emoticon:14 :emoticon:07
 
The second half was better than the first. Griffiths brings much more in terms of pace than Cifti does. Forrest came on and posed a real threat as well, though he choked the chicken when he was open on goal.

Man of the Match has to be Brown, though Bitton, Johanson, Izzy, Virgil and Boyata were also very good. Bhoyata was excellent, in fact. On to the playoffs!
 
To have to contend with that pitch, in that heat & with that useless ref is a feat that should'nt be taken for granted.

Brown and Bitton were superb, Johansen less so but he did make a nuisance of himself. Boyata and VVD were immense. Lustig and Izzy covered some amount of ground. Armstrong and GMS both ran themselves into the ground and that also applies to Ciftci.

Of our subs only KC failed to make any impression (although he did come on very late).

I've seen much better Celtic sides stumble, and or crumble in games like this. So a huge well bloody done to Ronny and the bhoys! :emoticon:01 :emoticon:01 :emoticon:01
 
Yeah, it really is. I remember playing in Israel in awful heat a few years ago and the team just wilted. And given our away record, it was a hardy performance. We clearly had a hard time figuring out what pace to pass on that surface, which must have been like passing on rough concrete. And we still could have buried this one 2-0. Aside from the one shot that required a superb save from Gordon, their chances were not great ones.

And that ref was woefully inconsistent, to say the least.

Well done!
 
Not the prettiest of performances but we were effective. Never really troubled but equally we weren't able to really do much offensively.
The referee gave us very little all night but I wouldn't say he was favouring Qarabag either! Qarabag were lucky not to get into more trouble for some of their antics, kicking out at our players etc.

On 60mins we kicked it up a gear and pushed them harder and with Griffiths on we nearly got in behind a few times but for their keeper who was out quickly to clear the ball!

I didn't think anybody was poor tonight but Ciftci needs to stay switched on more and still isn't really offering much, hopefully that changes soon!
Bitton was my man of the match! He looked a class above in midfield tonight and there were a number of times he had control of the ball and was looking for a pass but had no options.
VVD and Boyata were brilliant tonight as well!

Here's hoping for a favourable draw in the play-off!
 
Bitton was excellent, but Brown was my Man of the Match. He was a terrier and was very effective at breaking up play.
 
Last night was an edgy game and we needed Brown to be at his best at winding the opposition up, being tough, leading by example and not prepared to take any shit! He was that player last night!

Our 5 possible opponents are:
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) - 5000mile round trip, scored 2 late away goals to beat Viktoria Plzen
Astana (Kazakhstan) - 6000 mile round trip
Skenderbeu (Albania)
Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) - beat Steau Bucharest
Malmo (Sweden) - defeated Red Bull Salzburg (who we struggled against last season)
 
We don't really want Astana because it would be the longest trip out of all those ties but Skenderbeu would probably be a favourable one. Albania isn't too far and the beat some other nobody's to get here so you'd have to think that would be the best draw.
Malmo might suit us from a travelling and style of play point of view but they're obviously doing quite well managing to beat Salzburg, however they are only 6th in the Swedish league so far this season!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Latest Celtic News