Football forever

[Niall]

Georgia 1 - 2 Ireland

i wouldnt get too carried away on that performance

[Hennybhoy]

Important are te 3 points! In the recent years the away performance hasn't been the best, so 3 points from an away leg isn't too bad

[Niall]

Important are te 3 points! In the recent years the away performance hasn't been the best, so 3 points from an away leg isn't too bad

thats very true, but there are still problems to be sorted

[Hennybhoy]

What a great first half from the bhoys, and what a poor second, but in the end it's 4:2

[Noonan McKane]

Celtic 0 Aalborg 0


For all Celtic Park is a fortress when it comes to European nights, and it's undeniably true that Martin O'Neill's Celtic sides produced some awesome performances under the Barrowfield moon, and beat teams of far greater technical ability (albeit with the assistance of the 'twelfth man'(?), the 'intimidating atmosphere' of 60000 Celtic supporters roaring at the referee for 90 minutes(?) Come on, is that really to Celtic's advantage in today's European/UEFA Cup? Are AC Milan, Barcelona or Man Utd unused to playing in huge stadia with most of the crowd agin 'em? Not really), the fact remains: Wee Gordon Strachan has won the league 3 times on the trot (Martin never managed that) and taken Celtic into the last 16 of the European Cup (Martin never managed that, either), and he's done all this with, arguably, no more or less talent at his disposal than his sainted predecessor.
But...there's something different, and I can't put my finger on it. Could it be that Martin won the big eared trophy twice on the trot as a player, with Forest, while Gordon only won the Cup Winners Cup as part of Alex Ferguson's (admittedly pretty feckin awesome) Aberdeen side? Martin had Celtic absolutely on fire going into European ties, especially away ties. Celtic's mental block when it comes to away Champions League fixtures is baffling, when you think of the 2002/03 UEFA Cup run to Seville. It was Celtic's utterly fearless & peerless away form that carried them there. Liverpool left Celtic Park with an away goal, at 1-1, and nobody gave Celtic a prayer of even scoring at Anfield. They gave Liverpool a pasting in the return leg, same as they gave Blackburn Rovers, Stuttgart and Boavista. (OK, they lost the match in Stuttgart, but won the tie, having spent the first 30 minutes of the game utterly terrorising the bewildered & previously fairly confident German side).
When Celtic were drawn with Ajax in the qualifiying round for the 2001/02 Champions League, O'Neill's core 11 wasn't really even settled upon. They'd not played together for even a full season. Although Ajax won 1-0 in Glasgow (O'Neill's only home reverse in the Champion's Cup with Celtic, I think), it didn't matter a damn, as a week previous Celtic had gone to Amsterdam and given them a proper hammering, 3-1 going on 6-1. Didier Agathe was immense that night, and Chris Sutton was, well...he was Chris Sutton. What an asset big Chris was to Celtic. I'll never be able to thank him enough for his time in the hoops. To think, when O'Neill decided to pay Chelsea £6million for him, the press burst out laughing; He's got a bad attitude; he goes in the huff if he isn't played at number 9, he won't train with youngsters, blah blah. Big Chris would play in goal with a broken leg if he had to. He was the best centre back Martin O'Neill ever signed! (Sorry, Bobo!)
I digress: I'm saying, for all it's hard to argue against wee Gordon being able to motivate Celtic's XI to the point where they can win 7 league games on the spin to nick the title off of a Rangers team which did not deserve it, at the tail end of last season, (again, what Celtic supporter who suffered the agony of Fir Park in 2005 couldn't say that Strachan has this, also, over O'Neill.) he's still short somewhere. I said earlier he's working with a similar quality of squad. Maybe that's a bit unfair. For all O'Neill's Celtic were far greater than the sum of their parts, they had Henrik, and Chris, and Didier, and Thommo.
I like big Samaras, I'm not so keen on Jan VOH, or McDonald. I've never reckoned them to be Celtic class. I'd rather Riordan had been given a fairer turn. I'm sure if he had we would never have had to sign McDonald.

I can see us winning the league again next season, maybe the cup too. Fuck that, though. I want us to go, as Martin once famously said: "Roaring in against Juventus"...and showing them the fucking road!

We're shedding points, at home, to the champions of Denmark nowadays.

WE ARE CELTIC SUPPORTERS

[Fionn MacCool]

Poor first half performance, but let's be honest here if Barry 'Everyone Knows Where This One is Going' Robson had scored that penalty, and the ref & linesmen had been any good at their jobs then we'd have won 2-0 and despite the average performance, we wouldn't be too worried right now. As it is, we dropped points on what will be the easiest of the 6 fixtures and unless we get a result at Villareal this could be our UEFA Cup year......

[Hennybhoy]

Good response from the bhoys with a convincing 3-1 at Kille. But another penalty didn't find the way into the net in so do we have a penalty problem..?????

[twood50785]

QPR

[Hennybhoy]

Good weekend for my teams

Celtic 4:0 and St. Pauli 3:2

[Niall]

Celtic 0 Aalborg 0


For all Celtic Park is a fortress when it comes to European nights, and it's undeniably true that Martin O'Neill's Celtic sides produced some awesome performances under the Barrowfield moon, and beat teams of far greater technical ability (albeit with the assistance of the 'twelfth man'(?), the 'intimidating atmosphere' of 60000 Celtic supporters roaring at the referee for 90 minutes(?) Come on, is that really to Celtic's advantage in today's European/UEFA Cup? Are AC Milan, Barcelona or Man Utd unused to playing in huge stadia with most of the crowd agin 'em? Not really), the fact remains: Wee Gordon Strachan has won the league 3 times on the trot (Martin never managed that) and taken Celtic into the last 16 of the European Cup (Martin never managed that, either), and he's done all this with, arguably, no more or less talent at his disposal than his sainted predecessor.
But...there's something different, and I can't put my finger on it. Could it be that Martin won the big eared trophy twice on the trot as a player, with Forest, while Gordon only won the Cup Winners Cup as part of Alex Ferguson's (admittedly pretty feckin awesome) Aberdeen side? Martin had Celtic absolutely on fire going into European ties, especially away ties. Celtic's mental block when it comes to away Champions League fixtures is baffling, when you think of the 2002/03 UEFA Cup run to Seville. It was Celtic's utterly fearless & peerless away form that carried them there. Liverpool left Celtic Park with an away goal, at 1-1, and nobody gave Celtic a prayer of even scoring at Anfield. They gave Liverpool a pasting in the return leg, same as they gave Blackburn Rovers, Stuttgart and Boavista. (OK, they lost the match in Stuttgart, but won the tie, having spent the first 30 minutes of the game utterly terrorising the bewildered & previously fairly confident German side).
When Celtic were drawn with Ajax in the qualifiying round for the 2001/02 Champions League, O'Neill's core 11 wasn't really even settled upon. They'd not played together for even a full season. Although Ajax won 1-0 in Glasgow (O'Neill's only home reverse in the Champion's Cup with Celtic, I think), it didn't matter a damn, as a week previous Celtic had gone to Amsterdam and given them a proper hammering, 3-1 going on 6-1. Didier Agathe was immense that night, and Chris Sutton was, well...he was Chris Sutton. What an asset big Chris was to Celtic. I'll never be able to thank him enough for his time in the hoops. To think, when O'Neill decided to pay Chelsea £6million for him, the press burst out laughing; He's got a bad attitude; he goes in the huff if he isn't played at number 9, he won't train with youngsters, blah blah. Big Chris would play in goal with a broken leg if he had to. He was the best centre back Martin O'Neill ever signed! (Sorry, Bobo!)
I digress: I'm saying, for all it's hard to argue against wee Gordon being able to motivate Celtic's XI to the point where they can win 7 league games on the spin to nick the title off of a Rangers team which did not deserve it, at the tail end of last season, (again, what Celtic supporter who suffered the agony of Fir Park in 2005 couldn't say that Strachan has this, also, over O'Neill.) he's still short somewhere. I said earlier he's working with a similar quality of squad. Maybe that's a bit unfair. For all O'Neill's Celtic were far greater than the sum of their parts, they had Henrik, and Chris, and Didier, and Thommo.
I like big Samaras, I'm not so keen on Jan VOH, or McDonald. I've never reckoned them to be Celtic class. I'd rather Riordan had been given a fairer turn. I'm sure if he had we would never have had to sign McDonald.

I can see us winning the league again next season, maybe the cup too. Fuck that, though. I want us to go, as Martin once famously said: "Roaring in against Juventus"...and showing them the fucking road!

We're shedding points, at home, to the champions of Denmark nowadays.

WE ARE CELTIC SUPPORTERS

we lost 3 - 1 at home to barca on larsson's return with tem.
I know what you mean about celtic's mental block away in the CL, but what a place to lose it - against the champions of europe here in manchester, that would be awesome

[Hennybhoy]

Bohemians are Champions of Ireland, thanx to a 2-1 away victory at Drogheda. Congrats

[Fionn MacCool]

Fuck Bohs

[firehazard]

Outcry in Argentina as Rosario president threatens to kill team

James Horncastle
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday October 15 2008 11.38 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/15/2

Bill Shankly once said football was much more than a matter of life and death, but the president of Argentinian Primera División side Rosario Central is not convinced. Horacio Usandizaga last week threatened to kill his players if the team are relegated.

Usandizaga, who is also a politician, was unwittingly caught on film earlier this month as he vented his spleen in front of the club's supporters. "Central are going to get out of this situation," he said. "We are going to move forward. We are going to kill the players, coaching staff and anyone else."

The speech has caused outrage across Argentina, a country blighted by football violence in recent years. The Argentina Football Association (AFA) president, Julio Grondona, was quick to condemn Usandizaga's comments.

"If there is anything in the AFA statutes about a punishment for such incidents, I think it would be appropriate," he said in a radio interview. "These are things which one can't understand. The passion and demands present in a soccer tournament have grown out of all proportion."

Rosario's captain, Cristian Gonzalez, said the team were shocked by Usandizaga's rant. "We want to express our pain and our sentiments over this situation. We are as interested and as committed as anyone in trying to make sure that Rosario Central regain their historical place, which we have lost for various reasons."

Nicknamed "The Scoundrels", Rosario Central are one of Argentina's oldest clubs, but have been in steady decline since they last won the Argentine Primera División in 1987. A series of economic problems partly explain why they currently lie 17th out of 20 teams in the relegation standings, which are decided over three seasons.

[soulfinger]

United 3 - Celtic 0

I suspect there will be many disappointed celts. It was the most comfortable we've been in a european game for a while. It felt like the hoops were psychologically into damage limitation from the off.

[Hennybhoy]

I mean if you're 2-0 down and both goals were offside that's really disappointing. Until the 1-0 Celtic wasn't too bad but the rest of the match the performance was just not good enough