Celtic Diary Monday February 11

Shadow team? Fringe players? Second string?

No , it was a Celtic team that won 3-1 up in Inverness on Saturday, playing with flair, invention and intelligence. Albeit a different line up from the more experienced players who will face Juventus tomorrow, it was still a great performance from some great players.

Manager Neil Lennon had opted to wrap his Champions league side-those guys got us to the last sixteen, so its only right to see what they can do when they get there, and only Fraser Forster of those who started can be confident of a start tomorrow as well. Forster was a welcome sight back in the team after his neck injury for all of nine minutes, when he then decided to make an arse of an Inverness attack to give the Highlanders a head start. After that hesitant start he settled down a bit and began to look more like himself.

Efe Ambrose is unlikely to be back for the game though, Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations with a 1-0 win over Burkina Faso, and he’s switched his phone off.

Debutants Tom Rogic and Rami Gershon also impressed. Rogic looked willing to run at players and shoot on sight, culminating in the driving run and cross for Kris Commons to equalise, and Rami Gershon wasn’t to be overshadowed when he powered onto the end of an excellent Dylan McGeough cross to put the Celts ahead.

Forgotten man Miku added a third, and with other fine performances from the likes of Beram Kayal and Anthony Stokes it was a good days work all round. With youngsters such as Marcus Fraser, Joe Chalmers and Dylan McGeough putting in good shifts, its another sign that someone at Celtic Park is doing a grand job, and the future looks very bright indeed.

Manager Neil Lennon seemed pleased, anyway;

“I’m delighted it was a great performance, Rogic and Gershon made their debuts and didn’t seem fazed at all. All of the team were great. I thought we thoroughly deserved to win it. to come here to a side in second place who were playing with their first team, and to win with the team we had, speaks volumes for the performance of the players. ”

On the newcomers, such as man of the match Rogic, he continued;

“I thought Tom may take time to settle, but he’s settled! It shows I can trust my younger players”

Rogic himself, who had a great game but tired-as is to be expected-towards the end, said;

“It gave me a taste of what life at Celtic Football club is all about. Its important to make an early impact but its not everything. The coaches are the ones that see everything you do in training. I’m just going to keep working hard and keep my head down.”

To keep it out of the wind, presumably. Just a few weeks ago he was in Australia during their summer, and then he had to run around in shorts and t-shirt in the arctic north!

He went on;

“Its been unreal” (I’ll bet!)

” The fans are fantastic. The fans today were awesome and gave us a lot of support which helped push us over the line.”

Last nights Sportscene, on BBC 2 Scotland, tucked away on the Graveyard Shift, which means that all the kids who you would want to take an interest in Scottish football were in bed, had even more of an air of a wake as they discussed Celtics win. With Celtic so far ahead, it can only be bad, whilst all the time ignoring the fact that Manchester Utd are twelve points clear in the English superleague. Despite all the new money coming into that league to try to buy success, Fergies boys remain the team to beat, but then they have been buying success for years, and are much better at it.

So, with an eighteen point gap at the top of the league, attention can now turn to tomorrow nights game against Juventus. Previously, Sky TV would outrage Celtic supporters, (okay, me) by saying things such as “first time in last sixteen” and so on. Now they have altered it to “no Scottish side has been in the last eight in its present format” after someone pointed out a few semi finals and a couple of finals, including a win before any English side had made the final.

And that doesn’t even include another Scottish  side Hibernian, who made the first ever semi finals.

National ITV have this game, which means no Craig Burley, for the second televised game in a row. Perhaps ESPN have only hinted at dropping Scottish football to force Burley to resign…

A massive audience will be watching, and Celtic won’t get an extra penny. Theres no English team playing, so they have plundered our game. Yet the English teams will get the tv money. Surely someone somewhere should have a moan? Except me, that is?

Anyway, Neil Lennon will have James Forrest back, but fingers have to still be crossed for Georgios Samaras, who has a talismanic presence in Europe, and Emilio Izzaguerre, who will also be needed to hold up possession on the left by bombing forward.

No two Celtic fans will agree on their prefferred line ups, but what is in “agreeance” (Copyright, Radio Clyde presenter Gordon Dalziel-i think-it could have been one of the other buffoons- , who when he cannot find the correct word to convey his thoughts, simply makes one up that sounds similar. And they are up for an award!) is that whatever eleven are picked, they will give one hundred per cent, and will not let us down. And with a wee cheer from the stands, and perhaps a song or two, we might even be able to knock the Italians out of their stride.

Italian journalists are making a big thing about Celtic Park and the atmosphere, and whilst it never ceases to amaze me the levels the crowd can rise to, it has to be remembered that these are professionals, and they will know how to focus.

But theres no harm in trying though…

Pavel Nedved, who played in the 2001 games, called it a “Lions Den”, and various Italian papers have talked of a “12th and 13th man”, which is fine. It means that they will be more interested in combating the atmosphere than wondering where the ball is. Incidentally, Nicola Amoruso has admitted that in the Turin game , where Celtic came back from two down before ultimately losing 3-2 when Juve got a late penalty, he did dive after all. With Juves recent history showing a tendency to not actually stick to the rules, a lot may depend on the man in the middle tomorrow.

And here he is-Alberto Mancello

And here he is in his playing days

Mallenco has been a full time FIFA international ref since 2004, and was awarded the best Ref in Spain trophy twice, in 2005 and 2007-the coveted Don Balon award. The 2010 World Cup clash between Germany and Serbia saw him book nine players and send off Miroslav Klose, the German striker, for two yellows.

Worryingly, on Zimbio, which is quite an imformative site for this sort of thing, every picture of him shows him booking someone. So Victor Wanyama might as well not turn up.

This from the Copa Del Rey final, Real against Barcelona

Zaragoza- Malaga ….

Seville against Barcelona

However, Mallenco is also a part time sociologist, and clearly an intelligent man. Not wanting to go into such an important game without a little background knowledge, he has been in touch with someone to help him out with some hints and tips, someone who can offer him some impartial advice and the benefit of their own experience.

On Friday, we asked about Jock Steins playing career, and yes, he did score just twice.

Europe this week, how many times have Celtic been in the semi finals of the big cup?