Ronny Ready For Malmo Challenge !

Celts Can Do It !

Scots Champions Have Enough To See Off Swedes !

Just a few of the headlines you won’t see today.

So bollocks to them.

Theres some guff in the papers today, including a Celtic Scout who went public over company policy, ( read it here. David moss interview Tell me if theres anything in it we didn’t know already.)  which lead to the groundbreaking ( Ibrox Evening Times ) news that;

Celtic scout admits Virgil van Dijk is expected

to leave the club this month

Which is exactly what Ronny said back in May. The gaffer also added that van Dijk mught well fancy a crack at the group stages should Celtic qualify.

Any decent rag, on a day when the profile of Scottish football could be raised with a great night of top class football in front of a massive , passionate crowd would have at the very least tried

Van Dijk May Stay If Hoops Succeed

Ach. fuck ’em.

Champions League play off day, generally accepted to be the longest day of the year for most of us, followed by the shortest hour and a half, should be one of the highlights of the season. Dreams to be dreamt, songs to be sung, and hopes to be hoped.

And of course, beer to be drank, fags to be smoked, and wives to be hiding from.

Ronny will be ready for this game. The players will be up for it. When it comes to the crunch, Celtic will do what they have to do to get a result.

The manager looked relaxed when he told a press conference;

“We want to be in the Champions League. That’s the goal, I’ve said that since coming to this club.

“Now we have two games to reach it. The most important thing is to win and get a good result.” 

“I know the only thing I can do something about is the performance of the team, and I trust my team,” 

“I can’t remember when we last lost a game and the team is in good shape, we have a lot of confidence.

“We also know that to get a clean sheet is very important in European football.

“We just have to be the best we can be and if we do that and don’t succeed then we’re not good enough. But I think if we are at our best, it’s going to be tough for Malmo.” 

“and you in the checked shirt-what the fucks that on your head ? “

If he’s relaxed and confident, then so will the players be.

Mikael Lustig was so laid back he was almost horizontal;

“Both teams have Norwegian managers and like to play football on the ground, get the full-backs forward, and play positive football,” 

“Malmo struggled a little bit at the beginning of the season but they have brought some new players in and look stronger now so it will be tough.

“We have been solid in Europe so far and have played very well in defence against Qarabag. Our confidence is good now so I feel we are ready.” 

As usual, the team more or less picks itself, with Gordon, Lustig, van dijk, Boyata and Izaguirre forming the back line, and you’d be confident that Scott Brown and Nir Biton will do the linking betwen defence and attack. There is a chance that Charlie mulgrew could be preferred at left back, but thats probably how it will be in the second leg. James Forrest could also start ahead of Gary Mackay Steven, who is not quite adjusting to the higher level yet, but Stefan Johansen and Stuart Armstrong have, and they will have key roles tonight.

 Then its the dilemma, do we go for the pace and awareness of free scoring Leigh Griffiths, or hope that Nadir Ciftci , who has spent most of the season sitting on his arse-on and off the field- can finally find the net.

 The wording of the question may offer a hint as to what I think, but Ronny will probably think differently. Despite yesterday claiming that players don’t go straight into games like this when asked about a possible inclusion of Scott Allan, who , incidentally, has his own personal Celtic shirt,

he will probably persevere with the former Dundee United player.

Still, if he does wear them down, Griffiths can exploit that. As could a fresh Gary Mackay Steven in the latter stages. Charlie Mulgrew would be on hand to replace any of the starters who tire or are injured.

 It’s a squad game, and we have the squad to do it.

But what of Malmo ?

You’d be pushed to find any decent or informative article on them in the mainstream media, and to be honest, the best assessments i’ve sen come from the Diary readers who have already watched them. ( See yesterdays replies )

Malmo beat Salzburg. Salzburg were without their talismanic striker Jonathan Soriano, who we remember, with a bit of a shudder, from last season.

 That would have helped the Swedes, and oddly enough, wasn’t mentioned in any of manager Age Hareide’s pre game rambles.

Though they do appear to have hit a bit of form;

Notice anything ?  Domestically, they have scored in every single away game so far. They failed to score in Salzburg, which suggests a different approach.

Backed up by this;

For all the talk of Berget, have a look at this;

The Norwegian is their top domestic scorer, presumably because he has worked out that a ridiculous beard confuses defenders;

My beard?It’s nothing special. I had a beard before and it’s grown longer now. Maybe it can give me some strength but it’s just to look the part.” 

Er, what part ?

And look, the guy with the checked shirt from the Ronny conference is in this picture as well.

A trawl of the web found some other interesting stats, but nothing to worry about. They do score goals, they can defend, but the evidence is that they will be a little cagey tonight.

When Salzburg beat them 2-0, it wasn’t until the second half when they broke the deadlock-and to be honest, it took a calm heads and a set piece-brilliantly worked -to do it;

Salzburg goal

On the same link, there is a link to highlights of the return leg. Watch out for the penalty claim in the 38th minute.  We really should have been playing Salzburg.

Malmo will be without their other top scorer Marcus Rosenberg, who is suspended, and defensive midfielder Enoch Kofi Adu, which again points to damage limitation and making sure the tie is still live when the clubs go to Sweden.

All the old cliches, noisy but patient crowd, early goal, and so on will be trotted out. By me, for instance, but the key to this game in my mind is going ahead early.

Unfortunately, I think that the two players most likely to get you an early goal-Griffiths and Mackay Steven- before the opposition settle will start on the bench.

Thats not to say, however, that Celtic won’t win the game-in fact, a 2-0 win is probably the most likely outcome, and that discipline and professionalism we saw in the two ties against Qarabag means anything more is unlikely. Certainly the side won’t push for more in the old gung ho style that might be pleasing on the eye, it’s not always, er, productive.

I’d be happy with 2-0. So would you. 1-0 wouldn’t be a disaster, and neither would an away goal. Celts are more than capable of scoring away from home, but i’d rather we didn’t have to.

The new European style is about to get another airing at Celtic Park. Maybe it was time for a change.

Still a bit nervy though

And it doesn’t pay to be over confident;

I am so confident Scott Allan won’t go to Celtic that if he does I will buy a Celtic season ticket and give it away to someone who RTs this.

Hey-how about some praise for the media ?

Well, okay.

The BBC have certainly become more even handed and balanced over the last week or so. Tom Jones, the Welsh singer, has been sacked from TV show “The Voice ” , without any warning, proving they can fuck old people as well.

Right, before the butterflies get the better of me, I’m away to do something constructive.

And you can do something constructive later, if you are in this part of the ground;

But before i go, here’s another caption competition….