{"id":1475,"date":"2012-12-06T08:38:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T08:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2012-12-06T10:10:11","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T10:10:11","slug":"10-is-the-magic-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=1475","title":{"rendered":"10 is the Magic Number"},"content":{"rendered":"

A record 10 points in the Group Stages last night secured Celtics place in the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League. The 2-1 victory over Spartak mean Celtic, reduced to 10 men after Kris Commons had to be stretchered off after all substitutions had been made, can mark Thursday December 20th 2012 in their Diary. Thats when the draw will be made and Management, Players and fans cant wait to see who we will be playing in 2013.<\/p>\n

Post match Neil Lennon told how he wanted Celtic to go out for the victory regardless of how the Barca v Benfica game was going over in Spain. However, despite recent management changes and heavy defeats, Spartak hadnt arrived with their tails between their legs and were clearly up for the contest from the first whistle. The Russian side tried to impose themselves on the game and their front man\u00a0Emenike\u00a0was causing all sorts of problems. Celtic assessed their foes, \u00a0bedded down and looked to Hooper and Sammi up front with Kris Commons and \u00a0Scott Brown driving forward from \u00a0midfield to \u00a0capitalise on any opportunities.<\/p>\n

It would be Hooper who opened the scoring. Sammi won the ball out towards the left touchline just inside Spartaks half. The Greek turned his man and drove a \u00a0ball quickly through the middle. Inside the stadium 60’000 Celtic fans sighed as a Spartak defender was positioned between the ball and Hooper. Just as everyone felt disappoint the Spartak player,\u00a0Juan Insaurralde fumbled his clearance and the ball bobbled up right into the advancing Hoopers path. Hooper strode forward and with clinical precision drove the ball hard and low passed the Spartak keeper from 20 yards out. Celtic Park erupted.<\/p>\n

Sadly this Spartak side wouldnt fade away and on 5 minutes before half time\u00a0it would be Emineke who would be the architect of their equalizer . The Nigerian front man, who has a $42m release clause, picked up the ball 40 yards out and drove forward. Emikeke brushed aside his fellow countryman Efe Ambrose and as he reached the 18 yard line easily swatted away challenge attempts from Kayal and Wilson. The imposing front man chose to play the ball to Brazilian forward Ari on the right hand side. \u00a0The Spartak forward cooly chipped the ball, 9 iron stylie, over Forster from a tight angle and Kelvin Timber could do nothing bar help the goal-bound ball into the Celtic net. \u00a0The half time whistle sounded soon afterwards and Celtic were looking at 3rd place as Benfica were holding Barcelona.<\/p>\n

The half time team talk must have been a real rebel-rouser as Celtic came out and declared their intentions. Sammi and Commons stepped up their game and Spartake were finding themselves under the cosh. Charlie Mulgrew was unlucky with a header from a Commons corner which the Spartak keeper did well to push over the bar and Ambrose headed just wide from another set piece. The clock continued to tick down and the players and management tried to stay calm and fight the growing anxiety.<\/p>\n

At a time when calmness was demanded, up stepped Sammi. The classy Greek forward began seeing more and more of the ball as \u00a0the game wore on. With every clever turn or sudden change of pace, the\u00a0exasperated\u00a0Spartak players ( including a booked Aiden McGeady) could do nothing bar slice him down in the hope they could subdue him through force. \u00a0 Sammi however just wouldnt give up and continued to attack\u00a0down the left wing. Every time Celtic won the ball, usually by Ambrose or Wilson at the back, Commons would find Sammi and he would start tormenting the visitors once again.<\/p>\n

His reward would eventually come on 80 minutes. Seemingly going nowhere on the touchline inside the Spartak box, \u00a0 Sammi took a subtle touch, just enough for the Spartak defender to believe he could edge in front and clear. Then the deceptively quick Sammi moved slightly forward and the hapless defender found himself clattering the Greeks legs, Sammi tumbling down and the referee blowing for a penalty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Given Celtics recent penalty issues and the immense pressure, this was a heart stopping moment. \u00a0The Celtic fans held their breath and the Celtic management turned away inside the dugout, too scared to watch the spot kick. Kris Commons would be the taker.\u00a0Commons ran forward and blasted the ball straight and high into Pesyakov’s goal via the underside of the cross bar.\u00a0Zinedine Sidane eat your heart out!<\/p>\n

With Celtic Park bouncing, Spartak found themselves down to 10 men with Kim Kallstrom facing a second yellow after a high tackle on match winner Commons. Commons had to be stretchered off as the tackle had damaged his thigh. \u00a0Hows this for a picture!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With Matthews on for the injured Lustig, \u00a0Ledley on for Brown and Nouioui on for\u00a0Kayal it meant Celtic had to finish with 10 men. Thankfully the 10 saw the game out and with Benfica only picking up 1 point in Spain, \u00a0Celtic were through and with the final being at Wembley, cue the Celtic Park DJ playing “London Calling” by the Clash. Happys days indeed and bring on the draw on the 20th!<\/p>\n

Celtic will be up against\u00a0Manchester United, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Malaga, Schalke 04 or Paris St Germain. Lovely!<\/p>\n

Words cant really express the achievement by this Celtic squad. Players and Management and yes, even Board have all delivered above and beyond what was expected. Comparisons with over-hyped, over bloated and under achieving big spending Clubs are often tiresome but in this instance, well worth noting. The best thing, we all know this really is just the beginning. Well done Lenny and the Bhoys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And to think how some thought it would all work out when the initial draw was made :<\/p>\n

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A record 10 points in the Group Stages last night secured Celtics place in the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Celtic+v+Spartak+Moscow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-nN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}