{"id":5678,"date":"2014-09-19T11:33:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T10:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5678"},"modified":"2014-09-19T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T10:33:15","slug":"celtic-diary-friday-september-19-celts-kickstart-european-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5678","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Friday September 19: Celts Kickstart European Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celtic came away from Austria last night with a creditable draw against group favourites Red Bull Salzburg. Twice in the lead, the hoops could have actually won the game, but the shock of being in front seemed to confuse the players, and they were caught cold a couple of times, once from a deflected shot, and once from an unstoppable free kick, put behind the excellent Craig Gordon by Jonathan Soriano, who after the game e-mailed Peter Lawwell to remind \u00a0him what he could have had.<\/p>\n

Gordon made a number of superb stops, which kept Celtic in the game, although the hesitancy of the Salzburg forwards did its bit as well, and credit must also go to Scott Brown and Kris commons, who worked tirelessly to keep the Austrians at bay. In fact, Brown was so dehydrated after the game he failed to give a urine sample, and won’t return home until later today. Aleksandr Tonev managed his, which is perhaps a little surprising considering he’s had the piss taken out of him all week.<\/p>\n

At this point it would be churlish to point out that the midfield did look a little over run at times, and it was crying out for a Kayal or a Bitton to shore things up and give the side a bit of stability, but lets face it, it was crying out for Kayal or Bitton to come on and give the side a bit of stability.<\/p>\n

It was refreshing to see Ronny Deila abandon his high pressing game in favour of lumping it out of defence in the hope that someone would be on the end of it, so any criticism that he is inflexible is completely out of order.<\/p>\n

New bhoy and surprise debutant Wakaso Mubarak opening the scoring with an excellently taken daisy cutter ( copyright Sunday Post ) which curled beyond the Salzburg keeper, showing that he has more talent that perhaps we dared to hope for, and he also displayed a certain thespian quality which is perhaps a little less desirable in the second half, when going down, looking to see if the ref had noticed , and then feigning pain that looked as though only morphine would ease it off.<\/p>\n

Theres no place for that at Celtic.<\/p>\n

Scott Brown put Celtic back in front after the austrians equalised with a shot and deflection reminiscent of Danny McGrain and George McCluskey back in the 1980 Cup Final, but the inevitable happened after kick boxer Emilio Izaguerre chopped down an Austrian around twenty five yards out, allowing Soriano to score what was probably the goal of the night in Europe.<\/p>\n

For long periods, the game was similar to countless other european matches down the years. Celtic were hemmed in, with a midfield forced to be reactive rather than proactive. Woefully outnumbered, despite a gallant Kris Commons charging anyone down who had the ball no matter where they were, every time the Celtic cleared, it went straight to the opposition.<\/p>\n

Poor Stefan Scepovic must be wondering what he has to shout to get a pass.<\/p>\n

But , its a results business, and frankly, we got a result. Which, incidentally, the Diary said yesterday ” it would not be surprised to see “( a 2-2 draw ).<\/p>\n

First time for everything, I suppose.<\/p>\n

The fact that Craig Gordon was the man of the match shows how dominant Red Bull were, with something like twelve or thirteen efforts on target to Celtics two or three, and its not really the defence at fault, but the support in front of them. The keeper told the BBC after the game;<\/p>\n

“I just go into each game and do the best I can,”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“I know what I’m still striving for, still looking to improve, but I’ve been doing that my whole career.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Celtic<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>He’s looking like the keeper he used to be more and more as the season progresses. One double save last night was world class. As were a couple of others.<\/p>\n

His manager agreed;<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Craig has been good all season but he is getting better all the time. He is a top professional, a fantastic man and I am so glad to have him in the group.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I had only seen him playing for Sunderland on TV. I didn’t know him but our goalkeeping coach, Stevie Woods, said he was ready. He’s fit now and will get back to the level he was at before.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Fraser was fantastic but now we have another good goalkeeper. He is very calm and so far he has been fantastic.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0On the game itself, Ronny was pleased with the result and effort;<\/p>\n

” It was a good result. They are a good team and were difficult to play against.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0“They played with high intensity and have very fit and quick players.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think we played much better as a team. It was important to get the point. Before the game we spoke about getting something from it.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We are lasting the distance better over the 90 minutes. We need to be quicker with our passing but, with the team spirit we have, we’ll get points.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Salzburg deserved to get the goal in the end. They had some chances and we had a fantastic goalkeeper. Yes, we were 2-1 up but their free-kick was fantastic.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I am pleased with the point and happy with the performance. We are progressing but there is a lot of work to get better.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0I really am starting to think that the bloke who watches our games isn’t Ronny Deila. Its some kind of look-a-like standing in for him while he stays at home working on his press conferences.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Artur Boruc, once the darling of Celtic Park , has got himself into a bit of bother with a controversial tweet about the Titanic, which sank over a hundred years ago. He , on social media site Twitter, thanked all the passengers of the ship for taking the ice bucket challenge, which upset a lot of people, but presumably none of the survivors, who since they have all died now probably see getting into the lifeboat as merely delaying the inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Elsewhere in the news , Scotland became the first country in the history of the world to vote against independence, with 55% of the population rejecting self determination and the rights of small nations, which ironically, amost exactly a hundred years ago, was one of the reasons for the declaration of the First World War.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Those who awoke early this morning were greeted with the bizarre site of Labour politicians cheering for the continuation of a system which has seen the divide between the wealthy and the poor grow to Dickensian levels, with the help of Dickensian policies, brought about by a government which has only one supportive MP in the country.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Way to go, Guys.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Embedded<\/p>\n

When I, and countless others left Scotland back in the eighties, it wasn’t because we wanted to, its because we felt we had to.<\/p>\n

There was nothing there for us, and it looks like there’ll be even less soon.<\/p>\n

This tweet sums up how I feel about the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n