I was thinking that too. Any win against them is a good win but that felt a bit weird* at the end. That game was well contested with huge effort from both sides but riddled with errors. I don’t give a fuck about their calamities for Celtic’s second half goals but some of the things Celtic did were slapstick, naive & comical.
Turnbull standing offside for that freekick in injury time was bizarre & Bernabei rolling it to him even though Oh was waiting for a lateral nudge to bring it to the corner. Bernabei refusing the shot when clean through with no support just before that. Even that last phase, CCV screwing a volleyed clearance to them under no pressure, Iwata giving a cheap foul away, Oh then bringing Kent down from the resulting freekick. Not to mention all the horrible passing in the first half especially.
I actually thought Iwata had a good cameo, he put some order on the game. Mooy took a while to get up to speed when he joined in the summer but has been brilliant since the World Cup. First game back after a month out today, maybe he’s one of those players that takes some time to get up to speed when he doesn’t play regularly.
Johnston had a really strong game bar one comical headed clearance straight off CCV that gave Morelos a chance. McGregor also had a big second half & was more like himself. Kyogo took the goals very well too. The hun narrative will be that they were beaten by themselves & the officials & they’ll talk themselves up again. Hopefully Celtic come out in the semi-final with a point to prove & Hatate back in the lineup.
*as a non-match going fan, if I was there I’d be giving it big licks & making gestures at the away end even though it’s populated with Celtic fans today.
Johnston had one other error with a very slack pass to CCV I think it was but he redeemed himself by winning the ball back and a free at the edge of our box. He was superb for most of the game.
Mooy was so bad. Hatate was a huge miss but as you say we at least had a bit more shape and possession when Iwata came on.
But even with that poor play I didn’t think they took any sort of advantage of our carelessness. Cantwell was particularly bad.
That’s 3 games in a row when we’ve been average at best against them. And we’ve 2 wins and a draw in that period. They still seemed capable of disrupting us today with that more attacking selection but still created very little. Beale is basically avoiding taking a hammering.
I thought it was a standard foul & I’m very capable of putting club preferences aside & looking at things impassionately. If two lads are grabbing each other & then one shoves the other over then it’s a foul 9 times out of 10.
He wasn’t flawless but thought that was the best O’Riley has played in a while. Put himself about well though probably a bit naive for their equaliser. But he robbed them a few times and then did very well for our opening game. Can play better but was encouraging, especially when Mooy was off his game.
it always looked that if Celtic got their passing right, they could cut them apart. They never did and yet, the Huns just handed them goals. You’d imagine Celtic won’t be as bad in semi final and could win comfortably.
Morelos doesn’t want to push himself at all, but then a series of managers haven’t demanded more from him either. He needs a tough manager
Johnston is some player lads. Great composure on the ball, loads or energy ane a tough fucker.
This comes across as after timing but I’m blaming the Wi-Fi in the stadium.
Met a guy outside beforehand who had been talking to Alistair Johnston on Friday. Johnston said he’d no concerns about the result and he was going to “end” Kent and Tillman. He got Tillman lovely in the first hale and then did Kent with a strong shoulder in the second. He’s a smashing player. And he seems to hate those Huns.
Good player … good on the ball …Smashing tackler and great pace … gets caught under the ball a bit at times ala Morelos disallowed goal and Tavernier coming in behind for second goal … there was another I think that Morelos got to but hit off a rangers player …
In fairness Rangers are getting closer with each game . Very hard for Celtic to be on it every week such is their dominance. They weren’t used to playing a team pressing so hard like Rangers today …I don’t know why rangers play like to today and persist with Morelos . Hasn’t the legs or the attitude to give them an outlet on the break .
