It’s a foul anywhere else on the park as they’d say. Two marginal calls, thems the breaks. Bayern are class ffs
Maaaaaaeeeeeedddddaaaaaa
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Big ten ahead
Harry Kane the difference again @ChairmanDan
It’s between Bayern, Madrid and the Arsenal’s hammer throwing robots
Deserve the bishop of Cape Town for this effort
xG result:
Celtic 1.34-Bayern Munich 0.94.
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That was a pity.
Thought we played well overall for the most part. Engels and Hatate had a couple of difficult moments but they were generally very good. Maeda was quiet but came alive. Taylor maybe unlucky with the first but he passed it out of play 3 or 4 times which you just can’t do when we’ve to fight so hard for the ball.
Not saying any of the refereeing decisions were wrong but we were unlucky with a run of incidents. The first goal being ruled out sapped a lot of energy out of the stadium after an electric start. Then er had Schmeichel collecting a corner but it didn’t count because Trusty was down and then they score from the retake (after another one too maybe). And then the penalty not given which I’d no view of.
They were very good, particularly the attacking players.
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Sadly you can’t ate that.
I still think that’s a penalty. Just because Upamecano got a tiny nick on the ball, it’s still alive & his stamp down on Engels’ foot stops him retrieving it. That was a really spirited fightback after going two behind, even if you could argue Bayern dropped off. There were plenty of moments such as Maeda going around Neuer & failing to finish from a wide angle, Jota drilled one over from the edge of the box & Johnston’s drive that was diverted over by Neuer at the start of injury time.
Celtic stayed in the game & showed good composure & organisation:
- I thought Maeda came alive when he went upfront & really took the fight to them.
- The midfield three finished strongly & Johnston was solid (bar going awol for Kane’s goal) & a threat on the overlap.
- That was actually a nice cameo from the much maligned Yang too with an assist for Maeda, nice play for the Johnston effort & being generally busy & positive.
- Not to make Taylor a scapegoat again but his lack of presence & athleticism stands out against the elite sides. An unlucky ricochet for the goal but you’d like your full back to block Elise off when he’s looking to come inside there.
- Schlupp had a couple of hairy moments when he first came on but that side looked more secure with him there.
- Trusty was a bit shaky at times but probably okay overall.
Bayern’s 4 Ps were outstanding: passing, pace, penetration & passing. But I was really pleased with how Celtic stuck at that - it was the type of maturity that will bode well for a crack at winning the CL next season.
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I don’t know if my satellite dish took a dunt in a recent storm but my TNT Sports was kinda scrambled tonight & I couldn’t watch the coverage with Rory Hamilton & Joe Hart. Actually did Premier Sports have exclusive rights in Ireland for this round? I was stuck with Guy Mowbray & Andy Townsend commentating from a cupboard with muted stadium sound effects & it somewhat spoiled my enjoyment of the game. TNT’s match presentation for jocko football is terrific & the complete antithesis to all the wankers on their English coverage - “Fletch”, Rio, Ally, Macca etc.
My TNT/Premier Sport/FoodNetwork has been playing up for a few days now. Pain in the nads. Can’t watch Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.
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Is there a trophy for it?
Premier seemed to have the games on Amazon similar to their EPL offerings. Rte 2 had the Irish representatives on air tonight
That’s a schoolboy error on my part. I forgot RTÉ still had CL coverage & checked Virgin Media but not the national broadcaster.
Celtic need to up their strength and conditioning . They got fired off the ball at times
They did in the first half especially. Rodgers said Celtic were too passive, had triggers to press but didn’t execute it well enough. I didn’t think it was just being physically overpowered though - there were multiple occasions where it looked like a Celtic player could get a foot in or win a race to a loose ball but they were beaten to it. I think it was mainly due to Musiala dropping in to augment his midfield two & how sharp the wide players were also - it was speed as much as strength & they were able to maintain control with neat triangles & would then retain the ball for another spell.
That said, Celtic didn’t give up a glut of chances so it was frustrating to concede when they had settled into the game a bit in the last part of the first half. In fairness they came right back into the game & finished really well after going 2-0 down. Celtic won a load of those battles & races in the last half hour. Johnston powering forward on the overlap was reminiscent of Leipzig at home.
It was another game where Celtic held their own fitness wise (granted Bayern probably went into game management mode a bit but Celtic definitely responded & pushed them back too) - Ange’s gung ho style had Celtic knocking themselves out after an hour of these CL games. Overall, it showed that Celtic are developing well under Rodgers but it also emphasised the areas where we know improvements are needed (left back, another midfielder, a main striker to replace Kyogo). The Board better back the manager in the summer or I’ll be making strongly worded posts on the INTERNET.
I think we are a bit off it physically but some of that is budget related. You can do all the strength and conditioning in the world but it isn’t going to do much to a Greg Taylor or even a Reo Hatate. But if Hatate was big and strong and fast he wouldn’t be at Celtic.
That said there are improvements in those areas. We are lasting games longer as you said. We responded well to going behind against Leipzig and Aston Villa and Bayern. In previous seasons we’d have capitulated. Fitness and overall belief play a role there.
Plus I think our recruitment is trying to tackle those issues. Engels will presumably get stronger as he matures but we bought him for his physical attributes as much as anything else. It was a big ask last night for that midfield to go against the Bayern team who are extremely mobile and we had to do it without our natural sub in Bernardo.
Bigger, stronger, faster players cost more money. We have improved in our conditioning. I think we can continue to improve but there’s a financial gulf to having a team like Bayern’s - even just strength and pace.
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Celtic midfield and McGregor especially struggle against the more athletic midfielders pal, particularly the stereotypical German ones
Leverkusen were really good there & you’d wonder how they didn’t win it. Wirtz simply had to score at the death. Bayern looked very leggy indeed, they got a right doing in the last half hour at Celtic Park so that must have affected them tonight.