Bandage wrote:
therock67 wrote:
[quote]Agreed with 98% of that Bandage but I donāt see what Kennedy could have done better at the ball. As you hint at, if thereās a fault anywhere itās our midfield not closing down di Maria quickly enough (think thatās who played the pass). But we did get to him just before he flicked it over. At that stage Kennedy has to be flat footed because heās to be prepared for a run from midfield - or a long shot - and Cardozo is able to get a run on him. With the way the pass is played he simply doesnāt have time to recover. It was an excellently executed goal.
Otherwise canāt disagree with any of it. Iād have brought on McDonald for Killen a bit earlier too but I doubt that was the difference - to be fair they had the balance of chances anyway. Hartley was tiring but Donati had tired too so it was a case of Sno for either/or. Sno had some good touches when he came on and he got forward well but really doesnāt close them down quick enough.
Aiden and Kennedy were top drawer tonight. Borucās save was superb but he should have done better with the long shot that Cardozo pounced on the rebound of to hammer it off the bar. Brown and Hartley were next and then I thought everyone else did well, nothing bad, nothing brilliant.
Really missed a full back getting up alongside Aiden a couple of times. Not Caldwellās fault but heās the worst attacking full back in the competition. Also possesses the shortest throw-in in the professional game by the looks of things.
Devestating result but itās past now. Letās do them at home.
I know it was an outstanding pass and Iām not criticising Kennedy, who was exceptional tonight. I just wondered if he could have reacted a tiny bit quicker. Anyway, as you say itās over now and we need to win these two home games on the bounce and then assess things. Itās a realistic possibility that Shahktar, though ahead of us now, could lose to Milan at home and us away. We need to put away Benfica and also hope Milan do likewise in Lisbon in week 5. In other words if ourselves and Milan win our next 2 games then itās Milan 12; Celtic 9; Donetsk 6; Benfica 3; Thatās very much the best scenario we can hope for going into the last game in Milan.[/quote]
That would leave us needing a point to go through against Milan who will have already qualified. Also if we can get ahead of Shakhtar on the head to head, 3 goals required because we didnāt get an away goal in Donetsk then 2 wins for us and a win for Milan against Donetsk would have us through.
Beating Benfica is the first step of course and weād like Milan to go and win in Ukraine. However if that happens a 2-0 scoreline against Donetsk could be very helpful because they lost 4-1 today. Hope they donāt hammer Benfica and that we can get close to Milan (1-0 or something) and that would see us home too.
To summarsie:
- Beating Benfica is crucial
- Beating them by 2 goals would be a big help
- Beating Donetsk is as important
- Beating them by 3 goals would be a huge help
Win all 3 and weāre through of course.