Just checked up the flights there now. Both Ryanair and Aerlingus have already increased their flights to Glasgow (Pres) for both the tuesday (20th) and wed (21st). Here are the prices as of today.
Ryanair
Dub - Pres 154 plus only option is to fly out tuesday morning and fly back wednesday Morning arriving home round 8am. - This is the same if the match is on the wednesday.
Dub - Edin 54 fly out 15.30 and get to Ireland at 9am the following day. Same story for the next day.
Aerlingus
Dub - Glasgow 146. Problem here is that you need to take a 1 and 1/2 off work.
Was just looking there and flights seem to be a fair bit cheaper than that. They seem to fluctuate wildly throughout the day. I have a feeling I’ll make a complete mess of this tomorrow.
There is no doubt that the flights are dearer now than they were when I checked them last week but they’re not too bad yet. Certainly I can see options cheaper than pagey posted.
As a word of warning a 1530 flight to Edinburgh is too late in the day in my opinion. We flew at 1400 or so the first time and didn’t have too much time in Glasgow. Any time after that is cutting it very fine.
Bandage just did some research on the days we have booked. Checked that some people are Wed/Tue while others are Tue/Wed which is the case. Also on different days to Internazionale which is also good news, so I reckon we’re sorted. Problem is just Fingal Raven throwing a spanner in the works with the opposite dates and I spoke to a few people and nobody can get through to him.
I’m absolutely delighted with that draw for Celtic. As well as the prospect of 3 days in Milan my order of preference before the draw for footballing reasons was:
Liverpool: No English team gets the better of Celtic. Many have looked down on Celtic in the past and many continue to do so but all go back across the border to the ‘best league league in the world’ beaten and chastened. Liverpool are a turgid, rigid side and would not cope with Celtic’s passing and movement.
Milan: They’re having a really poor domestic season. They still rely on a number of veterans like Seedorf, Maldini, Inzaghi et al. The danger is Kaka breaking forward from his attacking midfield role but Lenny will take care of him. Tommy ‘Mad Dog’ Gravesen to cripple that nasty hun fook Gatusso with a tackle. Hopefully McGeady can frighten the life out of them like he did 2 years ago. I expect to win this and their patient style will suit us away from home and allow us to get a foothold in the game over there which will be crucial given how poor our away record in Europe is.
Lyon: Not that different to Celtic really despite the media fawning over them. Both teams cruising their domestic leagues and we know them from the 2003/04 campaign when we comfortably beat them at home. That rat prick Liam Miller got one of the greatest goals I’ve ever seen after a superb move comprising 25 passes. Hedman and Bobo conspired to ruin things in the dying minutes in the return game but they are no way near as good as they’re purported to be. Especially weak at the back with Squillaci and Cris (the latter in particular is an accident waiting to happen).
Arsenal: Probably the only remaining English team who could match Celtic passing wise and that’s why I wasn’t overly anxious to meet them. Fabregas is a joy to behold yet they are quite brittle and I would have been very confident of turning them over nonetheless.
Chelsea: Wasn’t displeased to avoid them given their physicality amd strength down the middle. There’s a danger they may have overpowered Celtic given we rely on light, skillful ball players like Naka, Aiden and Shauny while they rely on 30m bruisers. That said I would have relished getting revenge on Mourinho for Seville, 2003. A vile, despicable character managing a vile, despicable, fascist, right-wing, racist team supported by vile, despicable, fascist, right-wing, racist scumbags.
Bayern Munich: Not playing as well as last year and possibly feeling the loss of Ballack but they still are extremely efficient and sauntered through their group. Van Buyten and Lucio are an excellent centre back pairing and Makaay consistently scores goals. It would have been a tough proposition.
Valencia: Just an excellent side and have been for the last 6 or 7 years. We owe them one from the penalty shoot-out defeat in the 2001 UEFA Cup campaign but they will keep for later on in the competition. Ayala’s still marshalling the defence, Albelda controlling the midfield and David Villa and Morientes are banging in the goals. After Celtic they are my favourites for the competition.
Finally, I think it’s an absolute myth that playing at home 2nd is an advantage for a number of reasons.
If you concede an away goal in the first game then you have the rest of that home game plus your away game to react to it. In many instances the first game is a cagey affair, 1-0, 0-0 or something like that. If you then go and score an away goal in the 2nd leg then the tie is almost put beyond the reach of the opposition and they only have the rest of that game to correct matters. It served Celtic particularly well in the Seville season against Celta Vigo, Stuttgart and Liverpool. A clean sheet at home in the first leg is a priority; something we have managed to do in each of the 3 group games and then we can set our tactics up accordingly for the away game. We are excellent in straight head-to-head knock-out competition and we can certainly win this competition.
interesting post bandage. good point about milan’s patient style suiting us away from home. equally though we tend to overpower teams at home when they begin to send numbers forward. was initially disappointed with the draw but that was partly out of ignorance. what do you know about milan’s manager. he seemed to have his tactics spot on against us a couple of years agp.
There’s fook all craic in Milan. Was there about 2 years ago and there’s hardly any good pubs. I’m sure it’ll be different when there’s 10,000 or so Celtic fans hanging around the place though! Cracking stadium though, the atmosphere will be deadly. Can’t see Celtic getting through though.
Very tough draw for the pool, should be 2 cracking ties.