Loovens has no concept of when to step forward into space with the ball. Acres in front of him there and he still knocked it square before committing anyone.
Eh what the fuck? Great strike but Zaluska wasnât bothered how many he had in the wall or wasnât bothered making much of an effort at getting across to it. 2-0 wouldnât have been a disaster but 3-0 is shite.
Ah fuck off ref you cunt.
LENNON OUT
Celtic have conceded a lot more than brag-ging rights.
That was a very sobering experience. The team didnât function in an attacking sense at all and never got a passing rhythm going at any stage. The concern would be the amount of players who looked incapable of retaining possession under pressure but you tend to be on the back foot away in Europe so thatâs where the basics of defending need to be spot on. Unfortunately, the positions that have been identified for strengthening let us down completely and we need to address that as soon as possible.
Hooiveld was a good bit better than the inept Loovens but he was no better than average himself. Charlie Mulgrew got destroyed every which way and Zaluska was a disgrace for the last goal. The danger was that weâd be caught out here and leave ourselves with too much to do at Celtic Park given itâs a new team and the first time lots of these players have lined out together but the soft goals should have been prevented nonetheless.
We beat Benfica twice in the group stages in recent years on 3-0 scorelines after losing by the same score in both away games so we need something similar next week obviously. They actually werenât that impressive and Iâd expect a good reaction from Celtic next week but we give up too many easy chances defensively and an away goal would bury us.
Overall, that was nowhere near good enough though. Itâs too early to make judgements on the new regime and signings but the manager and players need to learn from that and quickly. We need to arrest this slide in Europe - competing with Milan and Barca 3 or 4 years ago to going out of the Europa League behind Hapoel Tel Aviv last season and now getting a hiding from this lot.
Finally, Scott Brown can fuck off and die. Another one of his faux hard man but actually petty and cowardly kicks led to the freekick for the third goal. Heâs an embarrassment.
Heâs an aussie isnât he?
No, youâre probably thinking of Scott McDonald, who left last season. Brownâs Scottish and apparently a footballer. :mad:
Ratings
Zaluska - Utter shit. No presence. Parried a soft shot out the middle in the first half. Scuttered one behind for a corner that led to the second. Beaten by a 40 yard freekick that went 3 yards inside the post for the third. No business being our #1 'keeper.
Cha - All right overall. Shaky in the first half.
Loovens - Bombscare. Canât defend. Gave away silly fouls. Headless. Shit distribution. Shit, floppy haircut. Get to fuck, you cunt.
Hooiveld - Better than Loovens. Might do a job beside somone decent.
Mulgrew - Horrific in every way possible. Confidence was shattered by the end.
Maloney - Ineffective. Poor touch. Rarely involved. Lacked pace. Very disappointing.
Juarez - Gets pass marks. Got around the pitch. Came into it after a slow and nervous start. Looked to get on the ball and build.
Ki - Harshly penalised for handball for the penalty. Needs to develop some leadership and grow some balls. Went missing as it went on. Playmaker but we never got any passing going.
Ledley - Hardly noticed him, which isnât good.
Brown - A horrible, horrible cunt. I fucking despise this bastard.
Samaras - Did well with no help.
Ah yes, sorry.
just saw the last 20 mins- the sieve is as bad as ever- 2 stupid goals to give away & easily stopped
3-0 in paradise is achievable
how much did mccourt play in pre season?
No need to apologise.
I donât know. Pretty demoralising to see the same old mistakes when youâre hoping a new era will bring something different.
Edit: McCourt played well last week against Sporting and was also involved against Seattle anyway. Iâd say he got as much time as anyone else really.
odd that maloney gets in ahead of him
Only listened to this on radio. Cha Du Ri got most criticism there.
To be honest I wasnât expecting much. I have little confidence in the management team and the squad is very limited.
Could be a long season
vcunts
That is all.
:ph34r:
There isnât anyone who came within a mile of Mulgrew for incompetence tonight.
Iâd have less time for Brown and Loovens because theyâre repeat offenders and have let Celtic down so many times but Mulgrew was out on his own tonight. Cha was shit enough alright but shit enough among shit players. There were a few worse.
Neil Lennon insisted Celticâs Champions League dream was still alive - and that Aiden McGeady could be part of turning around their third qualifying round tie against Braga next week.
Lennon watched his side crash to a 3-0 defeat in the first leg at AXA Stadium, which McGeady missed 24 hours after his manager insisted he would play.
The wingerâs omission fuelled speculation his Parkhead career was at an end but Lennon revealed afterwards the 24-year-old had been left out after a back problem flared up and not because he was on the brink of being sold.
Even the return of McGeady will struggle to overturn the deficit Celtic left Portugal with tonight, but Lennon was adamant the tie was far from finished.
âSome people may think the tie is over; we donât,â he declared.
"Weâve got a good record at home, weâve been in this position before and weâll just have to go and be at our very best next week.
On McGeadyâs absence, Lennon denied knowledge of any developments on a possible move, adding: "He was complaining of a chronic back injury last night.
"Having spoken to the medical team, with the lack of training and the lack of game time heâs had, I thought it best not to risk him.
âHopefully, weâll have him for the second leg.â
Lennon criticised the performance of referee Serge Gumienny and his assistants, especially over the penalty award which allowed Alan to put Braga ahead.
He said of the decision to penalise Ki Sung-Yeung for handball: "His arms and his hands are down by his side; itâs ball to hand.
"He (Gumienny) made some strange decisions. He booked Charlie Mulgrew after less than 10 minutes for time-wasting. That was just incredible.
"He didnât book any of the Braga players until maybe the final five minutes.
âSo Iâm not pleased with the refereeâs performance at all.â
Lennon attempted to speak to the referee after the final whistle but was waved away.
He added: âWe knew we wouldnât get much from the officials anyway.â
A 1-0 defeat would have been manageable but Celtic conceded two in the final 15 minutes to debutant Uwa Elderson Echiejile and substitute Matheus.
âWe lost the game to three set-pieces, which was very disappointing,â Lennon said.
"I thought we were comfortable in the game.
"At times, we could have passed the ball better.
âSome of our better ball players didnât take care of the ball as well as they shouldâve done at times.â
Defending tactics which saw Georgios Samaras play as a lone striker, resulting in no shots on target, Lennon said: "Our goalkeeper had one save to make in the 92, 93 minutes.
âWe set up to be defensive and try to not give too much away.â
Although Lennon indicated McGeady still had a future at Parkhead, the same cannot be said for right-back Andreas Hinkel, who was also not in the squad - because he was not registered.
âHeâs got a year left on his contract and we canât afford to let that run down,â Lennon said.
âWe brought in Cha (Du-Ri), so he will be predominantly the first choice right-back.â
Braga boss Domingos Paciencia agreed with Lennon that next weekâs second leg was far from a formality.
âItâs going to be a tough match,â he said.
"At the end of this match I was reminded of the game Celtic-Benfica, that Celtic won 3-0.
âWeâre always prepared for something like this in football.â
However, he admitted he had expected more from Celtic tonight after watching them in pre-season.
âFrom what I saw from Celtic against Sporting (Lisbon) and Manchester United, I was expecting them to be stronger,â he said.
âBut today the merit of this game is for Braga, not a demerit for Celtic.â
Any good testimonials coming up this year? Will be difficult to win the UEFA fans of the year Cup this year but you wouldnt know.
Got beaten in a Champions League qualifier the year we won that award so you certainly wouldnât know indeed. I still retain some belief for next week so itâs not yet a case of making a push for the secondary competition like we did in 2003.
Celtic fans live in the same kinda dream world as Dublin GAA fans iâd be thinking.
I agree with Roy Hodgson. Itâs a disadvantage to the biggest clubs in Europe, like Celtic, to have to play qualifying rounds in July in World Cup years. The two Koreans, Juarez and Samaras havenât had any time off of note.