I thought Celtic’s performance was fairly good. Built up nicely from the back in the first half and repeatedly got driving into their box after injecting some pace into the passing and linking up well with runners. A little bit of shooting when another pass was on or playing a pass / cut back to the wrong guy or Armstrong slipping but it was pretty decent. The second half was comprehensive and we got the goals this time.
There was a lot of 7/10 type displays with one or two 8s - Roberts is great and I thought Brown and Armstrong were very good. I thought Boyata was good myself - gave away a couple of freekicks but solid overall and it was only his second game after the injury.
Certainly not the best we’ve played this season but still comfortably a class above them.
We were unlucky with a few slips around their box and that nothing came from a few more crosses and pull-backs particularly from Roberts. They couldn’t cope with him at all and I thought Sinclair was unlucky not to score or create more from his runs inside too.
Brown was superb. Thought Armstrong was good too but I wanted Ntcham for a while just to be a different type of physical threat to them in there. Wasn’t needed though and I expect he’ll play on Wednesday.
Boyata was excellent I thought. I think he’s a little better than Simunovic.
This is one of those Zonal Marking type reviews of the game. Full of jargon and references to passing lanes, players being ball-far and space-oriented and so on and, again, completely overstating 1) how well Sevco were set up defensively, and 2) how difficult Celtic found it to break them down.
Celtic moved them around and got into loads of excellent positions before the first goal. I can think of all of Sinclair, Armstrong, Rogic, Roberts and Tierney (some of them more than once) being released into space behind their midfield and tearing into the box with the ball after a little bit of movement and 2 or 3 sharp passes.
The huns were cautious and set up very deep but the game was no more difficult than the 2 wins at the end of last season.
It’s not a bad read but I think it’s placing far too much emphasis on Celtic struggling to break them down.
Lustig struggled a bit in the first half and that’s extrapolated into an effective press. I think it was just occasional poor use of the ball. Dorrans, Jack and particularly Pena were completely anonymous. They were reasonably effective at stopping us knocking the ball around in a slow possession manner but we were consistently able to turn them, to get Armstrong, Rogic and the wingers on the ball running at them and creating chances.
Griffiths should have scored twice before the Rogic goal. Armstrong had his slip too, Rogic was close and a few other close calls. That article references a lucky break in breaking them down - it was the culmination of sustained pressure really.