After my initial disappointment at the end of the game in losing the away goal, I’ve had a chance to watch the whole game again and I have to say I am happy with the overall performance of the team.
Not much we could have done to improve on it and without scoring another goal or two.
Statistically speaking we dominated, 63% of possession which is nearly a whole hour of dictating play. We created 18 attempts to their 3, scoring 2 of the, hitting the post and Joe Ledley forcing a great save from their keeper.
We destroyed them on the wings with James Forrest excellent on the right wing. They play a midfielder at right back and he was completely caught out of position for the first goal. Georgios Samaras’ pass was sublime. The only X variable and potential advantage they had was match sharpness and fitness.
They were knackered at the end. There are two sides to the fitness coin, the other being fatigue and too many big games with not enough squad rotation. It pleased me to see our fitness levels so high, well played the management.
Adam Matthews was my man of the match. A Celtic defender that can defend? What is that all about? Their goal was fortunate, good save by Fraser Foster, Victor Wanyama could do nothing about it, the ball could have broke anywhere. Just bad luck. Apart from that they offered nothing in attack.
One shot from outside the box and the last ditch tackle from Matthews on Demba Savage where the only other heart in mouth moments. HJK were the away team though and they are a bit more formidable at home.
Minor gripes? Kris Commons was taking off just as he looked dangerous. Gary Hooper plays off the last man and Samaras was wide left, this left room for Commons to attack the space between the defence and the midfield.
On 49 minutes he hit the post. Then he splits the defence with a quick pass to set Samaras through for the first goal. He spots Charlie Mulgrew’s late run on the corner for the second and he had couple more chances himself, a quick turn and shot and a header from inside the box. On 65 minutes they take him off.
Surely I was not the only one that saw he was just getting fired up and involved in every positive thing we created. My other little gripe was giving possession away too cheaply in dangerous areas. Emilio Izaguirre did it twice, a good team will punish us for that.
Looking forward to next week, we will have another competitive game under our belt and will be prepared for another big game.
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At times we looked very good- at times we looked rusty.
I expect that next week we’ll be very sharp, get the benefit of 90 minutes against Aberdeen.
We should score in Helsinki, if we can score twice we should go through without any drama, don’t fancy HJK getting the first goal however.
I agree re. Commons. Thought it was quite a stupid decision, him going off coincided with a 20 minute lull in our play. He looked our most dangerous player! Glad to see him back in form!
I fully agree about the decision to withdraw Commons, but maybe this was the plan beforehand given that he was carrying an injury prior to the game and will be a vital player for us. Difficult for a sub to come on especially in Europe and make an impact right away.
For the 2nd leg I think it will be even more important that we take control of the midfield, match up with them and keep them pinned back. I was surprised but delighted to see they struggled when we upped the pace given they are well ahead in match sharpness. We still have a few players needing more games themselves to sharpen up but at least we seem to have done the ground work.
A little disappointed not to see the introduction of Dylan McGeough as I think he could bring an extra spark to the side especially when we took off Kris Commons. Also after his starring role v Inter Milan, would have kept Vic in Centre mdifield where he can dominate the game. I do acknowledge that Rogne / Mulgrew are both lacking in a bit of pace but even with either Izzy or Matthews covering v ONE Striker we should be able to cope easily enough.
Sammy can do so much more, obviously had much less of a break than others but we need him at the top of his game or else stick with Hooper / Stokes partnership.
Another hard game v Aberdeen but looking good and we do have a strong squad. Hopeful of a confidence boosting win before the vital away game v HJK. definitely not a game to go and try to sit on our one goal lead though, get at them a goal will kill the tie and really knock them for six, so don’t invite trouble.
Commons was brought off because he was an injury doubt before the game. We were dominating and could afford to give him a rest. With paddy coming on he could give their tired defence problems. Emilio for me is still lacking fitness. Its a shame he picked up another injury preseason.
It wasn’t a bad result, but it could have been so much better. While I agree about the substitutions, I also felt that we’ve still got the same old problems: lots of pressure but not enough goals, and, the biggest problem of all, the at-least-once-a-match dodgy defending that often costs us goals.
More than anything, we need a decent, experienced central defender, someone who’s calm under pressure and who can help however is playing next to him. The fact is that the central defenders we have- Wilson, Rogne, Mulgrew, Wanyama- are young, inexperienced, and mostly playing out of position. And they would all come on in leaps and bounds if they had an experienced, natural center-back to guide them.
It’s just not good enough for an attacking team like Celtic to rely on a makeshift central defence, especially against counter-attacking European teams.
Mate you’ve got a big hang up about our defence a don’t think there as bad as you think we will struggle to bring in better than we’ve got because of were we play, signing some one for the sake of it dosen’t make them better. hail hail
with 43mins to go we were behind at full time we won am more than happy with that, there goal was lucky KC hitting the post was unlucky thats how close we were to a 3-0 instead of a 2-1 we are a better side than them and think we could win over there if we play like we can. I also think KC came off due to saturdays injury don’t think it was tactical but i might be wrong. hail hail onwards and upwards
Your right. I have got a big hang up about our central defence, but I would never suggest that we should sign someone just for the sake of it.
My argument is that we’ve got inexperienced CBs who often look nervous, and they would benefit greatly from playing with someone with experience. Young players improve a lot quicker with a few experienced players around them. Not only would it improve them as players, it would increase their value to the club.
We all know resources are tight, but maybe we can find ways to make better use of the ones we’ve got.
Sorry that was ment for Mark.
I don’t think our coaches are up to the job. Teams with one tenth of our resources in terms of transfer fees and salaries are able to compete favourably with us. Whilst teams such as Helsinki punch above their weight we are punching way below the belt.
We actually beat helsinki 2-1 mate just as we should have done so i don’t realy get your point. Am i the only guy on the planet who thinks we’re a good team ?
Mark,
I would agree with Paranoidandroid.
HJK were not that good a side.
Celtic played well in patches over the game. There was a long spell before half time we were chasing the ball in midfield, and to be fair they did not even trouble us.
I also believed they were there for the taking in the last 20mins. There legs had gone. We should have punished them.
The central defence is definitely not good enough to get us through to the Champ league in my opinion.
Wanyama better off in midfield.
I was shocked like a lot of people to Commons being subbed. I was stunned that Forrest remained on, thought he had the beating of the left back all night, up till Commons went off, but ate my words as he actually improved in the last 20mins and starting going beyond the full back.
One player i was concerned about the other night was Hooper.
He missed some really good early chances and after that seemed to go amiss. Not showing for the ball, unable to hold up, but then nips in with a vital goal. He looks to me sluggish and carrying a little extra weight.
Anyway, for us to progress to the Champ league we need experience at the back and i would like to see a striker who understands to stay in the box when our wingers/full backs hit the byline.
We have too may forwards who want to play outside the box.
I know this is a rant, but i still believe we are capable of going through against HJK but i think it will be Europa league for us this year.
Here’s hoping that i am wrong.
Jos Hooiveld and Gary Caldwell could have been a solid pairing. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter who we put at the back, our defence always seem out of kilter. Even if a team has only a few chances against us, the likelihood is we leek goals too easily.
Theres no point in making lots of chances if you don’t convert the chances into goals, and similarly, there’s no point in celebrating that the opposition had very few chances when a large percentage of these chances are converted into goals. After all, its goals that count, not chances.
I agree with you mark.
First competitive game FFS.
We will see about what the coaches have learned after next weeks game. They got the teams fitness up quick which pleased me. We won the game. We showed character and resolve to come from a goal behind to win it.
If it was just a league game I would be very happy with all of this, but the away goal is obviously something we wanted to avoid.
The goal was a fluke though, I have watched the game again to see the 3 shots HJK had on target and I assume the goal counted as two shots on target, Forster saved the first then it rebound then they scored.
So they only created 2 chances and scored one. Every team will have chances in a game though even if you defend greatly. I have a theory on the whole budget and resources thing, but for my theory to work we need to win next week.
Hopefully an early goal for us on Wednesday and we’ll put the game to bed before they start to get any belief….don’t know much about their stadium or fans though
In our first competative game we beat and outplayed them, we will do job over there, positives all the way for me, we will be mixing it with the cream of europe. Not fishermen fae peterhied