We've said it before and we'll say it again, no doubt - when the stakes are high, rookie gaffer Neil Lennon plays it all wrong.
2-0 up from the first leg, many were treating Celtic's progress into the Europa League as a given - and it probably should have been. But yet again their diabolical away form came back to haunt them, they conceded four goals to Utrecht and now they are out.
To be fair to him, Celtic had lots of defenders unavailable through injury - but that have made protecting a makeshift back four a priority. Instead Lennon picked a front two of Samaras and Fortune, plus new "wonderkid" James Forrest, plus Joe Ledley (who's not known for putting in a shift)... reckless stuff, and they paid the price.
Motherwell couldn't score the 1-0 victory that would have put them through against Odense, and Dundee Utd came close but missed the chance to progress ahead of AEK.
Both clubs acquited themselves rather better tonight than the green giant from Glasgow, however.
Where do Celtic go from here?
Showing posts with label Europa League qualifiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europa League qualifiers. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Dundee Utd tie finds a venue at last
Dundee Utd are in Athens tonight, trying to turn around a 1-0 deficit from the first leg that will allow them to progress to the Europa League Group Stage at AEK's expense.
But AEK's stadium isn't fit for purpose, so an alternative venue at Panionios was found. But Panionios, upset at the thought of AEK using their home, broke into the ground and destroyed the pitch.
So the tie has moved to Olympiakos' stadium. But now the fear is AEK fans will ransack the place, so they have been banned.
Dundee Utd now face the odd prospect of playing an away tie in front of 500 of their own travelling supporters, and no one else. It's going to be a weird atmosphere, that's for sure, more so if any AEK trouble makers manage to disguise themselves as Tangerines to sneak in and cause mayhem.
Anyhow, good luck tonight to the team, and to the fans who will hopefully avoid any trouble. Very much the underdogs here, maybe they can use these unusual circumstances to their advantage.
But AEK's stadium isn't fit for purpose, so an alternative venue at Panionios was found. But Panionios, upset at the thought of AEK using their home, broke into the ground and destroyed the pitch.
So the tie has moved to Olympiakos' stadium. But now the fear is AEK fans will ransack the place, so they have been banned.
Dundee Utd now face the odd prospect of playing an away tie in front of 500 of their own travelling supporters, and no one else. It's going to be a weird atmosphere, that's for sure, more so if any AEK trouble makers manage to disguise themselves as Tangerines to sneak in and cause mayhem.
Anyhow, good luck tonight to the team, and to the fans who will hopefully avoid any trouble. Very much the underdogs here, maybe they can use these unusual circumstances to their advantage.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Hughes first taste of Europe is stale
Hibernian's manager, John Hughes, is fond of saying that his ambition is to get his club "closer" to the Old Firm.
Job done, then, as his team mirrored Celtic's 3-0 loss to Braga with an identical scoreline against Maribor in Slovenia in their Europa League qualifying tie. The 300 or so Hibbys who made the trip in excitement and expectation were left watching a sorry and familar story unfold - a Scottish club in pre-season being rinsed out by European opposition.
Hughes claimed that his preparation for the match was meticulous, but his decision to start without Antony Stokes and Derek Riordan (who had both played parts in warm-up games in Holland) was baffling. Colin Nish is a tryer, but not the obvious choice if trying to keep possession against fitter, technically-competent opponents.
So well done Motherwell, who are bitter about conceding a late equaliser against Norwegian club Aalesunds but have a great chance of getting through the tie. In contrast to his naive counterpart at Hibs, Craig Brown is continuing to show there is still a place for experience in the game.
Job done, then, as his team mirrored Celtic's 3-0 loss to Braga with an identical scoreline against Maribor in Slovenia in their Europa League qualifying tie. The 300 or so Hibbys who made the trip in excitement and expectation were left watching a sorry and familar story unfold - a Scottish club in pre-season being rinsed out by European opposition.
Hughes claimed that his preparation for the match was meticulous, but his decision to start without Antony Stokes and Derek Riordan (who had both played parts in warm-up games in Holland) was baffling. Colin Nish is a tryer, but not the obvious choice if trying to keep possession against fitter, technically-competent opponents.
So well done Motherwell, who are bitter about conceding a late equaliser against Norwegian club Aalesunds but have a great chance of getting through the tie. In contrast to his naive counterpart at Hibs, Craig Brown is continuing to show there is still a place for experience in the game.
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