Celtic (A) - Pre-Match Thread....

[Thaksinssoldier]

Not worried in the slightest tonight (unless there's a severe banana skin). But facts are we know a lot of their players and their weaknesses.

Kolo will be terrified at the thought of having to mark Kun. Nir Bitton will have a torrid time trying to close down our middle, and Scott Sinclair had such a bad time at City I can see him bottling it(or having the game of his life, but most likely not).

Unless the weather, ref or cards play a factor, we should destroy these on a bad day. On a good day....

 

[kaz7]

Griffiths will be deadly tonight, i wonder if Citys defence have done any homework on him.

As much as they will have done for sergio

 

[St.Pauli support]

Cheers Celtic fans!
A lot of us always like to see a passionate underdog win. I also love the atmosphere at Celtic Park although never been there.
Problem is we want to win tonight and I also think we will. You know, Pep's got a plan. Your weak points will be addressed directly.

Could you boyhs just save all that what you'd like to happen tonight for your revenge match against Barca?
Thanks and rock the park. :)

 

[Jazzman]

Make no mistake this could be a tricky game.....BR's has had a fair record against City......If Celtic score first the crowd come into play big style, we will need to weather the storm........this is a well drilled City side unlike the previous teams BR has played against........the first goal matters, if City score first I expect more goals......if Celtic score first game on.......hoping for a comfortable night with no injuries.......we need a strong ref for this game.

Speaking of which, who is reffing it?

 

[abu13]

I will be interested to see how we fair tonight, I genuinely feel that Pep is on the cusp of something very special and our winning run is quite frankly exceptional. I can understand why people may think this game is a forgone conclusion but i believe it will be a really tough ask. They are known to have passionate fans and the ground is very intimidating, they have a manage who knows us well and has put on over on us on a number of occasions.

I believe we have enough tonight but it will not be straight forwards.

 

[SWP's back]

Celtic fan here.I never go into any champions league game with confidence but with the home crowd Celtic more often than not raise their game and do us proud.City fans have the right to be confident because there probably wouldn't be one Celtic player who would get into the man city first 11 however some city fans confidence borders on the arrogance.Firstly the city fans who are saying we will put the boot in obviously never watch Celtic games.We have a team that don't even tackle as shown by the 3 tackles in the whole game against Barcelona.Its pretty disrespectful calling Celtic the standard of an average English Premiership team.When Celtic beat barca in 2012 and qualified for the last 16 of the champions league ahead of benfica who went into the Europa league and reached the final,the english journalists on the "press pass" on talksport described us as a championship team which was ironic as that season man city,for the second year running,hadn't qualified for the last 16!So long as Celtic don't play the same tactics as we did in Barcelona,ie 5 at the back,and have a go then we'll give you a game.

Your best players would just about make teams in the relegation scrap in the Premiership and your worst would play for Championship teams. So their level is about that to which you are unhappy with.

The difference is that you're a different animal at home and whilst some of your players would struggle to get a game for Sunderland, your fans at home even the game up considerably, hence your great track record at home and appalling record on your travels.

 

[SWP's back]

As much as they will have done for sergio

Ha.

 

[CitizenTID]

For those asking about Celtics home GROUP STAGE/LAST 16 Champions League record here it is:

16 wins, 4 draws and 4 loss.

The losses were against Barcelona (twice), Juventus, Milan

Wins against:
Juventus, Porto, Rosenborg, Lyon, Anderlecht, Shakhtar Donetsk (twice), Copenhagen, Benfica (twice), Man Utd, AC Milan,Villareal, Barca, Spartak Moscow, Ajax

Draws against:
Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Benfica, Aalborg


We have the benefit of more champions league experience than Man City, whether that will make a difference we will see tonight, and we are no pushovers at home.

Your fans and board might, which doesn't count for anything. Your team does not.

 

[kaz7]

 

[CitizenTID]

Celtic fan here.I never go into any champions league game with confidence but with the home crowd Celtic more often than not raise their game and do us proud.City fans have the right to be confident because there probably wouldn't be one Celtic player who would get into the man city first 11 however some city fans confidence borders on the arrogance.Firstly the city fans who are saying we will put the boot in obviously never watch Celtic games.We have a team that don't even tackle as shown by the 3 tackles in the whole game against Barcelona.Its pretty disrespectful calling Celtic the standard of an average English Premiership team.When Celtic beat barca in 2012 and qualified for the last 16 of the champions league ahead of benfica who went into the Europa league and reached the final,the english journalists on the "press pass" on talksport described us as a championship team which was ironic as that season man city,for the second year running,hadn't qualified for the last 16!So long as Celtic don't play the same tactics as we did in Barcelona,ie 5 at the back,and have a go then we'll give you a game.

But that's where your best player's are at level wise, in fact for some, that's above their level. Scott Sinclair for example - good Championship level player/Prem relegation team level.

As a club with your history, your "bigger" than the Championship of course, but don't let that delude you about your team. A handful of hard competetive games alongside the competition of the SPL vs. the hard competition of the Championship nowadays week in week out is a big difference over the course of a season. That is the difference in viewpoint between us making comments on this forum and Celtic fans.

 

[CitizenTID]

I'm guessing you've never been to a Celtic game? This isn't the Emirates, Stamford Bridge or the Etihad!

Don't lump us in with that cockney lot! We're just natural moaning bastards whether we're winning or losing, we don't boo the team en-masse. Pretty sure booing is the club anthem at Arsenal anyway.

 

[I stood in the jungle]

In the minority but convinced the Tic will win tonight even had a punt on them. Hail Hail.

 

[Manchester33]

Celtic fan here.I never go into any champions league game with confidence but with the home crowd Celtic more often than not raise their game and do us proud.City fans have the right to be confident because there probably wouldn't be one Celtic player who would get into the man city first 11 however some city fans confidence borders on the arrogance.Firstly the city fans who are saying we will put the boot in obviously never watch Celtic games.We have a team that don't even tackle as shown by the 3 tackles in the whole game against Barcelona.Its pretty disrespectful calling Celtic the standard of an average English Premiership team.When Celtic beat barca in 2012 and qualified for the last 16 of the champions league ahead of benfica who went into the Europa league and reached the final,the english journalists on the "press pass" on talksport described us as a championship team which was ironic as that season man city,for the second year running,hadn't qualified for the last 16!So long as Celtic don't play the same tactics as we did in Barcelona,ie 5 at the back,and have a go then we'll give you a game.

Right at the risk of sounding arrogant here goes.

Stop talking about beating Barca in 2012. It's history. One game you won, brilliant. Since that time we've beaten Bayern Munich away, we've been to European cup semi finals. Won our league twice as well as two cups. Our team has changed massively over that period and I'm pretty sure every city fan would agree this is the best team We've ever had. Since that game in 2012 you've been eliminated by Malmo twice. You lost to a team of postmen this year and got beaten by Barca 7-0. Surely you can agree that comparing the team that beat Barca to your team now is pointless? Youre fans will be up for it, but don't kid yourselves if you think you have the best atmosphere in Europe. Gladbach's fans are the best in our group. If you want to go Europe wide you don't compare to the likes of Besiktas, Poznan, Olympiakos etc. Players like Aguero/silva have World Cup finals on their resume, I'm pretty sure if a crowd bothered them they wouldn't have gotten this far in football. Although I'm sure it will be loud up in Glasgow before its not high our players wouldn't have already experienced.

You're biggest attribute is that you're so used to winning. That's what makes the CL so difficult because you don't get teams who are losing week in week out. Your winning mentality is a strong asset and on the day anything can happen. I just can't bare hearing about how difficult tonight will be because you beat Barca 4/5 years ago!

If you were dropped into the Premiership and given £100m to spend on players there's no question you'd be a big fish but it's all ifs buts and maybes!

 

[adr2.8i]

if we had played this game last season then i would have been a lot more worried, but this season we are a completley different animal. We will be 100% prepared for tonights game, and every other game for that matter.

Im not saying we wont have some time being under pressure but the way the lads are playing and the way they are now being coached and prepared properly, i just cant see us slipping up, last year yes, but not this year (famous last words) :-)

i think we will win by 2 clear goals and thats not me being arrogant, its just being confident in the team.

Really cant wait for every City game now!

 

[morris969]

Celtic losing by 2 or 3 goals is no embarrassment. City are doing this to the top sides in their league.

 

[CitizenTID]

I'm quite enjoying the Celtic/Rangers jibes on Twitter which is weird to say it's our match and we're usually the ones throwing out all the banter (I hate that word, we need a new word for it, joking doesn't suffice).

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Celtic losing by 2 or 3 goals is no embarrassment. City are doing this to the top sides in their league.

Any supporter who gets embarassed at losing, obviously hasn't watched his team enough.
That is not a dig at you by the way. It's any fan, in general.

 

[Marvin]

Celtic are Championship standard and wouldn't survive a season in the Premiership, but that doesn't mean that in a one-off game they can't win. They'll rise to the occasion. Expecting our most difficult game of the season.

 

[bluebrother55]

You'll need to help me out here...

The images of your fans from the Rangers game were posted on here. Pretty nasty and something you should be ashamed of but those Celtic fans on here at the time tried to wriggle round it or change the subject.

 

[marco]

celtic are quite capable of getting a goal or even two so lets not under estimate them, i dont think there defense will cope to well tonight,im going 1-3