G'Day! Ange's Gap Year Celtic Euro Backpacking Tour 2021/22.

[DavieCFC]

I very much enjoyed tonight , seeing everyone again, the atmosphere and just being able to watch a game in person. It was brilliant to be back.

Pity Kyogo didnt score that chance in the 1st minute because the roof might have come off if he did. But we played some lovely stuff tonight, the goal that was chopped off for offside was a great move, Rogic was looking back to his best and most importantly Turnbull had his best game of the season and looked more like the player we have come to expect.

The playing it out from the back though does leave ye with yer heart in mouth at times but it does look good when you beat the press and break forward at speed and create chances.

Also special mention to Joe Hart. I wasn't an overly huge fan of this signing but he did well tonight and made 2 very nice saves, was nice to see a goalkeeper make a big save when needed.

Looking forward now to the next tie  Don't know much about Alkmaar these days but Dutch opposition is usually pretty tough but keep improving like this and we've got a good chance

 

[Theroadlesstravelled]

It sounds like Celtic have found their level. The CL is just one step too high for them.

[Clown Job]

2 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

It sounds like Celtic have found their level. The CL is just one step too high for them.

I think you would have struggled to find a fan who believed we would have qualified for the CL this season with everything happened on and off the pitch 

[wastecoatwilly]

A lot of praise will go to Kyogo but Turnbull and Welsh are even better in the flesh,Kyogo's movement and Turnbull's vision will cause better teams problems in Europe.
Ange is playing a very expansive style the movement and tempo could catch up with him near the end of a long season with the amount of games Celtic normally play.
Playing this style will get players injured so getting more players in will help with the rotation.
Another memorial night,singing walk on,67th minute and the huddle should never be taking for granted.

[Jinky67]

1 hour ago, wastecoatwilly said:

A lot of praise will go to Kyogo but Turnbull and Welsh are even better in the flesh,Kyogo's movement and Turnbull's vision will cause better teams problems in Europe.
Ange is playing a very expansive style the movement and tempo could catch up with him near the end of a long season with the amount of games Celtic normally play.
Playing this style will get players injured so getting more players in will help with the rotation.
Another memorial night,singing walk on,67th minute and the huddle should never be taking for granted.

Turnbull in his more natural position is a different player and Welsh again didn't put a foot wrong, he's got a future i reckon if he keeps developing in the way he is just now.

But i think for me it was just exciting and great to watch but i agree we need a number of players in of suitable quality that can either go straight in or provide cover. 

[TommyDickFingers]

4 hours ago, wastecoatwilly said:

Another memorial night,singing walk on,67th minute and the huddle should never be taking for granted.

For the 10 I presume.

Lest we forget. RIP etc

[Drew Brees]

8 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

It sounds like Celtic have found their level. The CL is just one step too high for them.

Def, though I still believe we should be beating teams like midtjylland, who weren’t a very good side. If we played them again next week I think the result would be different, but in typical Celtic fashion we don’t do forward planning. 
‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ should be hung above the boardroom entrance. 
 

in saying that PSV would have taken us up and down skelpy bum mountain for fun. 

[Jinky67]

36 minutes ago, Drew Brees said:

Def, though I still believe we should be beating teams like midtjylland, who weren’t a very good side. If we played them again next week I think the result would be different, but in typical Celtic fashion we don’t do forward planning. 
‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ should be hung above the boardroom entrance. 
 

in saying that PSV would have taken us up and down skelpy bum mountain for fun. 

We have a job to do to get past Alkmaar to be fair, apparently finished only a point behind PSV? Doesn't leave us much if any time to bring anyone in so need to keep fingers crossed everyone gets through Sunday in one piece

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by Jinky67

[wastecoatwilly]

24 minutes ago, Jinky67 said:

We have a job to do to get past Alkmaar to be fair, apparently finished only a point behind PSV? Doesn't leave us much if any time to bring anyone in so need to keep fingers crossed everyone gets through Sunday in one piece

 

They've lost 3 of their best players so not the same team as last season the same could be said about us.

[Jinky67]

5 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

They've lost 3 of their best players so not the same team as last season the same could be said about us.

We seem to be on a bit of an upwards trajectory though which i suppose is a positive and i think the Dutch League kicks off this weekend which also gives us a possible advantage in march sharpness/fitness etc.

I think it will be a tough one though and we need a couple of goals on Thursday night to take to Holland imo

[FortescueFotheringhamSmyth]

Well, after a pleasant couple of lazy afternoons on the politics forum (What a mindless, venomously orthodox country this has become. Almost like an Old Firm fanzine in the 90s, but without the humour) I'm back on the serious sub-boards.

AZ 67 Alkmaar. 

Celtic 11/10 or so for Wednesday night. That looks worth an almost serious bet. I'd prefer taking a shade of odds-on to qualify, but I can't see a market up on that as yet.

As Willy says above, AZ have been pillaged over the summer. Three of their best players have fallen to the chequebooks of Les Grenouilles and will be gracing Ligue 1 this season.

AZ can't complain about that. Their historic successes have been gained when they've pushed the boat out a wee bit further than was prudent, under 2nd-rate sugar daddies, then paid the price.

Most notable triumph was the 1980/81 campaign. They won the Dutch league by 12 points (2 for a win back then) from Ajax, losing only 1 game & scoring 101 league goals. They beat Ajax in the cup final too. They were only denied a treble by a peak form Ipswich Town, who comfortably despatched them in the UEFA Cup final. AZ could only finish 3rd in defence of their title and had the bad luck to run into Liverpool early doors in the European Cup. After a 2-2 draw in Holland, it was also 2-2 at Anfield with 6 minutes left. Alan Hansen then scored one of the 14 goals he managed in his 13 seasons on Merseyside. 

That was the Ipswich side that narrowly lost the English title race to Aston Villa, who famously used only 14 players in 42 league matches. Ipswich played 66 games that season, having fair runs in the League Cup and FA Cup. They began their FA Cup run by knocking out Villa, who'd lost in round 2 of the League Cup. Burley, Wark, Brazil, Muhren, Thijssen, Butcher, Mariner & Ing-Ger-Lund skipper Mills would've played a fair few internationals too. Ipswich were a match for any team in Europe back then, though not for Fergie's Sheep, who beat them in the 1st round the following season.

AZ's recent European record has merely been respectable. They lost to Dinamo Kiev in the Champions League qualifiers last term, before finishing 3rd in a Europa League group comprising Napoli, Real Sociedad & last week's slayers of the Spoonburners, Rijeka. In 19/20 they lost to Sainties opponents LASK.

AZ may have finished one point adrift of PSV last spring, but that was a vastly different XI to the one that will take the field at Parkhead. They started last season slowly: 6 straight league draws and a 12-12 goal tally. They survived a mid-season drama when learning that coach Arne Slot was being tapped-up by Feyenoord. They fired him on the spot. Luckily for him, Slot did get the De Kuip gig. Anglo-Dutch career coach Pascal Jansen stepped up from number two and has kept the top job for this season. A highly regarded coach buggering off midseason is usually bad news for squad stability.

Over the summer they've seen goalie Marco Bizot move to Brest for €5m. They haven't replaced him, deciding to go with experienced back-up Hobie Verhulst, who spent a few seasons as number #1 at Volendam and Go Ahead Eagles, two clubs who bounce between the top two divisions. Sander Westerveld's sprog is also on the books, but the son of the man who was once the UK's most expensive goalie is only 19 and not near the 1st XI. (The same goes for Ruud Gullit's son, Max, who's a number #5.)

Tricky and dangerous wide midfielder Calvin Stengs has joined Nice, for a fee variously reported as being €10m or €15.

Biggest loss will likely be spearhead Myron Boadu, who's gone to Monaco for €17m. AZ have bought the promising Greek "proper number #9" Vangelis Pavlidis from Willem II. He was a 2-goals-in-5 man over his two-&-a-half seasons there, which is a good return for a proper line-leading #9 at a club at Willem II's level. Pavlidis started on the bench in Saturday's season opener - a surprise 1-0 loss at Waalwijk.

AZ are clearly not short of €€ for replacements, but nobody notable has yet arrived. 

Also on the bench on Saturday was skipper Teun Koopmeiners, who scored 15 goals from midfield last season. The queue to sign him seems long, with Arsenal reportedly amongst those interested. He seems certain to be up the road by the end of the month. It appears he was left out as coach Jansen thinks his mind won't be fully on the job.

Vice-captain Owen Wijndal missed pre-season and Saturday's opener with a groin injury. His replacement at #3 on Saturday was Thijs Oosting, generally a midfielder, who was making his debut and whose only previous Eredivisie experience was while on loan at Waalwijk last season.

AZ are generally a young side, though Bruno Martins Indi, who's not played for Holland since 2017, and expensive long-term Southampton flop Jordy Clasie should start on Wednesday. 

They are likely to start Pavlidis at #9, but fielded three much smaller forwards v. Waalwijk. Promising but raw kid Zakaria Aboukhlal, who represented Holland at most ages until his call-up by Morocco last winter; small, nippy, Swedish winger Jesper Karlsson, who bagged 11 goals last season and narrowly missed Sweden's Euro 2020 squad... and the interesting Icelandic wide-man Albert Gudmundsson. Albert is a 4th generation professional. His great-grandfather, also named Albert Gudmundsson, was Iceland's first professional player, before rising to the heights of Icelandic Finance Minister. He resigned his cabinet position after a tax fraud case, which was apt when you consider that he started his impressive football career at.... ehhhh.... Ibrox: playing a number of wartime games for Rangers while a student in Glasgow, before making a few amateur appearances with Arsenal, then going pro with AC Milan, RC Paris and the aforementioned Nice. If Pavlidis doesn't start, AZ may struggle to trouble Joe Hart... even through Celtic's current defence. Diminutive 17-year-old striker Ernest Poku came on with Pavlidis on Saturday, but AZ made no impression on Waalwijk.

AZ had 72% possession and won the shot count 19-7 at Waalwijk. That got them sod all in a 1-0 defeat. Waalwijk finished just one point above the relegation play-off place in May, winning just 7 of their 34 league games. They were around 9/2 with the bookies to beat AZ. 

With AZ in something approaching disarray, anything better than 4/5 about Celtic and their ragged defence qualifying looks worth taking to me.

Edited August 17, 2021 by FortescueFotheringhamSmyth

[FortescueFotheringhamSmyth]

Veteran tipster Steve Davies does the Racing Post preview. Recommends a punt on "Over 3.5 Goals" @ 15/8.

Cannae mind who did the Racing & Football Outlook preview and I don't have my copy to hand, but they went for a Celtic win. I think it was "Hooray" Henry Hardwicke, who pens a virulently orthodox condemnation of "obscene" transfer fees and "undeserved" wages in a rant on pages 2 to 3. 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

[itzdrk]

G'day how come this is on tonight. 

 

 

[aarbann CSC]

13 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

G'day how come this is on tonight. 

 

 

Orcs are at home as well so have to play on separate nights

Desmond for me tonight.

 

 

[GNU_Linux]

Proud member of the Pfizer loyal but backing the AZ.

[BigDoddyKane]

Looking forward to this, I think it comes a bit early for us but its a good test of where we are, can be a reality check can be a surprise. Lets see. Hopefully its as entertaining for Celtic fans as the last few games have been.

[Jinky67]

Early suggestion is that Abada is in for Edouard meaning Kyogo is back through the middle. 

 

[BigDoddyKane]

5 minutes ago, Jinky67 said:

Early suggestion is that Abada is in for Edouard meaning Kyogo is back through the middle. 

 

That works for me, everyone playing needs to be giving 100% 

[Clown Job]