CELTIC manager Brendan Rodgers praised the small band of Celtic supporters who made the journey to Lithuania from Greece via Firhill at the weekend.
????️ Brendan Rodgers speaking after #CelticFC‘s 1-1 draw away to FK Suduva tonight. #SUDCEL #UEL pic.twitter.com/7pe5Wz4jb4
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 23, 2018
Rodgers is increasingly frustrated with the performance of his team and in particular the inability to defend anything that goes into our box. AEK Athens scored three goals from four efforts to knock Celtic out of the Champions League and while last night’s 1-1 draw with FK Suduva makes Celtic overwhelming favourites to reach the Group Stages of the Europa League, there is much work to be done by Brendan to get the team firing again.
A few signings plus shipping out the troublesome Belgian will freshen things up and improve the atmosphere at Paradise, where Celtic will play their next three games.
First up is Hamilton on Sunday, before the Lithuanians arrive for Thursday’s second leg of the Play-off then it’s the first visit to Celtic Park for Steven Gerrard and his all conquering world beaters.
Yesterday we predicted that it would be a trouble free night in Glasgow as the Russian side UFA did not have a single supporter at Ibrox. Their fans have managed to disgrace themselves in friendlies – street fights with Wigan fans – and away from home in Europe ‘Scottish fans’ fighting with police and making racist videos attacking innocent young children.
At home ‘Scotland fans’ were also responsible for stabbing two Croatians while one of their fans leaders wrote to the emergency services demanding to know if the attacks involved knives.
So last night with no Russian supporters present there would be no trouble, right?
Wrong! There is a video which you can view HERE which shows two of their supporters after the game smash the glass door of the McDonald’s in Crow Road – just up the road from some of their most notorious boozers – and repeated kick a staff member in the head. It’s shocking stuff, again from Scotland’s Shame.
Meanwhile back to the football, Celtic’s 1-1 draw puts them in an excellent position to qualify for the Europa League Group Stages. Rangers though take a slender 1-0 lead to the far side of Russia to play a side that looked decent and who are used to getting results at home against sides better than Steven Gerrard’s much hyped side.
You only have to look back to last season for evidence of the difficulties faced by a Scottish side taking a 1-0 win to Russia. That was the position Celtic found themselves in after Callum McGregor’s wonderful goal against Zenit St Petersburg in the Knock-out stages in February.
A 1-0 lead was not anywhere near enough to see Celtic through.
That said, there is an argument – that we made yesterday (see HERE) for wanting Rangers to get into the Group stages.
PS Boyata update…
Galatasaray set to table bid for Celtic centre-back Dedryck Boyata after loaning their first-choice defender Maicon out to Al Hilal. A report close to Galatasaray has revealed to https://t.co/rP6a2pNVRL that the club are lining up a bid to sign Boyata on a permanent deal. pic.twitter.com/s2ic3JL2fP
— CelticLisboa (@CelticLisboaa) August 24, 2018
