Sydney FC celebrated a famous win for Australian football over Celtic as Ange Postecoglou’s Homecoming Tour got off to a bad start at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney.
🇦🇺 Joining the @FootballAUS Hall of Fame 🏆
🙌 Ange Postecoglou 🙌
#CELSYD | #SydneySuperCup | #CeltsInSydney🍀 pic.twitter.com/Xa9I6GwBLp— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) November 17, 2022
Celtic started with the following side but it was the A-League side who had the better of the first half.
Celtic’s Team today was Siegrist, Ralston, Welsh, Starfelt, Bernabei, Abildgaard, Turnbull, Ideguchi, Abada, Forrest, Kyogo with the subs being Bain, Taylor, Haksabanovic, Jota, O’Riley, Robertson, Hatate, Lawal, Vata.
Twice Celtic were saved by the woodwork but it was the visitors who opened the scoring as Kyogo deflected a wayward Bernabei shot into the goal with his chest. The lead was short lived though as Stephen Welsh was badly exposed for pace and Ben Siegrist who was having a busier evening than he probably expected, was unable to prevent the goal from Robert Mak.
David Turnbull had a decent effort but all in all it was a lacklustre performance from Celtic, who have been much hyped in Australia since Ange Postecoglou took over at Celtic. The watching Australian TV audience must have wondered what all the fuss was about.
Ange Postecoglou clearly was thinking along similar lines and with Taylor, Hatate, O’Riley Haksabanovic and Jota all coming on at the interval, Celtic took control of the match as Sydney FC fell deeper into their own thats third, desperately trying to withstand the onslaught. Yet in their one and only attack of the second half they took the lead and it was a decent strike from Max Burgess, with Greg Taylor guilty of giving him way too much room.
Celtic huffed and puffed after that but failed to break the low block. Stephen Welsh suffered a head-knock and had to go off with a blood-soaked bandage ahead the wound with Lawal replacing him and looking decent. Robertson too did well, although Rocco Vata failed to make much of an impression.
The referee got just about everything right so was hardly noticed, even the two claims that Celtic had for a penalty were correctly rejected although they would have been given in Scotland. “Not for us,” Tom Boyd noted on Celtic TV.
The game ended in a 2-1 win for Sydney FC who probably gave Celtic a better challenge than any side has in Scotland this season. That said, their standard was clearly lower than Celtic’s – as you could see by the stats regarding efforts on goal and possession, but they played their game, exploited weaknesses in The Celtic defence down that left hand side and got their goals through doing that.
Celtic’s wastefulness in front of goal, yet again, has proved costly, outside of domestic competition. Now it’s a jump in opposition quality of through the night on Saturday through to Sunday if Celtic are to avoid an embarrassment Down Under. Can’t see Ange being happy with this one that ended Sydney FC 2 Celtic 1.
Can someone please explain to me why Celtic’s best striker Giorgos Giakoumakis is not starting games. He has been given limited opportunities whilst Celtic’s attack has become ponderous and wasteful. He did not even feature in the squad for the game against Sydney FC and once again Celtic’s forwards missed many opportunities. Where is the Greek striker?
Giorgos and Jamie F must have blotted their copy books .
Both scoring when played
Jamie got first half on left side in Sydney to accommodate Abada the favourite buoy
Giorgos must be on Bondi.
Angeball deficiencys again exposed by a limited team.
Again Ange has been shown to be tactically unaware and inept. We came up against a manger that has his Sydney side working as a unit, defending together and when the get the ball back they break well and have a couple of decent players.
However under Ange we are wide open and couldn’t keep a barn door shut!
Ange said he had learned and the players had learned from the champions league, well what I just watched was definitely not a manager or team that has learned anything from the champions league. I saw a manager still unwilling to change and play open football that causes Celtic to be beaten again by a side that doesn’t have a 10th of our budget.
The more I watch Ange and this team the more convinced I am that Ange can only beat sides that have a 10th of our budget, not a manager like Martin O’Neil who could go toe to toe with some of the biggest teams in Europe with larger budgets than us!