Football

[The exile]

LASK 5 v Celtic 1 (Agg 5-4)

Celtic 4 up at half time and managed to throw it away. Absolute clown town stuff. Hilariously bad.

If they were 4 up at half-time , how come the result was 5-1? Or do you mean 4 up after the first leg?

 

[Mike99]

If they were 4 up at half-time , how come the result was 5-1? Or do you mean 4 up after the first leg?

Celtic were 3-0 up from the first leg, scored first last night (21mins), so therefore Celtic were 4-0 ahead on aggregate. Celtic then managed to concede 4 goals between the 32nd minute and full time so 4 - 4, and then LESK scored a winner in the 109th minute ending the match as victors 5-4 on aggreagte.

 

[The exile]

Celtic were 3-0 up from the first leg, scored first last night (21mins), so therefore Celtic were 4-0 ahead on aggregate. Celtic then managed to concede 4 goals between the 32nd minute and full time so 4 - 4, and then LESK scored a winner in the 109th minute ending the match as victors 5-4 on aggreagte.

OK - “score at half time” (unqualified) to me means “in the match that is currently being played”. Still not good for Celtic but not as dramatic as going into half-time 4-0 up on the night and then conceding 5 in the second half.

 

[DarloRich]

4 up before half time but conceded for the first time after 32 minutes.

yes - that is what I meant to say! Regardless it was a complete horror show

 

[Falcon1200]

Regardless it was a complete horror show

Indeed, and won't have done much for Martin O'Neill's health.

 

[AlterEgo]

Celtic looked like they were playing in quicksand and suffering from asthma at the same time, an unbelievable collapse to be honest. No idea what has gone on there.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Northern Premier League...Premier Division

At the start of this season, FC United of Manchester with a strengthened team squad looked to make an early season good start.

However, after the first six league matches, they have drawn two and lost four and occupy the bottom slot in the league table.

 

[75A]

Northern Premier League...Premier Division

At the start of this season, FC United of Manchester with a strengthened team squad looked to make an early season good start.

However, after the first six league matches, they have drawn two and lost four and occupy the bottom slot in the league table.

Bet they could still beat Celtic, think Celtics 2nd half and Extra Time efforts were probably as bad a display as i've ever seen in over 60 years of watching the game.

 

[gg1]

Wondering if Celtic have set a new record here.

Being 4-0 up on aggregate but going on to lose the tie is a new one for me.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Wondering if Celtic have set a new record here.

Being 4-0 up on aggregate but going on to lose the tie is a new one for me.

In the Champions League maybe but in the 2023 play offs Sheffield Wednesday lost the first leg at Peterborough 4-0 but won the second leg 5-1 and went on to win on penalties!

 

[JamesT]

Wondering if Celtic have set a new record here.

Being 4-0 up on aggregate but going on to lose the tie is a new one for me.

Barcelona vs. PSG in 2017. PSG won the first leg 4-0, but lost the second leg at Camp Nou 6-1 (6-5 aggregate).

 

[THC]

Celtic looked like they were playing in quicksand and suffering from asthma at the same time, an unbelievable collapse to be honest. No idea what has gone on there.

We sold Arne Engels to West Ham before the first leg and failed to replace him, so played without a holding midfielder sitting in front of the back four. Our regular right back is out injured and one of the centre backs has only just returned after a season out, but on the pitch at least it was the yawning gaps between defence and midfield that LASK exploited last night to such effect.

Off the pitch, the Engels sale is but another example of the club's 'biscuit-tin' mentality where profit is prioritised over playing strength. Celtic is, as I understand it, the only profitable top-flight club in Scotland (of those which publish annual accounts).

Apparently two players were lined up to replace Engels had Celtic qualified for the CL - one wonders if either deal will go through now that the Engels money has to offset the loss in income that accompanies the drop into the Europa League.

THC

 

[Tetchytyke]

Off the pitch, the Engels sale is but another example of the club's 'biscuit-tin' mentality where profit is prioritised over playing strength. Celtic is, as I understand it, the only profitable top-flight club in Scotland (of those which publish annual accounts).

Same old issue with the board at Celtic- no ambition, they're quite content to just plod along in Scotland where the standard of the league is dropping rapidly. They might occasionally get a challenge from the zombies or from Hearts but they're going to win most things most of the time without even really having to try.

 

[DarloRich]

Off the pitch, the Engels sale is but another example of the club's 'biscuit-tin' mentality where profit is prioritised over playing strength.

Same old issue with the board at Celtic- no ambition, they're quite content to just plod along in Scotland where the standard of the league is dropping rapidly. They might occasionally get a challenge from the zombies or from Hearts but they're going to win most things most of the time without even really having to try.

What ambition should they have? Why spend money when you play in a pub league and can win every season for peanuts? £1bn in this and the next 5 transfer windows wouldn't win the champions league. What would success look like? There is no avenue for progression.

it is the result of being a blue whale in a fish tank!

 

[gg1]

What ambition should they have? Why spend money when you play in a pub league and can win every season for peanuts? £1bn in this and the next 5 transfer windows wouldn't win the champions league. What would success look like? There is no avenue for progression.

it is the result of being a blue whale in a fish tank!

I'd measure success for Celtic as consistently being competitive in Europe. You have to go back to 2012-13 to find the last season they made it to the last 16 of any European competition.

It's not an unrealistic goal, in the same period Rangers achieved that on 5 occasions, including reaching the final of the Europa League in 2021-22 and the quarter finals in 24-25.

 

[Tetchytyke]

What would success look like? There is no avenue for progression.

A club of Celtic's stature should be qualifying for the Champions League group stage and should at least be competing for the top 24 in the group stage.

Now they're in the Europa League they should be getting out of the group stage at the very least.

 

[Mike99]

A club of Celtic's stature should be qualifying for the Champions League group stage and should at least be competing for the top 24 in the group stage.

Now they're in the Europa League they should be getting out of the group stage at the very least.

Not if they have to play Crystal Palace!!!!

 

[DarloRich]

A club of Celtic's stature should be qualifying for the Champions League group stage and should at least be competing for the top 24 in the group stage.

But they wont, or at least not easily. On the 10 season UEFA coefficient thingy Celtic are 51st. It is quite jump to bridge that gap and stay there. (Rangers are 40th in the same table)

Football has moved on. Celtic are part of the feeder/player development system for bigger clubs, same as the likes of once BIG clubs like Ajax, Milan, Marseille etc

That said: They absolutely SHOULD be getting into the group stage of the CL

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

A club of Celtic's stature should be qualifying for the Champions League group stage and should at least be competing for the top 24 in the group stage.

Based on what? Having long spells of domination in a league that is now barely third-rate? Or being the first British winners of the European Cup, nearly 60 years ago?!

Football has moved on. Celtic are part of the feeder/player development system for bigger clubs, same as the likes of once BIG clubs like Ajax, Milan, Marseille etc

Exactly this. Countries with both population and money now dominate in Europe. On current trends Poland might one day join them but that will take decades yet. There are various other once competitive teams that now barely register on the UEFA front, think Anderlecht, Malmo, Red Star, etc.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Football has moved on. Celtic are part of the feeder/player development system for bigger clubs, same as the likes of once BIG clubs like Ajax, Milan, Marseille etc

Absolutely they are. They're never going to win it again, no chance. But they should be getting to the group stage.

But those sorts of big clubs still regularly reach the group stage of the Champions League and they still compete when they get to that stage. Ajax and PSV made it to the group stage last year and were there or thereabouts in the group phase table. Clubs like Qarabag and Bodo/Glimt made it out of the group phase into the first knockout phase last year.

Celtic had an unlucky draw, they got the highest-ranked of all the clubs in the draw. But it isn't really good enough.

Scottish football is pretty much dead on its backside though. Look at Hearts, battered in the Champions League qualifiers and then battered in the Europa League qualifiers, at least they just squeaked into the Conference League on penalties last night.

 

[SuspectUsual]

We sold Arne Engels to West Ham before the first leg and failed to replace him, so played without a holding midfielder sitting in front of the back four

Doesn’t Callum MacGregor play there?

 

[brad465]

UEFA are not done with Infantino yet:

Gianni Infantino: Uefa pursuing criminal legal proceedings against Fifa president

Uefa is pursuing criminal proceedings against Fifa and its president Gianni Infantino over the failed plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup.

www.bbc.co.uk

Uefa is pursuing criminal legal proceedings against Fifa and its president Gianni Infantino over the now scrapped plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup and its other competitions to private investors.

Documents seen by BBC Sport show an application has been made by European football's governing body requesting access to evidence and documents for use in proceedings in Switzerland against both the embattled president himself and Fifa.

In the application, Uefa claims that Infantino engineered the plan in order to enrich himself and the potential private investors.

"In truth, it was a vehicle for Infantino and that small circle to acquire a permanent stake in and otherwise profit from Fifa's most valuable assets to the detriment of Fifa, its members, and other parties within the football family," Uefa's application says.

"Infantino pushed the plan through internal Fifa approval only days earlier at a hastily convened meeting where a limited number of Fifa's management officials and employees - some of whom had never heard of the plan - were given mere hours to sign off on an unprecedented multi-billion dollar scheme."

Uefa also claims that the valuation of the stakes to be sold were not independently verified and would have been offered too cheaply.

Uefa's application adds: "Under the terms Infantino announced, those investors stood to acquire a permanent financial interest in Fifa's commercial arm for $4.2bn, implying an absurdly low enterprise value of only approximately $20bn, a figure that was neither the product of an open, competitive auction, nor tested by any independent valuer."

In the application, Uefa is applying to a court in Florida - where the businesses Fifa operated in order to deliver the 2026 World Cup are based - in an attempt to access files to be used to pursue the criminal charges in Switzerland at a later stage.

Uefa claims that its 55 member nations would have potentially been harmed by the sell-off plan, and that it may pursue criminal proceedings against other Fifa officials.

"Uefa and other interested parties are preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino and possibly other Fifa officials and advisors for criminal mismanagement," the application states.

"The secretive structuring, valuation, financing, and marketing inflicted direct and concrete injury on Fifa's reputation, governance authority, and commercial relationships to the detriment of Fifa as well as its 211 members, including Uefa's 55 member associations."

Uefa insists that the plan was concocted without the knowledge of them or other key stakeholders in football, and that it had been long in development.

The applications says: "On July 28, 2026, without consulting the Fifa Council, Uefa, or any of the other confederations, or any of the 211 Fifa member associations, Infantino, purportedly acting on behalf of Fifa, publicly announced a plan to place the commercial rights to the men's and women's World Cups and the Club World Cup into a new subsidiary: Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE).

"That announcement by Infantino was the public unveiling of a plan that he and a small circle of co-conspirators had conceived and reportedly been developing in secret for more than a year."

More to follow.

 

[THC]

Doesn’t Callum MacGregor play there?

He's not a holding midfielder. And even if he was he's lost any pace that would render him effective in such a role.

Absolutely they are. They're never going to win it again, no chance. But they should be getting to the group stage.

But those sorts of big clubs still regularly reach the group stage of the Champions League and they still compete when they get to that stage. Ajax and PSV made it to the group stage last year and were there or thereabouts in the group phase table. Clubs like Qarabag and Bodo/Glimt made it out of the group phase into the first knockout phase last year.

Celtic had an unlucky draw, they got the highest-ranked of all the clubs in the draw. But it isn't really good enough.

Scottish football is pretty much dead on its backside though. Look at Hearts, battered in the Champions League qualifiers and then battered in the Europa League qualifiers, at least they just squeaked into the Conference League on penalties last night.

Thank you Tetchytyke - it sometimes feels like I plough a lone furrow hereabouts but glad to see that I'm not the only one who sees Celtic or Scottish football in the same light. I do try to remain objective btw!

THC

 

[Darandio]

Thank you Tetchytyke - it sometimes feels like I plough a lone furrow hereabouts but glad to see that I'm not the only one who sees Celtic or Scottish football in the same light. I do try to remain objective btw!

And the way things are going Rangers will be out of Europe for the season tonight, going out with a whimper too. Terrible.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Thursday at 19:39 ==

And there we are, Rangers out of Europe. Garbage. Czechmate.

 

[THC]

And the way things are going Rangers will be out of Europe for the season tonight, going out with a whimper too. Terrible.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Thursday at 19:39 ==

And there we are, Rangers out of Europe. Garbage. Czechmate.

No good for the Scottish game but I can't help confess to a small amount of schadenfreude. Petty I know, and it bears out @DarloRich's point - all very small time. Both clubs should however be capable of much more than this.

(And congratulations to any Hearts fans looking in - an outstanding result against Rapid Vienna last night )

THC

 

[JD2168]

Question:
Which has been the worse Scottish football team performance in Europe this week:
Celtic going out 5-4 on aggregate against LASK after being 4-0 up on Aggregate in the second leg

Rangers being knocked out by Jablonec on penalties after a poor performance after a 1-1 draw on aggregate failing to reach the group stage of the Conference League after already being knocked out of the Europa League qualifying.

 

[Darandio]

Question:
Which has been the worse Scottish football team performance in Europe this week:
Celtic going out 5-4 on aggregate against LASK after being 4-0 up on Aggregate in the second leg

Rangers being knocked out by Jablonec on penalties after a poor performance after a 1-1 draw on aggregate failing to reach the group stage of the Conference League after already being knocked out of the Europa League qualifying.

I suppose if you're on the outside and didn't watch either game it's easy to call the Celtic capitulation as the worse of the two performances.

Truth is Celtic played well for the first 45 minutes in that second leg. Rangers were absolutely dire for the whole 120 minutes tonight. I'd say the Rangers performance was much worse.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Question:
Which has been the worse Scottish football team performance in Europe this week:

Motherwell didn't exactly set the heather on fire against Sport Club Freiburg in the UEFA Conference League. Lost 1-3 at home last week and 1-4 away tonight (= 2-7 defeat on aggregate).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

LASK 5 v Celtic 1 (Agg 5-4)

Celtic 4 up at half time and managed to throw it away. Absolute clown town stuff. Hilariously bad.

Not too dissimilar tonight in the UEFA Europa League

Red Star Belgrade took a 3-0 first leg advantage over Victoria Pizen but the score tonight was ,,,, Victoria Pizen 5 ... Red Star Belgrade 1 (Agg 5-4)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Question:
Which has been the worse Scottish football team performance in Europe this week:

So, which Scottish clubs are still left in Europe? Just Celtic (albeit now cascaded into the second tier UEFA Europa League) and Heart of Midlothian (still in the UEFA Conference League)?