2014-08-06: Celtic 0-2 Legia Warsaw, Champions League 3rd qualifying round

Match Pictures | Matches: 2014 – 2015 | 2014-15 Pictures

Trivia

• Post-Match: Scoreline reversed! Celtic win 3-0 by default after Legia found to have played an ineligible player for 5 minutes at the end of the game! 4-4 on aggregate, Celtic through on away goals.
• Champions League 2014-15
• European Cup 3rd qualifying round, 2nd Leg
• Celtic were out of European Cup, down to the Europa League. Won a reprieve.
• Match played at Murrayfield
• Celtic’s 6-1 aggregate defeat to Legia Warsaw was their joint worst aggregate defeat in Europe (with 5-0 v Juventus in 2013), but now it’s 4-4 so Celtic go through on goals.
• Transfers in: Craig Gordon; Jo Inge Berget (loan)
• Transfers out: Mouyokolo (free); Tony Watt
• Legia Warsaw lost their fight to be compensated for their Champions League exit after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that their initial punishment was fair (so Celtic vindicated).
• Next season, 2015-16: Europa League: Romanian side FC Botosani trolled opponents Legia Warsaw – by dressing their ballboys in Celtic kits!

Review

(jimmy mac of KDS forum)
We had to score 3 goals at the start of the match without conceding. Looking at the way we played, you wouldn’t have thought so. I am in the “he needs to be given time” camp but boy he is going to make it hard for himself if he cointinues to be stubborn.

Even after going a goal down, there was no change in tactics (which worries me the most). I don’t effing care if you are trying to implement a new style but when the club and fans depend on CL football when there is no domestic competition, you have to win at all costs. His blindly sticking to his system was either naive or stubborn. I suspect the latter. His stubborness to stick to a system was probably the reason Griffiths was played out wide. He can’t lead the line in “the system” so lets play him deep. I would rather he didn’t play if you are not going to stick him up front.

Now to the players. Hopeless, clueless and lacking in any technical ability whatsoever to make it at the CL level or EPL level. No movement, poor touches and poor passing. We created the square root of feck all tonight against a keeper who is extremely poor. Legia will struggle in the next round, not because they are an average team but beacause they will be put under pressure and their defence and goalie will be shown up.

Only positives out of tonight were MacGregor, MAtthews and the introduction of Forrest. I know many on here don’t rate Forrest but you could see the difference in class when he came on from our other players. Pity he will be injured again in a few games time.

Thank you Celtic for draining my optimism.

(sean 83 of KDS forum)
This result has been coming for a while now. We just got into the Champions League last year beating Karagandy at home. This papered over the cracks of a team that was badly in need of some investment. But the board were just happy that we got there so they could bank the money. We got soundly thumped in the CL last year but again the board were just happy to be there. This year though it has really came back to bite us.

I remember Lawwell saying that when Celtic come out of a transfer window they look to be stronger. Hooper (Griffiths), Wanyama (McGregor), Ledley (Johanson), Wilson (Ambrose), Forster (Gordon), van Dijk (?), Lennon (Deila). Makes for some depressing reading.

I don’t know why the board never gave Lennon the money he wanted to strengthen his team. Yeah they got a bit stale last year with getting knocked out the cups but he had something there that just needed to be built on. Deila has got a whole overhaul of the squad to do now. And with last night and last weeks results I don’t know if he is going to get the time to do it. Which therefore means he gets punted and we have a half built team. Like Mowbrays season where he had players in there that just weren’t good enough and it took Lennon to come in and shake it up. I don’t know if we have anyone waiting in the wings that could come in and rescue it if it does go breests up.

The knock on effect is that Celtic will be playing in front of 20-25k people every week now. Which therefore means revenue will be down and therefore the type of player we look at will be massively reduced (if you can get more reduced than a goalkeeper that hasn’t played in 2 years and a Cardiff reject on a 6 month loan). The board have been fleecing the fans hoping that we would get through to the Champions League and everyone would be happy. But it’s just not happened this year and I actually think Celtic are in danger of pushing fans away from the club because of their lack of investment after years of taking money off supporters. 2 years Champions League money in a row say is roughly $40m, Hooper $6m, Wanyama $12m, Ledley $2.5m, Wilson $2.5m. There’s $63m Celtic have brought in 2 years, not including season ticket sales, prize money for winning the league and tv money etc. So where has it all gone? Certainly not on the team that is on the field at the minute. I realise the board can not go down the route of Rangers and go bust but surely there must be a happy medium of spending money without bankrupcy. Shocking to think that now we will (more than likely) sell Forster or/and van Dijk to balance the books when the board must have brought in anything between $90-$100m in 2 years and gave the fans eff all to show for it

Teams

Legia Warsaw

Substitutes

• 02 Júnior Dossa Momade
• 09 Saganowski
• 19 Bereszynski
• 20 Kosecki
• 23 Pinto
• 70 Sá
• 91 Jalocha

Goals

• Zyro (36), Kucharczyk (61)

Stadium: Murrayfield
Attendance: 30,000 (est)

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Forum

• Pre-match
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• Post Match

Articles
Celtic 0-2 Legia Warsaw (agg 1-6): Celtic slain

Kris Commons (right) walks past Celtic manager Ronny Deila after being substituted. Picture: SNS

Kris Commons (right) walks past Celtic manager Ronny Deila after being substituted. Picture: SNS
by STEPHEN HALLIDAY

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/celtic-0-2-legia-warsaw-agg-1-6-celtic-slain-1-3501648

Updated on the
07 August
2014
00:54

Published 06/08/2014 21:40

FOR the first time in three years, Celtic will not revel in the sound of the Champions League anthem after they took their leave of this season’s tournament with barely a whimper.

Celtic 0
Legia Warsaw 2 – Zyro (36), Kucharczyk (61)
Legia won 6-1 on aggregate
Referee: P Mazzoleni (Italy)
Attendance: 30,000 (est)

On an uncomfortable evening for both new manager Ronny Deila and chief executive Peter Lawwell at Murrayfield last night, the Scottish champions were humbled by a solid but far from spectacular Legia Warsaw side, whose ease of passage into the Play-Off round will have surprised them as much as anyone.
Deila was outmanoeuvred tactically by his Norwegian compatriot Henning Berg over the course of this tie, with both the manner and size of defeat casting significant early question marks over his suitability as Neil Lennon’s successor.
For Lawwell, who was subjected to profane abuse from the Green Brigade section of the club’s support, the lack of close season investment in the squad is an issue laid firmly at his door as he ponders missing out on the £15million jackpot from the Champions League group stage.
Celtic must now turn their attention to the less lucrative Europa League, dropping into the Play-Off round, but on the evidence of this tepid and unimaginative display, it is by no means certain they will win that tie.
Michal Zyro’s first-half goal increased Legia’s comfort zone after their 4-1 first-leg win, with Michal Kucharczyk completing a scoreline after the break which equalled Celtic’s heaviest-ever margin of aggregate defeat in 50 seasons of European football.
Despite the magnitude of the task, Deila resisted the temptation to commit himself completely to the kind of all-guns-blazing approach which was once the hallmark of many a stirring European comeback from Celtic.
Anthony Stokes returned to the starting line-up at the expense of Teemu Pukki, although the Irish international’s record of no goals in 13 previous Champions League appearances hardly cast him in the role of likely saviour for the Glasgow club.
He was the only out and out striker in Deila’s starting line-up, with Kris Commons deployed just behind him. Callum McGregor and Stefan Johansen were delegated to provide the width in midfield, while Nir Biton was preferred in the central area to Jan Inge Berget, who had endured such a wretched debut in Warsaw seven days earlier. But, while Celtic did manage to dominate possession in the initial exchanges, they did so without seriously troubling the visitors’ goal. At the other end, it did not take long for evidence to surface of the defensive frailty which proved so costly in the first leg.
Fraser Forster, the subject of fresh speculation earlier in the day linking him with a move to Southampton, had to scramble across his six-yard box in the ninth minute to fist the ball clear after his back four had failed to deal with Tomasz Brzyski’s corner from the left.
The jitters seemed to transmit themselves to the English international goalkeeper, who was then guilty of a poor kick out, which went straight to Legia captain Ivica Vrdoljak. Fortunately for Forster, he was able to save the Croatian midfielder’s shot with some comfort.
Adam Matthews, back in his favoured right-back role as Mikael Lustig moved to central defence to partner Virgil van Dijk in the absence of the suspended Efe Ambrose, produced Celtic’s first moment of real attacking menace with a terrific run into the penalty area, his cutback bravely intercepted by Legia keeper Dusan Kuciak before it could reach Johansen.
The Polish champions certainly had no intention of simply protecting their first-leg lead and caught Celtic flat-footed at the back once more when Kucharczyk beat the offside trap to set up a chance for Lukasz Broz, whose shot was held by Forster.
McGregor, whose early goal last week had given Celtic the perfect start in Warsaw, looked the most likely source of a breakthrough for them once more as he clearly had the beating of Legia left-back Brzyski. The young midfielder showed great strength and movement to get away from his marker in the 18th minute and find Charlie Mulgrew who posted Celtic’s first effort on target with a shot easily gathered by Kuciak.
Seven minutes later, McGregor took the ball on the edge of the penalty area after Emilio Izaguirre’s low cross found its way to him and he sent a curling shot wide of Kuciak’s right-hand post.
When Matthews then wasted a hugely promising situation for Celtic, delivering a dreadful ball straight to a Legia defender when he had broken free into the penalty area again, a palpable sense of frustration began to fill the stadium. That quickly turned into a deflated mood of resignation when Legia opened the scoring on the night with Zyro’s 36th-minute goal.
It was yet another defensive horror show for Celtic as Vrdoljak’s through ball caught the back four on their heels, allowing Zyro a free run at Forster. The Legia player was unfazed by the sight of the big keeper advancing and coolly slotted a low shot into the corner of the net.
Celtic tried to rally to what was now clearly a lost cause, forcing a bout of pressure on the Legia goal at the start of the second half. Stokes had one tame effort easily dealt with by Kuciak, but then managed to force the Slovakian international into his first genuine save of the evening with a curling effort which he dived to his left to turn behind.
Commons volleyed wide from close range as the goal which might have sparked a flicker of hope continued to elude Celtic. Deila sent on Leigh Griffiths for Lustig in a bid to add fresh impetus up front but his hopes of a minor footballing miracle were then completely extinguished when Legia made it 2-0 on the night in the 
61st minute.
Again, the goal was in keeping with Celtic’s capacity for comic-cuts defending in this tie. 
Izaguirre inexcusably lost possession on the edge of his penalty area, causing panic among his team-mates as Zyro fed Kucharczk who was able to take the ball around the exposed Forster and slot it home from close range.

Celtic: Forster, Matthews, Lustig (Griffiths 57), Van Dijk, Izaguirre; McGregor, Biton, Mulgrew, Johansen; Commons (Pukki 71); Stokes (Forrest 71). Subs not used: Zaluska, Henderson, Kayal, Berget.
Legia Warsaw: Kuciak, Broz, Astiz, Rzezniczak, Brzyski; Zyro (Bereszynski 87), Jodlowiec, Vrdoljak, Kucharczyk (Kosecki 74); Duda (Pinto 87), Radovic. Subs not used: Jalocha, Dossa Junior, Saganowski, Orlando Sa.

Spiers on Sport: Celtic buckle to Legia and head into the unknown

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/spiers-on-sport-celtic-buckle-to-legia-and-head-into-the-unknown.1407358715
Spiers on Sport
Graham Spiers
Wednesday 6 August 2014
Celtic have crashed off the Champions League highway, crumbling to Legia Warsaw in humiliating fashion. An aggregate 6-1 loss is nothing if not embarrassing.
It is a bitter night for the club’s supporters, who have had it pretty good in Europe in recent times. But what else is this defeat?
A disaster? A crucial pointer to life about to unfold under Ronny Deila? A sign of a switched-off, mismanaging club board?
Emphatically, it is none of these things. Not in the here and now. There is plenty hot air around Celtic these days but this Legia Warsaw setback tells us almost nothing of any significance.
Far more acute for Celtic are these days and weeks ahead. Fraser Forster, surely, will leave the club. So might Virgil van Dijk and Adam Matthews. The immediate issue is what kind of new team Deila can create.
Celtic losing out on a potential Champions League place is certainly a financial blow – we can come back to that. But, in terms of Deila’s substance as the club’s manager, these early days tell us little.
This is the question: will Deila be a good or bad Celtic manager? That is among the two or three essential issues that Celtic supporters and the media wish to know. Right now, early August 2014, is no time to be groping for an answer.
Was Neil Lennon a good Celtic manager? Most would say, yes, he was, especially given his European record at the club. Yet Lennon, in his early days in charge, might well have been written off.
I was with Celtic in Braga back in July, 2010, when Lennon’s misery was compounded in that dire Champions League qualifying round second-leg.
A few weeks later, when Celtic capitulated 0-4 against Utrecht in Holland to miss out on the Europa League, things hardly looked rosy for Lennon in these early weeks in charge.
Yet any reliable judgement made about him then – just as with Deila now – would have been absurd. Months and years of telling evidence lay ahead.
Here’s another question: is Celtic a football club being run poorly, or being mismanaged? Okay, let’s look at a five-year cycle of evidence for an answer.
Celtic have played in the Champions League group-stage in each of the last two seasons. In five of the past six seasons the club has enjoyed European competition until Christmas or beyond. Three of these seasons were in the Champions League, two in the Europa League.
This is pretty decent. This looks to me like a football club that has got it right. A club that has taken its supporters on quite a few jaunts around the Continent.
Losing out on a potential £17m-plus Champions League bounty is certainly painful for Celtic. The club has thrived in recent seasons on such feasts. In fact, it’s worth looking again at the Celtic finances.
If we are to believe the bare stats, Celtic are flush with money. In their last full-year accounts they boasted pre-tax profits of £10m, on turnover of £76m, and a net cash in bank for the year of a tidy £3.7m.
On top of lucrative Champions League monies raked in over the past two seasons, a further £17m was collected in the sales of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson.
Whatever way you view this, the running of Celtic has looked exemplary. The more so when you consider the catastrophe to have engulfed Rangers, and financial decisions at Ibrox which led to the dissolution of the old club.
It’s hard to have it both ways with Celtic – yet many want to. The club is lauded – rightly – for its financial success story. Yet almost in the same breath CEO Peter Lawwell is harangued for being miserly and tight-fisted.
It seems odd that the Celtic board is both lauded and rebuked in the same sentence. Whatever the case about the team needing fresh and bold investment – and that means hard outlay – the last five years of strong stewardship cannot be disputed.
Over the next few days Celtic supporters will be highlighting an overly-cautious investment policy. Certainly, last summer, in such players as Amido Balde and Derk Boerrigter, it didn’t look right. The club spread its little jam too thin.
But the greater evidence, of rude financial health and regular European football, has been a godsend to Celtic fans. The journey has been pretty enjoyable.
Like everyone else, I’m keen to know if Deila is going to be a Tony Mowbray or a Gordon Strachan (or even a Paul Le Guen). Right now, like everyone else, I haven’t got a clue.
What I do know is that, to the toll of Artmedia, Braga and others, the name of Legia Warsaw can now be added. A sore one, triggering a minor crisis.

BBC

By Alasdair Lamont
BBC Scotland’s senior football reporter at Murrayfield Celtic’s ambitions of a third successive Champions League campaign foundered as they crashed to a 2-0 defeat by Legia Warsaw at Murrayfield.
They never looked like turning around the 4-1 first-leg deficit.
The Celtic defence seemed to part as Michal Zyro and Michal Kucharczyk sealed their fate.
It is a crushing blow for Ronny Deila, whose predecessor Neil Lennon guided the club into the last 16 two years ago and into the group stage last season.
Play mediaJump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Interview – Celtic manager Ronny Deila
Those two campaigns earned Celtic in the region of £33m in prize money alone.
While they still have a chance of a Europa League run, the absence of Champions League football is a massive financial blow, to say nothing of the prestige that comes with playing in Europe’s premier competition.
Supporters, who had yet to see their squad strengthened over the summer, must now wait to see if a lack of Champions League football might now hasten the departure of Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk.
And though the Premiership title should still be won comfortably, the prospect of a campaign without the Champions League already feels like something of an anti-climax.
Most frustratingly for Celtic, their departure comes at the hands of a team lacking their recent European pedigree, yet who seemed far more comfortable on this stage over the two legs.
Michal Kucharczyk (right) beats Fraser Forster (centre) to put Legia Warsaw 2-0 ahead Michal Kucharczyk (right) beats Fraser Forster to put Legia Warsaw 2-0 ahead
Deila was critical of his players after the first leg but they seemed bereft of imagination as they tried to right the wrongs from Warsaw.
Instead, Legia hammered a further nail in their Champions League coffin before the break as they converted one of the few chances created in Edinburgh, where Celtic again played their home tie following their ground’s involvement in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Kucharczyk slid a pass through the heart of the Celtic defence and Zyro held off a despairing challenge to slip the ball past Forster.
A second-half onslaught failed to materialise and Legia seemed to be allowed to pass their way to goal at will before Kucharczyk rounded the keeper to score a second.
Anthony Stokes and James Forrest did at least force Dusan Kuciak into good second-half saves but those efforts paled into insignificance in the grand scheme of things.
By way of a crumb of consolation for Deila, both Lennon and Gordon Strachan failed to qualify for the Champions League in their first campaigns before going on to enjoy success.
But the manner of this exit gives further ammunition to the sceptics who questioned the appointment of a man with no experience at this level.

Live Text Commentary
Full time Full Time
Match ends, Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 2.
90:00 +4:00 Full time Full Time
Second Half ends, Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 2.
88:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Legia Warsaw. Bartosz Bereszynski replaces Michal Zyro.
87:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Legia Warsaw. Helio Pinto replaces Ondrej Duda.
75:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Legia Warsaw. Jakub Kosecki replaces Michal Kucharczyk.
71:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Celtic. Teemu Pukki replaces Kris Commons.
70:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Celtic. James Forrest replaces Anthony Stokes.
65:00 Booking Booking
Stefan Johansen (Celtic) is shown the yellow card.
61:00 Goal scored Goal!
Goal! Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 2. Michal Kucharczyk (Legia Warsaw).
57:00 Substitution Substitution
Substitution, Celtic. Leigh Griffiths replaces Mikael Lustig.
55:00 Booking Booking
Miroslav Radovic (Legia Warsaw) is shown the yellow card.
53:00 Booking Booking
Virgil van Dijk (Celtic) is shown the yellow card.
45:00 Second Half begins Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 1.
45:00 Half time Half Time
First Half ends, Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 1.
36:00 Goal scored Goal!
Goal! Celtic 0, Legia Warsaw 1. Michal Zyro (Legia Warsaw).
0:00 First Half begins.
0:00 Lineups are announced and players are warming up.
..Less Live Text .
Live data and text provided by our data suppliers

Legia Warsaw lose final battle over Celtic Champions League match at CAS

STV 30 April 2015 09:49 BST
http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/celtic/318944-legia-warsaw-lose-final-battle-over-celtic-champions-league-match-at-cas/

Legia Warsaw Legia Warsaw took their fight all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.SNS Group

Legia Warsaw have lost their fight to be compensated for their Champions League exit after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that their initial punishment was fair.
The Polish champions defeated Celtic 6-1 on aggregate in the Champions League play-off round at the beginning of the season but fielded a suspended player, Bartosz Bereszynski, in the second leg.
UEFA regulations meant they had to forfeit the match as a result. Celtic were awarded a 3-0 win, putting them through on away goals.
Legia argued that the sanction from UEFA was excessive, given that Bereszynski only played for the final minutes with the tie already beyond doubt. Their appeal failed and the club took their fight to CAS.

CAS heard the case but has now ruled that UEFA’s punishment should be upheld, meaning that Legia will not be compensated.
Legia argued that the UEFA rules and guidelines concerning the official squad list Bereszynski was named on were unclear and amounted to “excessive formalism”. The club stated that the sanction was too severe for the rule breach and sought financial compensation, having failed to have themselves provisionally reinstated in the Champions League last August.
UEFA’s argument was that the rules regarding a player being included on a squad list to serve a suspension were clear, and the fact that Legia had correctly followed the rules on a previous occasion was raised.
CAS upheld UEFA’s decision and stated that the procedure was not excessively formal and the awarding of a 3-0 win to Celtic was proportionate.