| Matches: 2008 – 2009 | Champions League |
Trivia
- Celtic qualified straight into the group stages (phew!) having won the league last year.
- Pot 3 for the Group stages
- Manchester Utd (1st seeds), England
- Villarreal (2nd seeds), Spain
- Celtic (3rd seeds)
- Aalborg (4th seeds), Denmark
- John Reid on the group “If we are going to play in Europe – and we are very proud to be Scotland’s representatives – we may as well start with the big ones.” (Aug 08)
- Strange group in that no one truly dominates, with lots of draws.Easily afew different results and rather than finish bottom of the group we might have qualified through (in particular results v Aalborg).
- Meet up with Man U, this time Celtic easily defeated away from home.
- Huns knocked out of Europe in 1st qualifiers 2-1 (agg) by Kaunas (Lithuania) who are owned by Hearts chairman Vladimir “Mad Vlad” Romanov! So nicknamed the mini-Hearts. Means they are out of Europe before SPL even started as there is no parachute to the UEFA cup in the 1st set of qualifers (only the 2nd set)!!! and additionally Queen of the South through the Scottish Cup are thus in Europe by default longer than Rangers. “Oh the Rangers are [shampoo….]”.
- Celtic lost all three away games (again!) to make it 18 away games in the Champions League without a victory.
- Celtic struggle to score goals, took until fourth game to score.
- Our away goal v Aalborg was our first away goal in the Champs League for two years (or 6 games), coincidentally that last goal was also in Denmark.
- Bottom of the group, so no UEFA cup and no European football past Xmas.
- So that’s undefeated at home and lost all our games away, again!
Matches
Matchday 1
17 September 2008
Celtic 0-0 Aalborg
Manchester Utd 0-0 Villarreal
Matchday 2
30 September 2008
Villarreal 1-0 Celtic
Aalborg 0-3 Manchester Utd
Matchday 3
21 October 2008
Manchester Utd 3-0 Celtic
Villarreal 6-3 Aalborg
Matchday 4
5 November 2008
Celtic 1-1 Manchester Utd
Aalborg 2-2 Villarreal
Matchday 5
25 November 2008
Aalborg 2-1 Celtic
Villarreal 0-0 Manchester Utd
Matchday 6
10 December 2008
Celtic 2-0 Villarreal
Manchester Utd 2-2 Aalborg
Celtic out of both UEFA Cup & Champs lge by finishing bottom!!!
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
| Man Utd | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| Villarreal | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Aalborg | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 14 | -5 | 6 |
| Celtic | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 5 |
Champions League Review
Following on from last year’s Houdini act where Celtic somehow managed to squeeze through into the knockout stages ahead of Benfica and Shaktar, was it to be three in a row qualification for Celtic? Luckily we didn’t have to qualify through a preliminary round, straight into the group stages this time around (phew!), but we were grouped with Man U (1st seeds and reigning European Cup champions), Villarreal (2) and Aalborg (4).
Kicking off, what should have been an easy starter against Aalborg at home was just that, yet we played an over cautious game and missed a penatly, ending up somehow with a no score draw. Bit of an irony for us in that for the first time playing cautious in Europe has made us suffer (rather than it being the other way around).
After the bad start, two defeats away in a row against Villarreal and Man U away effectively ended our likely qualification hopes to the KO stages. Truth is that there is little better that WGS could have done in either of those two games. In the Villarreal match, Celtic more than held their own, only to be outdone by a free-kick that shouldn’t have been given.
In the Man U away game, we were comprehensively beaten and outplayed, however their first two goals were given despite being offside! Man Utd is a side when in front will pulverise the opposition, so if those goals hadn’t been given maybe things could have been different (probably more in hope more than anything else). For example, in our 1-0 win against Man U in 2006, we held out a dominant Man U to beat them, so maybe its not as unrealistic a thought.
Three games to go, out of the Champs Lge effectively and (worst of all) no goals scored so far! Man U at home was a face saving exercise, and Celtic competed better and finally scored our first goal, an absoulte cracker by Skippy McDonald! Almost a victory but an aggressive Man U side pushed hard for a goal and were awarded with one late into the second half. One each full-time, and at least we’d regained some of our pride back. Aalborg away should have been a straight forward winner takes all match (for a UEFA cup spot), and a first half goal set us up nicely. Then we blew up, losing two goals to Aalborg (one being an own goal (pure bad luck)). Aalborg are probably the poorest side we have yet faced in the Champions League, in financial as well as in football terms, yet we only took one point from six against them, and defeat meant we were bottom of the group and out of Europe completely. A last game victory v Villarreal at home restored batterred pride, however too little too late.
The Champions League campaign was disappointing to put it mildly. For WGS, to be fair he got tactics and teams correct against Villarreal and Man U in the four games, and defeating either of them was always going to be a tall order for any team. However, against Aalborg, it is hard to know what to say. At home we were too cautious, but then again its the Champions League and all teams deserve respect and the more successful sides are those that note this. In the away game, it was the players at fault, and not WGS, conceding unnecessary goals and not taking advantage of the many early chances we had in the game (esp ones by Naka and an out-of-sorts Samaras). After last season where we scrapped through (undeservedly in some ways) to the KO stages, this time our luck wasn’t there.
One major problem continues, and that is of our away form. Our “Fortress Parkhead” remains, as we were unbeaten at home for all three games, yet again though we lost all three away games! We have not won away in the Champs Lge group games to date. It’s embarrassing and the excuse about poor luck doesn’t cut ice anymore. We scored our first away goal in the Champs Lge since Spartak in the qualifiers over twelve months earlier which highlights our poor form. Hard to know what we can do but its the manager’s responsibility, and in many ways this has now created a psychological barrier for the team in our away games in Europe. Must do better.
In any case, its better to be there than not as any Hun would tell you.