Champions League 2017-18

Matches: 2017 – 2018 | 2017-18 Pictures

Qualifiers

• Celtic to go through three sets of qualifiers.
• Celtic seeded for all three rounds.
• Drawn with Linfield (N Ireland), controversial set of matches, ended up being played around marching season, away leg had to be reschedule to Friday following else Celtic would have played on 12th July which would have been trouble.
• Green Brigade banners create controversy, and lead to a self-imposed (by Celtic board) temporary ban/closure of their area. Celtic were fined again for banners in Europe, 11 fines in 5 years, Green Brigade getting it in the neck.
• Leigh Griffiths gets a two match ban for provoking the Linfield fans by tyinga scarf to the goalposts! This after being pelted with coins, bottles etc by them. Ridiculous.
• Celtic played Rosenburg (Norway), link being ex-Celtic manager Ronnie Deila who was Norwegian. Out-thought & out-fought in the first game, Celtic went thru by the narrowest of margins.
• As Celtic flew out to Norway from Glasgow on Tuesday Leigh Griffiths was involved in a spat. A man at Glasgow Airport shouted “paedo” at the striker who responded by retorting: “Your club’s deid mate, beat it”, a reference to Rangers’ liquidation in 2012.
• Celtic again meet Astana (Kazakhstan), beat them 3-2 agg last season in second round.
• Celtic break records with 5-0 win at home (largest at play-off stage), and then 8-4 agg in total over two legs, largest at this round in aggregate number of goals.
• Other Scottish teams do poorly, and are out of Europe early. TheRangers in their debut season in Europe are knocked out by the ironically named Progres of Luxembourg in the first round of the UEFA Cup. We all laughed.

Group Stages

• Celtic are pot 4 for the group stage draw, just miss out on being in Pot 3. System has been restructured, with league winners in top tier, and so strangely teams like Shaktar are now Tier 1. Tier 2 appears to be stronger than Tier 1 to many commentators.
• PSG have smashed the world record transfer signings, almost doubling it with two transfers of around €170m each.
• Celtic are the only team that came through the Champions route to win a game in this season’s Champions League, and the only not to finish bottom of their group.
• Celtic finish 3rd in the group overall, so meet main aim of European football after Xmas.
• Celtic qualify for the Europa League, despite only 1 win and 5 defeats.
• Celtic still can’t win at home, and haven’t won a home match in a EL or CL group stage in last three groups the club has been in.
• PSG smash scoring records with highest goals tally scored in group stage.
• Celtic suffer major defeats, with 12 goals conceded by PSG, 5-0 loss at home, 7-1 away.
• Brendan Rodgers gets his first major criticism even from within Celtic for his tactics/approach to number of these games.
• Both Bayern & Anderlecht sacked their coaches prior to matches v Celtic.
• Scott Brown becomes the Scottish player with most games played in the European Cup (breaking Kenny Dalglish’s record).
• Celtic’s record this season was statistically the worst ever 3rd place team in the history of the competition, for ONE DAY. Borussia Dortmund broke that record the next day finishing third with no wins. Looking at the other 3/4th teams’ points puts Celtics position into perspective Benfica got 0 Monaco got 2 Feyenoord got 3 Olympiakos 1 Borussia 2 – these are all big names who did equal or worse.
• Keiran Tierney makes the UEFA Champions League breakthrough team of 2017. Excellent
• Celtic made around 27.8m from the TV deal from appearing in the Champions League.

Overview

“[Brendan Rodgers] players get to wear a jersey with a European star, PSG’s do not.”
Great line from The Times Sep 2017 on Brendan Rodgers

Group B