Europa League 2011-12

Matches: 2011 – 2012 | UEFA Cup

Trivia

• Celtic enter qualifying round despite losing to FC Sion 3-1 agg; decision reversed after FC Sion judged to have fielded ineligible players. The whole issue went on & on as Sioin went to courts against UEFA to try to get the whole thing overturned but lost & lost & lost…..
• Nice bit of trivia, the only teams to beat us in the three cups we played in, went on to win the tournament (FC Sion don't count as those match results reversed).

Matches

Another glorious failure for celtic but you know what there is a lot of pride to take from this campaign after what was a calamitous start. Add in the embarrassment that was the double exit last season, this was to be a case of start from scratch. Watching the Huns being humiliated in Europe with an early double exit was good fun but we have to concentrate on ourselves in this case as better to laugh when we are ahead. We weren't!

Our last foray in the Europa League group stages was met with a lukewarm response. This time little better, but we still had to qualify. Lennon got his tactics wrong and sent out a defensive side earning the poor quality Swiss opposition (FC Sion) a draw they little deserved. Away leg was lost after Danny M was sent off and conceded a penalty after two mins. We lost 3-1 and were out. Pathetic! Hearts thumped by Spurs and Rangers losing to lowly Malmo saw the media overdrive in wailing on the state of Scottish football.

However, get out of jail card for Celtic as FC Sion were disqualified for fielding ineligible players. Shock that we'd got a right decision for a change from UEFA. We little deserved it from our matches but had to now prove our worth. Only issue was that Sion contested their disqualification which went on & on and on….. but they lost every round! A crazy chairman in charge there.

What was to be apparent was that we were sitting in a group with two worthy Champions League quality sides. Udinese were the darlings of Italian football upsetting established clubs and we were pushing for top spot. Athletico were running on the back of a golden age for Spanish football and had the £35m value player to boast. Rennes were the French hope with some good players. We were marked as the team that could be humiliated. Things were going wrong domestically and Europe could just exacerbate matters.

Lennon was under the cosh, and following on from the Sion games for these group games there were no real expectations. Strangely that was to be a bonus as with no pressure on the players it seemed to gave them some breathing space in Europe and play their own game.

A 2-0 loss to Athletico Madrid at the start was no disgrace, and even though we conceded after just 3mins the ominous tanking didn't happen. We put in a good shift and the scoreline was correct but we gave a fair account of ourselves. It was a strangely encouraging result. Despite the bitter overtones from the previous times we played Athletico (historically a bunch of thugs) the match seemed to pass with little problems. Billy McNeill did an article in the papers bemoaning the antics & tactics of the Athletico players of the past, which leant their fans to display a banner saying "**** you Billy McNeill"! Charming.

Two draws followed against Udinese and Rennes. They can both be lumped together as we threw it all away in both! Great performances by Celtic saw us lose the points due to a comical own goal from Cha Du Ri in the Rennes game and then in the Udinese game we conceded a very needless penalty very late on to gift them a point. It was to cost us in the long-run. Regardless, the players were beginning to play some good football and simply the fans were enjoying what they were watching, it was a good turnaround.

A fine victory over Rennes who really were looking out of their depth in any European competition match was a great booster for Celtic and was a fine award for their efforts. Previously maligned players were getting breaks from fans (such as Loovens). It was great to see and good football to watch.

However, the last two games were to be tough. Sadly we lost to Athletico at home but just by the odd goal. It was no disgrace and Athletico showed that they were kings of the whole group. It was an uneven performance but the gulf was known before hand.

Difficulty was that we now had to win away in Udinese to qualify. BUT did we want to qualify? Did we not want to concentrate on the league? In truth yes. We had turned things around domestically and it would be churlish to not give the Europa League its due part in this. The change in environment helped the players and the fans in providing a different challenge, and the performances helped the players development in tactics, skills & experience. Invaluable this time as the squad is young, inexperienced and was in need of a confidence booster.

The Udinese side were the golden boys of Italian football. Having been nobodies for the past 50 years, they were now joint top of their league with one of the best players in Italian football (Di Natale) leading their line. They had not lost a single home game under their manager (bar a 2-1 loss to Arsenal in Champs Lge) and had conceded just two goals that season in their league. It was a mission impossible. Yet we gave a formidable performance and should possibly have won. AGAIN we threw it away with Cha Du Ri gifting the opposition a chance to score (which they did) and despite our best efforts we were out. Some poor refereeing didn't help and we should have got a penalty late on.

It was all over, but it was a great morale boost for the players. We were playing our best football in Europe for a number of seasons, although there was still a long way to go but at least it was on the right road. We need to build on this, one victory is not enough but there was enough to see the improvements we had made against what were some strong sides.

However, the support was in trouble again. UEFA had fined a section of the support for singing the turgid "Grafiitt on the Wall" song with the add-ons. In reply, some eejits in our support at the last match stuck up a banner saying "F*** UEFA"! Some also had flares which had become a regular feature away from home, but they are not permitted anymore and a clampdown was sporadically in force. It was a poor note to end on but it shouldn't take away from the great performances and morale boosting efforts of the players.