Celtic Stroll Through

Article by e-Celtic's James Payne

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Celtic won their Champions’ League 2nd qualifying round, 2nd leg with KR Reykjavik 4-0 to complete a 5-0 aggregate victory over the Icelandic Champions. At the time of writing Celtic do not know their 3rd opponents as St Patricks of Dublin don’t face Legia Warsaw until this evening in their 2nd leg match in Dublin. The Irish side gained a very creditable 1-1 draw in the Polish capital which means that tie is wide open. Celtic will have their preference as to who goes through and I shall return to that later.

I thought Celtic looked pretty sluggish in the first leg of the tie with the Icelandic side last week and there were still a few signs of weakness in last night’s match as well. Against a team that was poorer than I, or more importantly manager Ronny Deila, thought it would be, Celtic still contrived to present KR Reykjavik with several clear sights of goal with one of those opportunities coming before Celtic scored the first goal in the 13th minute. Fraser Forster- rumoured to be leaving alas- dealt pretty nonchalantly with that early effort and all of the Icelanders subsequent, insipid attacks but overall defensively Celtic needs to tighten up I feel. The passing through midfield was at times a bit wayward and against better teams that break quickly then Celtic could be torn apart if they don’t sharpen up. Quickly.

As captain Scott Brown is out for three months Celtic’s midfield looks a bit bare. Charlie Mulgrew is captaining the side and is playing as the midfield anchor with Stefan Johansen given more of a roving commission. Charlie has been a fine player for Celtic but I am not sure this is his best role though he got better as the game last night progressed and I feel that the Israeli player Nir Biton may be the man for the role Charlie is in at the moment. Biton took his time to settle last season but was just hitting form when he got injured playing for his national team. I was surprised that Biton’s fellow Israeli international Beram Kayal was given a run in the second half last night as he has looked something of a busted flush in the last couple of years- though the Israeli played well when he came on last night. If Deila can get Kayal playing as he did in his first season then he’ll have performed a minor miracle in that respect.

In the first twenty minutes I didn’t like Leigh Griffiths in a wide right role or young Callum McGregor on the left- the former looking a bit like the proverbial fish out of water and the latter somewhat overawed. Around the middle of the first half the two switched wings and the youngster in particular came onto a splendid game. He was part of an excellent build up that set up a brilliant third goal for the Finnish international Teemu Pukki. When the two wide men reverted to their starting roles in the second half I thought Griffiths still looked uncomfortable but McGregor remained just about Celtic’s best player alongside the imperious Van Dijk , the energetic Johansen and striker Teemu Pukki.

The Finn has had a tricky time since he arrived at Celtic around transfer deadline time last season. Many had wanted SC Heerenveen’s Alfred Finnbogason whose scoring record was much more impressive than Pukki’s had been with Schalke 04 and a modest return of 7 league goals in 26 games suggested that Celtic had hardly hit the jackpot. Two well taken goals against modest opposition is hardly final proof that he has turned the corner but in scoring two goals he’s already matched Anthony Stokes career in European games for Celtic and the Finn did look appreciably sharper last night than he ever did last season.

There were subtle changes to the way Celtic under Deila play than it did under Neil Lennon. I am not totally sold on having two wide men as has been the case in the two matches to date and time will tell whether this has been a ‘horses for courses’ approach or whether it will be a more permanent formation. Celtic’s passing was a bit faulty at times and possession was surrendered far too cheaply but that may have been as a result of trying to play the ball forward more often- in the past three or four seasons there was an awful lot of lateral passing so if Ronny is trying to get us passing the ball through and down the side of teams rather than across them then I would welcome that.

The trip to Edinburgh – Celtic Park being otherwise engaged - was a most enjoyable one. The Capital was looking at its best in the warm sunshine and the pubs from Haymarket out to the stadium were packed with good natured fans. The crowd was given as 36000 although there looked to be rather fewer than the 31500 spaces that would have meant there were left in the stadium and with the Green Brigade back and in fine voice the atmosphere was superb. Things may be less jolly for our next trip in a fortnight but last night was an unexpectedly enjoyable one though those who parked their cars in the park and ride on the outskirts of the city and who waited for ages for the trams to return them to their cars may disagree that the night was such a success.

As I indicated that next tie will see Celtic face either Irish or Polish opponents. Most of my fellow Celts would rather we face St Pats- a wee trip to Dublin fits us a treat round these parts and the Irish side would, it is felt, provide us with more straightforward i.e. beatable opposition. Leaving aside the obvious observation that if St Pats beating the Polish champions would suggest that any trip to Dublin will not be a ‘jolly’ I would also point to a historical precedent when it comes to Legia Warsaw.

There was another occasion when Celtic knew that they would face Legia or another team in the next round. The ‘other’ team was looked as being much the weaker as Legia were spearheading a rising Polish game that had seen, amongst other things, Gornik Zabrze wipe the floor with a very decent Rangers team earlier in the same season. That ‘other’ team got through and we were delighted. The ‘other’ team was Feyenoord and their subsequent defeat of Celtic in the European Cup Final was the beginning of the Dutch domination of European football. I am not for one moment suggesting that a victory for the Dublin side will signify the rise of Irish football to previously unscaled heights but whoever Celtic faces in the next round that opponent should be treated with the utmost respect.

The next round is the key to Celtic’s season- get through it and Celtic are guaranteed European football of some description until Christmas. The games with KR Reykjavik don’t provide much evidence that we are progressing under the new coaching regime. But nor do they provide any evidence that we are not.

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