Yet, even by their typical standards, the deciding leg of their third-round qualifier against Qarabag in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku is a spaghetti junction of a tie.
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Goals by striker Leigh Griffiths with a fourth-minute penalty and Norwegian global midfielder Stefan Johansen half an hour later put the hosts in command in front of a 45,197 crowd at Celtic Park.
The Celtic fans breathed a sigh of relief when referee Collum only produced a yellow card with County players claiming it had been an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Much has been made of the capabilities of Qarabag, and in Glasgow they were more than tidy, if utterly toothless.
One of those released was club captain Richard Brittain, who has taken over as player/manager of Highland League side Brora Rangers, with new recruit Andrew Davies being handed the armband. It is a fantastic league. It is starting to appear that Celtic can no longer have any faith in engineering equitable returns from their still sizeable football spend.
Gary Mackay-Steven then forced Fox into a good save with a fierce strike inside the box before turning provider for Johansen to make it 2-0.
“Kris came on in the last game and made a difference“. With Ciftci, Celtic have gone native. But the only way they’ll learn is to give them the experience. “I haven’t looked at it one more time, but it is a tough decision”.
But Deila added: “We have spoken together, not about goals, but about how I want him to play for Celtic”. This is how I wanted it to pan out, I don’t think anybody else perhaps believed it was possible. He’s more of a No. 9 than a No.10.
McIntyre said he had encouraged his players at half-time to go out and show how well they can pass the ball. We have to take the positives with us but there is also other things to do better.
An anti-Gordon agenda was promoted by certain online frothers because, when at Hearts, the keeper had gone up for a last-minute corner against Celtic with his team trailing by a goal in a game that was of little effect to the Tynecastle team but meant everything to a side vying with Rangers for the title. The ball may not stick with the striker, but he can stick it in the net when given the opportunity to instinctively run on to it.
“We were not together as a team”. “They play a bit like Barcelona in terms of keeping possession”.
“He needs only three or four minutes now to score which is good!” Had Jim McIntyre’s side been a little more clinical they could have troubled Celtic and in Irvine they had a player whose running from deep positions was capable of catching Celtic unawares.
Full-back Emilio Izaguirre also missed out through suspension, while a knee injury sidelined Charlie Mulgrew for Celtic. It’ll open up and I expect a hard game.
“There is big competition and there is always someone who is disappointed, and now it is Stokesy”. First and foremost, we need to defend well.
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Another talking point came in the 22nd minute when County playmaker Ian McShane sent Irvine clean through on goal, to the left of the penalty area. We must be able to play different systems but we can’t surprise ourselves. We’ve had some good away games in the Europa League, like in Salzburg.
