I watched the game last night, and once again Celtic were relentless, with at times breathtaking pace, power and intensity in their forward play, and where the scoreline could've easily been 9 or 10 nil.
What's almost as impressive as their forward play is their incessant pressing of the opposition, and if they lose the ball a desire to win it back instantly, which aside from ensuring that they're always on the front foot, acts as a very effective way of using attack as the best form of defence.
This effectively means that, if Celtic can successfully continue playing that way, even if their defence isn't the best (and it is getting stronger with each new signing), against all but the best teams, it will rarely be tested, as the other team won't have very much of the ball!
In that respect, Joe Hart could've sat and read a newspaper yesterday, or gone for a snooze, and asked Welsh or Starfelt to wake him up if St Mirren had threatened to get past the halfway lineHowever, it won't always be like that - and it certainly won't be like that in Holland later this week or at Ibrox next Sunday, where Celtic will be getting their fair share of being pressed, and won't have near total possession, as they've mostly enjoyed recently.
As far as the sending off for St Mirren, it was as blatant a red card as you'll see, and a horrific tackle by Power, lunging into Turnbull's ankle from above, which if Turnbull hadn't seen coming, could've resulted in a serious injury. In comparison, Christie's tackle on the St Mirren player (I forget who) was nasty and badly timed, but wasn't a red card. Defo a yellow though, which bizarrely he didn't get. That was a mistake by the ref.
The St Mirren goal that was chopped off looked to have possibly been onside, but it wasn't conclusive as there weren't enough different angles of it shown to make a proper judgement, so I'll have to look at the highlights on Sportscene to judge that one better. In any case, even if the goal had been given, it almost certainly wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game, as Celtic were all over St Mirren with 11 men, and so would've only been a consolation. TBH, I think they could've played with 12 men yesterday, and the result would've been the same.
Anyway, onto our respective European adventures now, and lets hope that both Rangers and Celtic can win their 2nd leg ties and progress to the group stages of the Europa league. Next Sunday will take care of itself in due course!
Marco.
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Originally Posted by Marco
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