Chelsea v Celtic

growler

tomorrow's game is one I never expected to see, after many years of following both teams I never expected to have my loyalties tested (even if it is a pre season friendly).

Its a bloody shame that Chelsea decided to price this at £40 a ticket, which has resulted in a pretty poor take up by the cash strapped chelsea faithful and even more surprisingly by the celts in london and further afield.

There also seems to be a cloud of anticipation of violence hanging over this game, but I'm hoping the price tag will keep the scum bags outside the ground.


Real shame that Larsson isn't there , would love to have witnessed a Larsson v Sheva game.

Expecting a chelsea win and semi hoping for a draw ( never had such a thought before) .

The amount of people looking for a programme but unwilling to fork out for the tickets proves how wrong kenyon got this one, if we can give away £16million on Crespo why the hell could they not price this game affordably.

eirebhoy

This was Chelsea's team that played tonight against Feyenoord:

Cudicini; Gérémi, Ferreira, Carvalho, Bridge (Terry h-t); Ballack, Essien (Diarra 62), Lampard (c) (Mikel 74); Kalou (Woods 88), Shevchenko (Wright-Phillips 62), Robben (Drogba h-t).

Who's expected to play tomorrow?

Mourinho:
"I will use all the players to show the people the new squad we have and because we don’t have many matches to prepare the team, it is a game we have to face seriously.

I know it is a friendly and a few days later we have to play the Community Shield but it is the first game at home and it is a big chance for the fans to see the new boys — Shevchenko, Ballack and Kalou. I think it could be a good game."

Some players could be pretty tired.

Strachan said he'll field near enough a full team in the 1st half with a lot of the fringe players coming in for the 2nd half. Celtic only have 2 full backs in the whole squad now, Wilson and *cough* Telfer. Wilson is quality but Telfer is going to get one hell of a roasting. He's one of the worst ever Celtic players and I can't wait until a left back is signed.

Centre half - Virgo's gone to Coventry, Balde's injured, Kennedy's injured. All there really is is McManus, Caldwell and Varga. Such a poor defence. I expect Darren O'Dea to play a decent part so.

In midfield Jarosik, Nakamura, McGeady and Petrov should all start again. Up front there's only Zurawski, Miller and maybe Riordan. Beattie and Maloney injured. Maybe he'll play Lennon and go 4-5-1.

Strachan has to start blooding some of these youngsters because the 3 signings that'll be brought in isn't enough. Tomorrow's match could be embarassing.

tetsujin1979

Is this on the box at all?
I reckon O'Dea might come on in the second half, he's been buzzing around the senior side for a while now

kensutz

Sky Sports tonight at 10

super_furry

I think there could be big trouble at this, most likely outside the ground. Chelsea have a small hardcore 'loyalist' following and many of their fans are unhappy with the fact that they're even playing Celtic because of the Irish links.

GrumPy

kensutz wrote:

Sky Sports tonight at 10

I guess it's not online then?

eirebhoy

Irish GrumPy wrote:

I guess it's not online then?

Unless you want to pay €7.50 for a month of Channel 67:
http://www.celticfc.net/channel67/c67.aspx?noscore=y



Actually, it's also on SuperSport 3 (QSIV) using PPStream software.

Bateman

I can see Chelsea dishing out a real hammering to Celtic in this one. Celtic need to strengthen, big-time, and after recent results, I can see an attitude of total disinterest on the part of Celtic for this one.

I think the Chelsea-Rangers-loyalist thing is totally over-stated to be honest, and I wouldn't expect major trouble.

Sizzler

TBH Id say IF this game was a european game and sold out with a full crew down from Glasglow you could almost be guaranteed trouble but since its a friendly and Chelsea are rip off merchants there prob wont be any but Im sure it will be an excuse for the headhunters to keep their peepers open outside the ground for a ruck if the opportunity arises and also throw in a few anti IRA songs too if they get the chance !

meepmeep

Bateman wrote:

I think the Chelsea-Rangers-loyalist thing is totally over-stated to be honest.

No it's not. I know many many Chelsea/Rangers fans and they're all very anti Irish (i'm not btw, I live here!).

Bateman

meepmeep wrote:

No it's not. I know many many Chelsea/Rangers fans and they're all very anti Irish (i'm not btw, I live here!).

It's still anecdotal. I know many Chelsea fans who AREN'T pro-Rangers. If you will read "Hoolifan; 30 Years Of Hurt" you will read about how the only time the author (a Chelsea top boy throughout the 80s) ever came across Rangers was when it kicked off between Chelsea/Celtic on one side and Rangers/Spurs on the other.

I'm not saying the links don't exist, just that they are more likely to be a small group of people (despite what their web presence might suggest) with behind the scenes links, perhaps through the BNP or C18. It is not a large body of people which is going to mob up and chase Celtic fans all around London on a Wednesday evening.

The Star was trying to have people believe that the fact that Mourinho beat Celtic as Porto manager was going to heighten the chance of crowd disturbances. Really, some of the media coverage of these situations is so far removed from reality it's shocking.

eirebhoy

Celtic team:

Boruc
Wilson
Caldwell
McManus
Wallace
Nakamura
Sno
Lennon
Pearson
Jarosik
Miller

j22

Bateman wrote:

I think the Chelsea-Rangers-loyalist thing is totally over-stated to be honest, and I wouldn't expect major trouble.

Definitely not over stated. I was in Barcelona for the Barca Chelsea cahmpions league clash in 2005 and the amount of Rangers jerseys was unbeleivable.

eirebhoy

1-0 Celtic atm, Caldwell goal from a Nakamura inswinger. Celtic playing pretty well which is a shock to every supporter.

Bateman

eirebhoy wrote:

1-0 Celtic atm, Caldwell goal from a Nakamura inswinger. Celtic playing pretty well which is a shock to every supporter.

Got a link to the english language pp live page?

eirebhoy

Bateman wrote:

Got a link to the english language pp live page?

No, don't really use that software. Its repeated on Sky Sports at 10pm if you have that.

Bateman

eirebhoy wrote:

No, don't really use that software. Its repeated on Sky Sports at 10pm if you have that.

That's no use to my in-play gambling

eirebhoy

SWP scored just before half time. 1-1.

Guy:Incognito

Theres a real game of football going on you know. It's 1-1 aswell

eirebhoy

Finished 1-1. Decent game. I'm happy Celtic weren't embarassed but I can't believe Drogba failed to score.

KdjaCL

eirebhoy wrote:

t I can't believe Drogba failed to score.

Dont watch Chelsea much then


kdjac

Bateman

eirebhoy wrote:

Finished 1-1. Decent game. I'm happy Celtic weren't embarassed but I can't believe Drogba failed to score.

Never mind Drogba, I couldn't believe the chance Shevchenko missed near the end.