Celtic V Benfica 19:45 Setanta Sports 1

the realpigiron

vs

Crucial match for Celtic. Need to win their home games if they are to hold out hopes of qualifying from the group. The thunder will be back at Parkhead tonight.

celticbest

On Sky Sports 3 from 7:30 as well.

GavRedKing

Benfica are no push overs, for the sake of my accumaltor I'm hoping they win, they're decent odds too.

I'm going to say score draw though and me down €10

Morzadec

Also need a Benfica win to finish off a 4-match accumulator.

They are a far superior side to Celtic, and while it's always difficult to play in their ground, this is not the same team that achieved some big results against big teams not so long ago.

Have confidence that Benfica's quality will come through.

Jelle1880

One can only hope

user2011

Celtic have lost only two of their 20 Champions League games at home, both against Barcelona

Benfica have won only four of their 26 Champions League away games

Some stats

Luckycharms_74

the realpigiron wrote: »

vs

Crucial match for Celtic. Need to win their home games if they are to hold out hopes of qualifying from the group. The thunder will be back at Parkhead tonight.

Missing something

celticbest

^^ ??

Madam

I hope we don't miss Sammy too much.

RoryMac

Going to be a very tough game with players out and throwing one or 2 new signings into the mix so I'll be delighted if we get anything from the game.

Luckycharms_74

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

Missing something

celticbest wrote: »

^^ ??

the realpigiron wrote: »

vs

I'm sorry the Benfica logo wasn't showing earlier on my PC

Pompey Magnus

Jelle1880 wrote: »

One can only hope

You really should be cheering Celtic on so we can get the Scottish coefficient up, thus giving The Rangers a more favourable draw in Europe next seas.....oooooh yeah I almost forgot, never mind, carry on

Francie Barrett

Celtic need to win this, although I can't see it happening.

Jelle1880

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

You really should be cheering Celtic on so we can get the Scottish coefficient up, thus giving The Rangers a more favourable draw in Europe next seas.....oooooh yeah I almost forgot, never mind, carry on

No worries, the coefficient is already ****ed either way

the realpigiron

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Celtic need to win this, although I can't see it happening.

Celtic's home form in this competition is excellent, they have every chance of victory tonight.

premierstone

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

You really should be cheering Celtic on so we can get the Scottish coefficient up, thus giving The Rangers a more favourable draw in Europe next seas.....oooooh yeah I almost forgot, never mind, carry on

Excellent post but really should have been saved for Brewster, speaking of whom, he's interest in the SPL seems to have taken an awful slump lately?

On tonights game, far from mission impossible, never under estimate the effect of the Celtic Park crowd, only Barca have overcome it in this competition, and I think we can get the win, 2-1 to the hoops, Hooper and Mulgrew with the winner from a sublime free-kick :D

The_Kew_Tour

Backed Celtic myself on exchanges. Will lay off if they go in front.

Think they will get result tonight and will come out of blocks right at Benfica.

2-1 to Celtic in end.

Dempsey

Celtic side to face Benfica in tonight's UEFA Champions League clash: Forster; Matthews, Lustig, Wilson, Izaguirre; Forrest, Brown, Wanyama, Mulgrew; Commons, Miku

Subs: Zaluska, Rogne, Watt, Lassad, Ambrose, Slane, Hooper

Looking forward to this although Lustig & Wilson give me heartburn!

the realpigiron

Surprised he has dropped Hooper and put in Miku for only his second appearance in a Celtic shirt. Is he playing Charlie Mulgrew in midfield here?

Dempsey

the realpigiron wrote: »

Surprised he has dropped Hooper and put in Miku for only his second appearance in a Celtic shirt. Is he playing Charlie Mulgrew in midfield here?

Not sure about the actual formation, he could easily go his experimental 3-5-2 here!

Hooper deserves to be dropped imo, he's not on form & he is not scoring enough. He needed a kick up the arse tbh

Miku was brought in for these sort of games, hopefully he'll show his worth tonight

the realpigiron

Dempsey wrote: »

Not sure about the actual formation, he could easily go his experimental 3-5-2 here!

Hooper deserves to be dropped imo, he's not on form & he is not scoring enough. He needed a kick up the arse tbh

Miku was brought in for these sort of games, hopefully he'll show his worth tonight

Lenny has just said Hooper failed a fitness test this morning, he is on the bench though.

Dempsey

Did Sky get that team formation right?? I hope not!

Dempsey

If Wanyama kept his eyes on that corner longer, he would have stuck it imo! Disappointing!

Commons & Miku look lively aswell

henke

Big night in Paradise. Hopefully Celtic can get a result.

RoryMac

Izzy is awful again tonight, we're playing well in patches but struggling to hold onto the ball.

SomethingElse

RoryMac wrote: »

Izzy is awful again tonight, we're playing well in patches but struggling to hold onto the ball.

He's an accident waiting to happen. His positioning and confidence on the ball is killing us in that area of the pitch

the realpigiron

Izzaguire is havin a nightmare. Celtic playin alright and keepin the ball ok.

Still the formation seems to be confusing some of them. Charlie is doing his best at left wing but Commons and particularly Forrest look a bit lost about where they should be playing.

Miku has grown into the game and looks like he's beginning to understand what's required of him, he's got to hold the ball up.

Has he got a replacement for Izzy?

A Dub in Glasgo

This is the worst I have seen Izzaguire play. Celtic are lucky that a one of his misplaced passes hasn't cost us. some nice recovering from Wanyama and Wilson to help Izzy out

Miku is doing well although I think Celtic really miss Samaras

Looked a penalty for Benfica in my eyes

RoryMac

Lassad can play out wide so might bring him on for Izzy and drop Mulgrew back to LB, hope so anyway.

the realpigiron

He could also bring on Hooper and drop Charlie to left back and play 4-4-2. He needs to do something about Izzy straight away I reckon.

the realpigiron

Here's a move from Lenny. Hooper coming on for Izzy, Celtic go 4-4-2 for the win. "Mon the Celts.

A Dub in Glasgo

Finished 0-0, just glad Barca won their match

the realpigiron

Good effort in the last quarter. Scott Brown really cranked it up there, great stuff from him and Wanyama in the final quarter.

If we had a cutting edge up front we would have won that, Hooper was clearly carrying an injury. Missed Samaras and Joe Ledley tonight.

Dempsey

Scott Brown was MOTM for me, he really drove us on the 2nd half when we were looking tired.

Missed Ledley & Samaras, especially Samaras, he would have produced alot more that Forrest did.

Cant complain about the result, seems a fair outcome all things considered.

RoryMac

Great performance from Brown, as already said we missed Sammy tonight along with Kayal & Ledley. Should give us a bit of confidence going into the rest of the games.

Lawrence1895

RoryMac wrote: »

Great performance from Brown, as already said we missed Sammy tonight along with Kayal & Ledley. Should give us a bit of confidence going into the rest of the games.

Brown was definitely MOTM and Sammy would have definitely scored a goal. Not 100% happy with that result I am.

RoryMac

Not happy with the result either tonight as I expected more from Benfica but I would've taken a draw before the game started.

Got to say I thought Lustig and Wilson played quite well, Wanyama was good in the first half but the booking took a bit out of his game. I was happy enough with Commons & Miku considering how little service they got. Matthews wasn't great first half and the less said about Izzy the better.

the realpigiron

0-0 is not a great result, Celtic need to win their home games. Still for much of the team tonight, it was their first taste of CL action. That allied with players unavailable or not fully fit like Samaras, Ledley and Hooper, the draw was an acceptable start. Onwards and upwards from here for Celtic.

ColeTrain

A competent performace. Brown was excellent, Commons, Matthews and Wanyama also did well.
We definitely missed Samaras tonight. Forrest can be hit and miss. We lacked a bit of creativity in midfield.

A draw was a fair result overall.

Badabing

In money terms we get e400 grand for a draw so all in all a good day at the office.

Dempsey

We need to be more concerned about results, the financial rewards will always follow good results.