Celtic Fan View: Three talking points from the Battle of Britain clash
It’s been said before and should be said again… on Champions League nights, there’s no better place to be than Parkhead. Celtic’s motto is ‘A club like no other’, perhaps it should be ‘An atmosphere like no other’. Glasgow’s east end was bouncing on Wednesday evening as another result was written into the history books. Electric in the stands and absolutely pulsating on the pitch as the Bhoys deservedly got off the mark in Group C with a 3-3 draw against Manchester City. This will go down as an ‘I was there’ night, Celtic’s team worth £20 million taking the fight to Sergio Aguero and co worth £220 million more in an enthralling game that you can’t make sense of until hours after it’s ended. So, having had time to reflect, here are three talking points from the match…
Brilliant Brendan gets it spot on
After being criticised for the way he approached the match at the Camp Nou, Brendan Rodgers deserves a huge amount of credit for his game plan this time around. From the offset, his team showed a tremendous amount of bravery to go toe-to-toe with a side that’s been in unstoppable form since Pep Guardiola took charge- winning all of their previous 10 games- and not only did they make life uncomfortable for City, they outplayed them at times during the first half.
The Bhoys pressed the Sky Blues high up the pitch with immense vigour, not allowing them to settle and even made sure that Claudio Bravo wasn’t going to have an easy night spraying passes out from the back. The fact that Guardiola was left satisfied with a draw provides an indication into how impressive this performance was and Rodgers identified the pressure applied by the Bhoys as a key factor in his post match press conference.
Another standout feature was Celtic’s ball usage which was significantly better than what it was in Barcelona. Granted, they weren’t always cutting the visitors open with slick, intricate passing through the centre of the pitch- as they did for the second goal- but the tactic of getting the ball in behind the Citizens’ full-backs as quickly as possible was extremely effective and gave them the springboard to cause problems in the final third. On top of that, the crossing from wide areas, set-pieces and tempo of the passing in attacking areas was arguably the best Parkhead has witnessed on a Champions League night.
Then, when Rodgers knew the team had run out of steam with 20 minutes or so remaining, he intelligently settled for a point and focused on retaining a solid shape and defending the box resolutely.
Having the courage and confidence to keep attacking even though they had been pegged back against a team of City’s calibre is a sign of how far Celtic have come in a short space of time and that they’re capable of competing against the elite.
The signings come to the fore
It was a Herculean effort from one to 11 but Rodgers’ summer signings were instrumental on this famous night. It could be argued that none of Scott Sinclair, Kolo Toure and Moussa Dembele would be wearing the green and white jersey without the attraction of being coached by the Northern Irishman regardless of the prospect of Champions League football. All of them have started the domestic campaign in fine fettle but took their game to another level against the two-time Premier League champions. Sinclair was a menace throughout the first 45, leaving Pablo Zabaleta bamboozled on a few occasions and it was his perfect free-kick that led to the opening goal.
Dembele, meanwhile, can do no wrong at the moment, he’s scoring for fun- 12 goals already this term- and showed he has plenty of variation to his game. His goals were very different, the first a poacher’s finish in the right place at the right time and his second a sublime technical strike. At this level, taking chances are vital and Dembele showed his ruthless side as he pounced on two defensive errors. It’s worth remembering that he’s only 20 and still raw but he has a bit of everything: pace, power, dribbling skills, aerial ability and most importantly, an eye for goal. Rodgers will want to smoothen his rough edges but on last night’s evidence, he might struggle to keep hold of him.
It seems unusual for a defender to walk away from a match with plaudits after his team conceded three goals but Toure was simply outstanding, using all of his experience in the latter stages to guide the team over the line. He kept his old pal Aguero in check for most of the night while clearing everything that came his way. In possession, he was calm and often tried to play progressively with a forward pass. Celtic visibly tired during the final stretch and retreated to the edge of their box but Toure was a commanding figure, determined to keep City from scoring a winner.
Gordon keeps his nerve
Much of the debate surrounding Celtic in the last couple of weeks has been about who should be the starting goalkeeper. Neither Craig Gordon or Dorus de Vries has covered themselves in glory so far this season, giving Rodgers an unwanted headache. But the former did his chances of becoming the number one for the foreseeable future no harm with an assured display. None of the three goals can go down as mistakes, in fact, he was close to preventing the third goal after saving a one-on-one from Aguero.
As City looked like the team who were most likely to snatch the three points in the last 20 minutes, Gordon made himself big and produced a few important saves, including a world class one-handed stop in injury time to keep out Ilkay Gundogan.
The Scotland international has been found wanting a few times in Europe over the last couple of seasons but he took a step forward with this display.