Lennon The Hero For Celtic

There is no better player in the Celtic team than Neil Lennon over the past couple of games. This guy gives 100% every time and has constantly shown he is a stand out in Europe and against our lesser Glasgow opponents. Tonight, as with Saturday, he was simply superb.

There are those who would toss him from the side at every opportunity just as there are those who don't really grasp what he does. His classic role is to guard our backline by breaking up the opponent's attacks or push them away from goal.

One good example of this tonight is his ability to push an opponent out onto the wing with a run which guided the Copenhagan player away from goal. Lennon might not be the fastest but his positional sense and his ability to draw out the other players in the Celtic team are more important than raw pace.

Lennon is second to none in the holding role.

Now, Celtic have positioned themselves well in the CL group stages with a good win over the Danes. This team was made to look rather ordinary despite the fact they had major height advantage and were meant to be decent passers of the ball. They looked like an ordinary SPL side like Rangers.

Whlie it was 1-0 going on 4-0, you can't overlook the missing player Jan Venegoor of Hesselink. What a talent this striker is and him being missing meant we were at an extreme disadvantage. It's equivalent to when we were missing Larsson during the glory years in Europe of MON.

But tonight Miller ran the line in fine fashion running himself into the ground for the cause. He is a totally team driven player whom is so focused on the result than selfish self-interest. A guy who has overcome the criticism to start to emerge in the Celtic team. His goal scoring statistics are starting to look impressive. In the last 2 international games and his last two club games, he's scored 4 times which is the level of consistency which separates him from the likes of Kris Boyd.

With the Danes taken care of, we are now sitting on three points after two games, with Man Utd on top with 2 wins. Benfica stand between Celtic and a place in the next round of the CL. If we beat them at Celtic Park and grab a point away then we will be sitting pretty for the visit of Man Utd in game 5. We will get at least a point from that game as Man Utd will already have qualified on 12 points, and we'll be on at 8 or 10 points.

So we can probably qualify for the next round by game 5 which will be impressive. I took a look at Benfica tonight against a stuttering ManUtd side. The Portuguese side did not look too clever, no matter what lofty and misguided reputation they seem to have gained from their lucky run last season in the CL. They looked pretty ordinary and offered no real way back once they went behind.

So, if it goes to plan we'll be nicely setup for future rounds in Europe. Overall, it's going according to plan, and, again, Strachan deserves the plaudits for what he is doing this season.

I watched the game tonight on the uefa.com website. Talk about an amazing experience. They showed the teams warming up and the transmision was as smooth as a pint of Guinness sipped at a pub in Dublin.

Celtic Should Be Weary Of Injured Rangers Team

Rangers have taken an absolute pummelling in the media and on phone ins recently. Everybody and their dog is kicking sand in the face of the Ibrox club as they lie crumpled in a sad pathetic heap on the ground. The possibility of an absolute doing on Saturday would even make Bill Struth, who has been deid for 50 years, tremble in his coffin.

Regular readers will be aware of my concern for Celtic being put on a plinth of invincibility relative to Rangers as there's always a comeback to these situations. This is indeed the situation we find ourselves in and it is this very situation which makes Rangers most dangerous.

Such complacency will be our undoing and we can only hope that Gordon Strachan is hammering home this point. Celtic might be in a position where, man for man, there isn't a single player in the Rangers squad who would be on Celtic's bench.

But we must not forget that Paul Le Guen is the manager who brought about our demise from the Champions League in 2003. Right after getting to a European cup Final, we were minutes from being the first Scottish team in recent years to reach the latter stages of the CL, but a dubious penalty to Lyon robbed Celtic of their destiny.

Le Guen knows how to get the better of Celtic, even though he would have lost on aggregate. But the important thing is that Rangers will be up for this game. Barry Ferguson, will do a captain's job by getting his team mates fired up for the game as this is make or break time for Rangers.

This is a game they absolutely cannot lose or they'll be 7 points adrift of Celtic with only the Cup competitions to look forward to. A draw would be an excellent result. This would keep Rangers within touching distance for the next game at Ibrox where they'd be guaranteed to claw back three points.

After being totally humiliated by Hibs last week, it will be much easier for Gers to face a slower team such as Celtic. Whereas Hibs are fast on the break, can play one touch, silky football, that even Celtic struggle against, Celtic are much more within their realm of play. We can't play fast attacking foorball and we need a minimum of 2 touches before the ball goes to an opponent.

Add to this that we've lost our best defender in right back Wilson, then if Le Guen can figure out that running at pace will cause our defence to implode if exposed tactically.

In Rangers' arsenal of attacking options Le Guen has the ability to play three forwards in Prso, Boyd, and Burke who have the pace, goal scoring prowess, and craft to tear our defence to shreds. You can guarantee that their manager will do his home work and will expose our deficiences in the backline.

Especially tragic for Celtic's defence is that goal machine Kris Boyd was back to his very best scoring against Dunfermline earlier this week. You can pretty much give him a goal as he hasn't, for all his legendary goal scoring exploits last season netting a European boot busting 37 goals, scored against Celtic.

It will generally come down to the point that if Paul Telfer is in the defence then Celtic will lose. I fear for how Prso, Boyd, and Burke will expose our defensive frailties and gain the upper hand in the league.

I expect Celtic to lose 0-2.

What Might Have Been...

You can tell it's European week when we have Barry Ferguson quoted in the Scottish press today saying that Rangers can win the UEFA Cup. What a level of expectation he has set for his team's fans and for others like me who might not be as convinced.

Still, Gers do have the momentum from Celtic's mighty efforts on Wednesday night against an inform Manchester Utd. We played brilliantly against the team at the top of the best league in the world, who also had the return of the best player in the world, Wayne Rooney.

According to those who make up the stories for the tabloids which people mysteriously buy, Celtic would be gutted like a fish by the Old Trafford team. The expectation was that this annihilation would match the horrors which were expected when we twice went to the Nou Camp in recent years.

What actually happened was Celtic played brilliantly, at a level which has seen us now bag 6 CL goals in our last two games. We were playing so well that it took dodgy refereeing decisions, cheating by Man Utd players, and incredible bad luck to send us home with a 3-2 defeat.

There's always a dodgy penalty incident when we lose 3-2 to our supposed masters in the Champions League. We've been there when Juventus were given a crazy penalty and we've been there when Lyon were given a crazy penalty.

It's the usual story and last night it was a shameful situation where Ryan Giggs, of all players, cheated by diving as though he had been hauled down. There was a slight touch but not anything to send the Welsh cheat to ground.

But these incidents can't take away from what a superb performance Celtic gave. It's like rolling back the years to how superb we were during the MON era in Europe. Not feeling inferior to our supposed betters is what it was all about and Gordon Strachan should be thoroughly congratulated for the effort he got from the tean.

I've been one of his fiercest critics but saw something was changing in the wee man during the close season and finally he has arrived as the Celtic manager to help us rebuild our reputation amongst Europe's Elite.

So it's on to play our pals Benfica and Copenhagen in the next 2 games in Paradise. Six points after 3 games will do me.

So onto the lesser Scottish teams playing in Europe's lesser tournament. Hearts were unlucky in the CL qualifiers to get gubbed 3-0 by their anonymous Greek opponents. Getting 2 players sent off didn't help preparations for facing Sparta Prague in the UEFA Cup. They didn't let us down by crashing 0-2 and not even making the bizarre group stage of the UEFA Cup.

If there's one waste of time it has to be a group stage where you only play your opponent once. So you might play a wee team away and a big team at home, but not vice versa. How stupid is that, UEFA?

Anyway, before the Ibrox team had to be concerned with that, they needed to brush aside a team which were languishing at the bottom of the Norwegian League before last weekend.

There are no dud teams in Europe anymore. Just ask Paris St Germain. Held 0-0 against a so-called dud team called Derry City. Try asking F.C. Molde who were held 0-0 by a so-called dud team from Scotland.

You know, leaving your best player on the bench (Prso) shows a complete disrespect to you opponents. Rangers have basically taken the piss out of the Norwegian team and it's backfired.

You won't find them being so daft in their home leg as I expect we will finally see Super Striker Boyd end his goal drought by firing Gers into the glory of the UEFA Cup group stages.

As for Hearts, how crap are they?

Celtic In Europe - The New Century

Under MON Celtic climbed to the very top of European football. We had such a wonderful team with such amazing strength throughout the team which got us to within a whisker of bringing European trophies back to Paradise.

We had a powerful backline with guys like Mjalby who would put the fear of death into any opponent who would dare challenge. We had emerging players such as John Kennedy who looked like he had the potential to be Billy McNeill's successor.

In the middle of the park we had the duo of Lennon and Lambert who could stop anybody. The world's greatest every chess player Gary Kasparov was well-known for sitting the double pawn pairing deep to protect the King in his defensive plays. MON used the footballing equivalent with the Lennon-Lambert pairing.

On the wings we had players like Thompson who was worth a goal in any European game and the electric pace of Agathe could power past any player on the right. Who can forget Agathe annihilating Stuttgart in Germany to announce Celtic had arrived at Europe's top table?

Then you had the amazing Henrik Larsson. What more needs to be said about this player who single-handedly won Barcelona the CL last season?

His strike partner of Hartson or Sutton were as good as any. Larsson said Sutton was the best partner he'd ever played with. That's quite a plaudit as Larsson has played with the best strikers in the world. Hartson, too, was an amazing player who scored against Barcelona in the Nou Camp when we were told we were not good enough. He scored against Liverpool when we were told we were not good enough.

Then onto Manchester Utd and Old Trafford. We have Team 2 from Gordon Strachan which is arguably stronger in some areas than before. We have a front strike force of Miller and Jan Vinnegoor of Hesselink who are starting to develop a telepathic understanding. Miller destroyed the team which drew with the World Cup Winners 10 days ago. He is an incredibly underestimated player. JVoH is the player keeping Ruud van Nistelrooy out of the Dutch national team.

Then in the middle of the park you have the richness of McGeady and Nakamura, two players who are a step in class above Thompson and Agathe. In the middle you have Gravesen replacing Stan Petrov. When you consider Celtic signed him from Real Madrid then you can understand the class the Dane has.

In the defensive position you have Neil Lennon. What can you say about Lennon which hasn't been said before. He knows the score and has a telepathic ability to predict his opponent's actions. His reading of the game is second to none, which is why, even at 35, Lennon is the type of player who will guide Celtic through this Old Trafford game successfully.

At the back, Celtic have the safe hands of Boruc in goal. Always our downfall under MON, the Pole is the goalie that the big four in England covet.

The only place we need to be concerned is our backline. Going forward Celtic have nothing to fear, which is why we won't lose in Manchester.

Torment For Celtic In the Theater Of Dreams

Celtic begin their latest European adventure in the so-called Theater of Dreams at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. This is a venue that we've all come to know and love from Celtic taking a huge crowd down for somebody's testimonial, a nice kick about, and a happy player with a fat wad of cash in retirement.

But this time the event is more than a kickabout. It's the Champions League. Rangers supporters will probably have read about it but that's a side issue.

Going to Old Trafford would put the fear of God into most teams and it should because Manchester Utd are off to a flyer this season and look totally unbeatable with 4 out of 4 wins from the EPL so far already this season.

So what can Celtic realistically hope to achieve against a Tier One European side? Should we go down there and happily accept a 3-0 hiding similar to that which Rangers were excited to receive three years ago, or should we be looking to take something from the match?

Are we even allowed to think that?

If you look at it on paper, Manchester Utd have the best attacker in the world in Wayne Rooney, who on his game would destroy and defence. Celtic are handicapped by the absence of Bobo Balde, our #1 center half and we have goalie and backline who haven't played in Europe for Celtic before.

It does not make for pretty reading. Or it didn't until Celtic signed to top European players in Jan Venegoor of Hesselink and Thomas Gravesen. Suddenly, the thought of the Dutchman leading our front line and the Dane bossing midfield with Neil Lennon seems reasonable.

It's all down to how we fill the other 4 roles within the team. There is no better player at running himself into the ground for a cause than Kenny Miller. He has been outstanding for Scotland recently and had a superb assist on Saturday for JVoH to fire in the Sheep winner.

Then you have Aiden McGeady the wunderkid who has so much skill, vision, and talent that you wonder how long Celtic can hold onto him, playing on the left.

Finally, you have Japanese midfielder and dead ball expert, Nakamura who would put most Brazilians to shame when he is on his game. Man Utd will fear him if he gets anywhere near their goal with a freekick.

So, it really is down to how well our defence plays. Wilson at right back is the best in Scotland. Artur Boruc is probably one of the top three keepers in Britain.

Lee Naylor looks like he's coming onto his game at the expense of Paul Telfer. Naylor has looked comfortable in the left back slot and has also had experience of playing at Old Trafford, in the same team as Kenny Miller who sunk Man Utd in that match.

It's all down to how our central defence shapes up. If McManus and Caldwell can keep it tight and we can keep a clean sheet until half time then United will start to get anxious. They are playing in front of a sell out crowd for the first time and their failure last season will be all too fresh in their mind.

For that reason, I expect us to either grab a point in a 0-0 draw, or get a late winner at the death and take all three points. Then all the muppets will sit up and take notice.

Onward Mr Strachan.