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Posted by PaulJ on 2008-10-24 @ 4:06:48 -0600

Things Have Changed

Despite the clear difference in standard now between our leagues we have a mixed record of results against Celtic, mainly in non-friendly friendlies; I remember my disbelief when arguably the greatest of all United sides in 1966 went to Parkhead and were lucky to get nil in the four goal defeat. Little did I know that their club would go on that season to take home every trophy at every level and that their first team, composed entirely of local lads, would change the face of European Football by taking the European Cup with that cavalier comeback in Lisbon. Even two years ago their pale shadows had enough fight in them to be outpassed for 180 minutes and still beat us on away goals.

All the more, then was the let down. Celtic as I remember them did not turn up on Tuesday. Strachan’s formation did not help; they were a team full of midfielders. The precedents may have weighed upon them too, no goals in the group stage yet, no away win ever in this competition. If this was not enough the referee did them no favours.
With Rio and Evra injured, Jon Evans played alongside Vidic in central defence and we had Gary Neville and John O’Shea at full back. Anderson and Fletcher are our only standing midfielders at the moment and they duly occupied the centre of the pitch. Ronaldo and Nani were on the flanks, Berbatov and Rooney up front. The atmosphere was good, the United support vocal and the television people had that annoying pepperpot piece of Star Wars junk suspended on wires and moving around like an alien spacecraft. It seems to enable the viewers to get views of the kick-off from above; why they should want this is beyond me.

United were on top from the first whistle and Celtic tried to contain this by swamping the midfield and passing the ball; Strachan must have been watching West Bromwich on Saturday. To some extent it worked and with nearly half an hour gone we had made thirteen forays into the Celtic box and enjoyed 62% possession yet both saves, decent ones at that, had been made by Van der Sar.

Indeed United had gone ahead before Artur Boruc made a save. It came when Nani, who looked dangerous most of the evening, won a corner on the left. He took it himself and O’Shea at the near post got a second attempt to play the ball. Berbatov gently lifted it into the net with the deftest of touches; 29 minutes 1-0. The goal was at the Scoreboard End so we could not see that at the moment the ball was prodded forward Berbatov’s body was goal side of the last defender. Because he was not the last man a moment beforehand or a moment afterwards it may have been difficult for the linesman to call, and the official might have looked at the trailing foot of the defender, which made it even more marginal. Either way, the scoreboard (and more importantly the referee’s notebook) made it 1-0 and that was certainly good enough for Berbatov.

Without an attack to speak of, this put Celtic in trouble and United’s command of the match increased without us having to play particularly well. Ronaldo had worked out early on that Lee Naylor was no match for him and seemed to tire of finding ways to beat him, eventually swapping wings with Nani so that the younger man could have a good time. For all that, however, the sheer numbers of bodies in the middle and in the box ensured that little got through cleanly, and United’s shooting, Rooney apart, was off target. When Rooney made a gilt-edged chance for Fletcher seconds before the break all Darren had to do was get it under control and bury it and the contest would have been over. He cracked it over the bar.

We expected some fight from the visitors in the second half but they seemed to offer less ambition than they had before the break and it took only a few minutes for United to seal the match with another doubtful Barbatov goal. A good run by Anderson ended with a foul by Brown twenty five yards out. Ronaldo took the free kick and hit it violently through the gap in the wall where Nani had ducked. The goalie misjudged his dive and the ball came off his chest. Rooney and Berbatov were first Berbatov stuck it in from a yard or two with assassin’s eyes, almost shoving Wayne out of the way; 51 minutes 2-0. Had Rooney scored it would have been a valid goal but it had been evident to me that Berbatov was loitering a foot offside when the kick was taken. TV analysis showed that it was closer than I had thought.

A couple of minutes later Berbatov developed a flowing move with a splendid ball for Rooney. Rooney ran through the middle, took it to the right, beat the defender and slid it in only to find out that he had been flagged offside. Again, I was directly in line and the decision was clearly a bad one and not that difficult to spot. Does beer and chocolate make you blind, I wonder? The Belgian linesmen had been faced with three basic but important decisions and got them all wrong. There is, I suppose, some virtue in consistency.

Wes Brown came on for Neville and Carlos Tevez for Berbatov. Dimitar pretended not to notice the board in the hope that it would go away but eventually he had to go; he got an ovation which seemed to cheer him up. Carlos got a great cheer when he came on but probably tried too hard to impress at a period when everyone else except Anderson and Rooney were beginning to conserve their energy. Rooney was determined to score and had his third scorching effort of the match tipped over the bar.

Celtic, now fed up of being passed out of the game and subjected to trickery, started to get riled. If they had started with more spirit we might have had a match but their anger now included the illegitimate. Caldwell was lucky to stay on the pitch after putting the boot in on Nani and Loovens comprehensively and rather unwisely, I thought, upended Tevez. Our Argentinean was not amused.

The final goal was a beauty. Aiden McGeady (who looked skilful) tried a chip which Van der Sar collected and rolled out to Fletcher. One touch from Nani and Tevez had it on the half way line, ran at the heart of the defence and released it to Rooney on the edge of the area. Rooney controlled it, took it sideways until the defender was stretched and then produced a reverse shot which nutmegged his opponent and was accurate enough to outreach the goalkeeper’s fingertips and shave the inside of the post as it went in; 75 minutes 3-0. That was that; Ronaldo had had enough when he got a bit of a kick on the ankle and was replaced by Park and the players were soon swapping shirts with United and Villarreal six points clear of Celtic and Aalborg at the head of the group.

I can only assume this was an off night for Celtic. Outside the ground an Irishman and his lass were carrying green and gold balloons and some young United lads taunted them with “Who are you?”. The Irishman simply walked up to the leader and said without a hint of facetiousness “We’re Glasgow Celtic, friend, and we’re really happy to be in your city, thank you for having us.”

So there is still some humour and honour in following the green. The ghosts of John Thomson and Jimmy Delaney might have smiled. Perhaps honour will be restored to the pitch in the return game and they will have a really good go at us. They will need to in order to retain any hope of progress in the competition.

Once I had cleared the car parks I had a perfect journey home past the sad site of Monday night’s holocaust on the M6 and with a giant, brown half moon hovering eerily in the sapphire tempered skies over Brum. The thrill of a three nil drubbing of famous and proud old rivals seemed a little flat. Never was the Stretford End’s “So fucking easy, you made it so fucking easy” sung with more accuracy.

Posted by Bill on 2008-10-22 @ 6:03:21 -0600

With not so much a battle as a mild swat, Manchester United contemptuously dismissed Celtic in their all-British encounter at Old Trafford.

Two suspiciously offside-looking goals from Dimitar Berbatov - taking his Champions League tally to four - and a customary strike from Wayne Rooney, who now has nine in seven games for club and country, paid scant justice to United's total dominance.

Celtic did not even make a fight of it, allowing Sir Alex Ferguson to gain the personal satisfaction of avenging a defeat at Parkhead in the last meeting between the teams two years ago.

Ferguson is such a towering Scottish presence in the United dugout, in some ways the hosts were as tartan as their visitors.

But the Glasgow Ferguson grew up in is not the same one Celtic inhabit, just as the Hoops would offer no association with the Rangers fans whose reputation was so badly tarnished in this city last May.

There was no repeat of those ugly scenes as the visiting fans made their presence felt, with the Hoops needing all the support available as United laid siege to their goal.

Ferguson abandoned a plan to leave out Cristiano Ronaldo, so the Portugal winger was an obvious attacking outlet, as was in-form Rooney.

Ronaldo drove an angled effort over at the end of a slick six-man move that left Celtic gasping, then Rooney's bicycle kick appeared goalbound until it struck Glenn Loovens.

Strachan's men clung on grimly and almost prospered as Gary Caldwell let fly from 20 yards, forcing Edwin van der Sar into a fingertip save.

It was a rare moment of attacking optimism for Celtic, who were comprehensively outplayed and penned in their own half for long stretches.

Only two years ago, the same teams fought out a couple of pulsating duels. Since then, one of them has spent around £100million and gone on to lift the Champions League. An away win would do for the other, who have now lost 17 out of 18 games on their travels among Europe's elite.

Ronaldo turned in anguish as he slammed another opportunity into the side-netting. But, just as their profligacy was starting to cause anxiety, United found the net.

The goal came from a corner that Nani floated to the near post. At the second attempt, John O'Shea forced it on, and Berbatov, with his back to goal, flicked it past Artur Boruc.

The Bulgarian was almost delirious by his own understated standards. Celtic were not, as Berbatov should have been flagged offside.

Still, it was the least United's dominance deserved and Anderson and Nani both had shooting opportunities either side of a Rooney thunderbolt that thudded into Boruc's chest as United tried to press home their advantage.

Amazingly though, Celtic might have been level at the break when O'Shea turned Shunsuke Nakamura's free-kick towards his own goal. Thankfully for the Irishman, Van der Sar was alive to the danger.

The absence of Rio Ferdinand with a groin strain was having a negligible impact on proceedings, although the contest was so one-sided, United lacked the edge needed to bring them towards top gear.

Boyhood Celtic fan Darren Fletcher blazed over after he had manoeuvred himself into an excellent position so, amazingly, United were still only one up at the break.

The status quo lasted just six second-half minutes before Berbatov tapped home his second, the striker profiting from a blistering Ronaldo free-kick Boruc could not hold.

Yet again, it seemed Berbatov was offside, which just made it more ironic the referee's assistant, having missed it, should raise his flag against Rooney when the England man raced onto Ronaldo's through ball and beat Boruc as TV replays confirmed the run had been perfectly timed.

Rooney scooped a shot over before Berbatov left to a standing ovation, replaced by Carlos Tevez, in itself an indication of the widely differing standards that now exist either side of Hadrian's Wall.

In his more rampaging moods, Rooney looks as though he could knock down a few walls and after another near miss, stroked home a deserved goal 15 minutes from time.

It took his personal tally to nine in seven games and left Celtic facing a tough fight to claim a UEFA Cup berth as United continued their relentless march towards becoming the first side to retain this competition since the league format was launched in 1992.

Teams

Man Utd Van der Sar, Neville (Brown 59), Evans, Vidic, O'Shea,Ronaldo (Park 82), Fletcher, Anderson, Nani,Berbatov (Tevez 60), Rooney.

Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Giggs, Rafael Da Silva, Gibson.

Goals: Berbatov 30, 51, Rooney 76.

Celtic Boruc, Wilson, Loovens, McManus, Naylor,Nakamura (Hartley 61), Scott Brown, Caldwell,Robson (Maloney 61), McGeady, McDonald (Sheridan 77).

Subs Not Used: Mark Brown, Hinkel, Donati, O'Dea.

Booked: Hartley, Loovens.

Att: 74,655

Ref: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).
sportinglife.com

Posted by Barry on 2008-10-20 @ 23:34:14 -0600

PATRICE Evra has been ruled out of Manchester United’s Champions League clash with Celtic at Old Trafford.

The defender tweaked a hamstring during Saturday’s win over West Brom and though he was able to do a bit of running at United’s Carrington training ground this morning, Sir Alex Ferguson has decided not to take a chance on his fitness, so John O’Shea will come in.

South American duo Anderson and Carlos Tevez are available after missing out at the weekend, while Michael Carrick (ankle) and Owen Hargreaves (knee) are out.

Celtic defender Gary Caldwell is set to play with stitches in an ankle injury.

The Scotland defender was substituted during the 2-1 Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Inverness on Saturday but manager Gordon Strachan is hopeful he will be ready to face the English and European champions.

Target men Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Georgios Samaras and Chris Killen and midfielder Marc Crosas are all out injured.

Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Brown, Neville, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, O’Shea, Ronaldo, Nani, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Gibson, Park, Tevez, Berbatov, Rooney, Manucho.

Celtic (from): Boruc, Caldwell, Wilson, McManus, Loovens, Naylor, McGeady, S Brown, Hinkel, Hartley, Robson, McDonald, Sheridan, Maloney, M Brown, McCourt, Hutchinson, Nakamura, O’Dea.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Posted by Barry on 2008-10-11 @ 0:58:02 -0600

Celtic midfielder Marc Crosas was "amazed" by Manchester United as a boy - but he is looking at their upcoming Champions League meeting simply as a chance to stay in the tournament. The former Barcelona midfielder has admired United since watching their last-gasp comeback in the 1999 final against Bayern Munich from the Nou Camp stands.

But the 20-year-old is too concerned with getting a result at Old Trafford at October 21 to get carried away with the hype surrounding the latest 'battle of Britain' clash. Crosas has been an unused substitute in Celtic's Champions League games against Aalborg and Villarreal. But his team-mates have left the club with an uphill struggle to qualify for the last 16 for a third year running after taking one point from the two games.

Crosas said: "I was actually inside the Nou Camp when Manchester United beat Bayern Munich to win the UEFA Champions League in 1999. "I got tickets along with a few friends and it was an amazing experience. I like them as a team. "They have good players but we can do well against them.

"I know that there will be a lot of interest in the match because it's the champions of Scotland and England playing each other. "But we are not thinking about the game like that. We just know that we need a good result to keep up our dream of going further in the UEFA Champions League." Indeed, Crosas claims the Celtic squad is not even looking that far ahead. While most of Gordon Strachan's first team are on international duty, those left behind will prepare for Celtic's trip to Inverness a week on Saturday.

The Hoops unexpectedly found themselves top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on Sunday evening following St Mirren's shock victory over Rangers at Love Street. "The Manchester United match is massive for us, but nobody is thinking beyond the Inverness game," Crosas told the Celtic View. "Only once the Inverness game is over, we will start to think and plan for the Man United game. "It's vital that we maintain our winning run in the league.

"Yes, it's true that the Manchester United match will be one of the biggest of the season but we can't afford to look too far ahead. "We have worked hard to get back to the top of the SPL and the Inverness match is the priority for us."

www.comeonboro.com