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Our First European Campaign Under Brendan Shows Definite Signs Of Progress

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Tuesday night went some way to further underline the progress being made by Celtic under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers.

It also served as another reminder of the ongoing and frankly absurd financial disparity that continues to widen between the ‘haves’ of the bigger football nations and the ‘have nots’ from countries such as Scotland.

Man City’s apparently weakened starting 11 still cost the best part of £92 million.

In comparison our’s cost roughly £15 million in fees to assemble and save the injured pair of Kieron Tierney and Scott Sinclair was pretty much our strongest and preferred starting 11. Our bench cost about £2.7 million to assemble. Man City’s came in at just under £130 million.

Financially it was the equivalent of bringing a table knife to a gun fight yet it didn’t play out like that on the pitch. Indeed we had 42% of the ball, almost as many corners and clearly registered more attempts and shots on goal than the hosts.

Yes it was a dead rubber but the game wasn’t played like a training session and the bookies had Celtic down as 9/1 underdogs beforehand.

On Tuesday Celtic pressed a Man City team who under Pep Guardiola are determined to pass the ball out from the back at all costs. It has been ongoing feature of our Champions League performances since the trouncing at the Nou Camp with the exception of the home game against Mönchengladbach where the apparent pre-game favourites tag got to us. The passing has also steadily improved where now the team seem more than capable of passing themselves out of tight situations in any part of the pitch.

For comparison to away performances in particular I think it is more logical to compare our last two displays on the road to Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the play off round as opposed to the aforementioned away display to Barcelona in order to gauge progress.

The Catalans have won 4 of the last 10 Champions Leagues and have hoovered up 24 trophies in 8 seasons including 6 domestic championships. Their strike force is valued at about half a billion quid and even the £250 million plus first team of Man City got hammered 4-0 there. Yes it was a truly awful night but just about anyone can be humiliated at the Nou Camp if Barca turn on the style and that night they very much did.

Against the Israeli’s were were up against a team more in our financial stratosphere.

We were also 5-2 up from the home leg.

That night we looked nervy, disorganised and quite frankly scared. Yes when you have a 3 goal advantage it’s easy to fall into a ‘hang-on’ mode and not want to take risks but not being able to pass the length of yourself can never be excused. The performance was almost identical to European displays dished up in the previous season’s campaign both home and away. But since then team has continued to evolve and we have now gone to both Germany and Manchester and secured our biggest ever points total on the road in 9 Champions League campaigns.

Just think; this time 14 months ago we were reeling from a 3-1 Europa League loss away to Molde.

Overall this seasons Champion League adventure was always a monumental task.

At times when the competitions trademark melody bellowed out over the tannoy systems before games you got the feeling the Mission Impossible theme would have been more apt. It was always a nightmare draw and you literally could not have picked harder teams from each seeding pot.

With that came a slight sense of dread and almost a feeling of acceptance that inevitably there wouldn’t be much to shout about.

But considering all that, how badly it started and the fact that this team will likely go through major augmentation in the coming transfer windows then avoiding defeat in 3 out of the 6 games isn’t a bad return.

Think about that. There were hacks who said we wouldn’t get a point.

We  got a point in three out of the six games we played.

We now return to all things domestic from here on out until the seasons end starting this evening in Glasgow’s east end.

With one trophy already in the bag there is a league title to secure and a treble to aspire to.

But Europe is never far from our minds and having been reacquainted with world football’s premier club tournament for the first time in 3 years it’s a given both the fans, the management and the players will want more. Celtic must build towards that through continuous development under Brendan Rodgers on the pitch and ongoing investment off of it.

If another group qualification can be achieved, and at this point it would be expected, then further progress can then be gauged.

A far kinder draw would also be greatly welcomed.

Paul Cassidy is happy enough with this year’s European adventure, and can’t wait for the next one!

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