Forget Ibrox’s Euro Performances. Celtic Would Take Their Luck Any Day.

For a right few years now one of the themes that we return to over and over again here is the one about Ibrox’s “brilliant” European record. It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. But they are apparently more capable of getting results in those competitions than we are.

That’s a consequence of them taking those competitions seriously and having enough experience in their side that they cope with them in a way that Celtic don’t. We don’t help ourselves with our club policies, and our style of play does not lend itself to getting continental results. To be blunt, we put too much focus on attacking football for our own good.

Like everything else, European football is about trade-offs. To properly prepare for it, you need to play in a manner that is suited to it, and that style of play doesn’t translate well domestically.

Rodgers is trying to walk the middle path. Postecoglou didn’t even bother to. One of the reasons we did so well in Europe under Strachan is that he played that deadening sort of football which hits on the counter and gets those sorts of results in massive matches.

It is not always pretty. But in European terms (and in domestic terms; we won three titles in a row under Strachan, which few enough Celtic bosses have ever done) it worked. My way of looking at it last year was that we can either have Ange-Ball or we can have something far less attractive but that on the continent might be more effective. Give Rodgers credit in that he’s making an effort. His gung-ho approach in his first spell here was a costly mess.

And of course, in trying to play that way domestically … disastrous. Awful to watch and terrible for our form with players who can’t handle the system.

There are two other reasons why the Ibrox side gets results in Europe whilst we appear to struggle. The first is obvious; they play in the second-tier tournament whilst we’re playing football with the big boys.

The gap between the Champions League and the Europa League has never been this vast, and the reason I was not terribly disappointed to see Ibrox get a place in this stage from second place in the Groups was that a drop into the Conference League sees the quality decline massively again, to the point where with the right draw they might have been contenders.

The Champions League is a killing field. Their fate the last time they were there was an annihilation, and vindicated everything this blog had said the season before during their march to the Europa League Final with seven wins in twenty-one games. That they would be found out and humiliated on that bigger, more unforgiving stage. Oh, and how.

But there’s another reason they’ve done comparatively well in the Europa League these past few seasons, and it’s simple enough; they carry incredible, almost supernatural, levels of luck. They have a knack for drawing teams who are in challenging circumstances, whether that’s full-blown crisis of form or carrying major injury issues or whatever else it might be.

I would take their luck any day. We never seem to get the rub of the green in the way they do. Last night was a case in point, playing a Benfica side badly off form and in the midst of a club meltdown which already threatens the manager’s job. They looked every inch a side in disarray, with players all over the pitch looking scared of their own shadow.

Their football was very one dimensional; everything they did, they played through Di Maria. Goldson tried, in vain, to get him sent off at the end of the game; I almost wish he had because it would have forced a second leg rethink and one is badly necessary because if they play such a transparent system at Ibrox they’ll be lucky not to be on the end of a defeat.

As it is, I think the Ibrox club are the favourites to get through.

I would not want to be playing in the lesser tournament, although our board might have condemned us to that fate for next season. I would not particularly want to play their style of football, because I think they were poor last night and usually are.

But man oh man, I’ll take their luck any day of the week, especially in drawing teams who are falling apart at the seams, and whose managers look like people waiting to be put out of their misery.