A RUN FOR THEIR MONEY
Hoops must show they can mix it with the mega-minted
THE task of beating Manchester City is akin to pushing mist up a hill with a stick.
No matter how much you train and prepare, even if you are the most determined person on the planet, it is, to borrow that football phrase, a big ask.
Abu Dhabi FC have been a good to great team for many years now. Any problems, such as they were, have come about because of weak management and the club’s inability to deal with several big names when it was clear their best days were behind them.
Enter Pep Guardiola and everything changes. Joe Hart is j ettisoned, Yaya Toure dropped, Raheem Sterling transformed from passenger to world beater and so far this season this team have won 10 games out of 10 playing some breathtaking football along the way.
It is going to take something really special from Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic to even take a point from their first home match in this Champions League campaign.
This is where Celtic are at. Too good for the Scottish league, but nowhere near good enough to compete with the best of Europe, and make no mistake, both Barcelona and City could win the trophy in May.
Celtic’s best bet in Group C will be to finish above Borussia Moenchengladbach for third place and even that you would have to say is going to be more than difficult.
But first up is England’s unbeatable Premier League leaders, coached by an icon of the game and in Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, three of the best footballers playing the game today.
Actually, forget that stick and mist analogy. There isn’t even a stick for Celtic to use.
We have been here before with Celtic when they are given next to no hope before such a game and they pull off a staggering result, although you have to go back to 2012 and Barcelona for a win that truly took the breath away, not that there haven’t been some great nights since then.
Nobody would choose to sit for the best part of two hours in the cold, as 60,000 people will do tonight, if not one part of them believed their team capable of pulling off a spectacular win.
After all, Rodgers has his team playing some terrific stuff, albeit against opposition who operate in a different solar system to Guardiola’s side, and they are not bad players, far from it. Indeed Tom Rogic, who should start, Moussa Dembele, who is likely to get the nod ahead of Leigh Griffiths and Scott Sinclair are genuinely good footballers in the form of their lives.
Indeed, unlike in previous matches in Europe this season, it would be unfair to point at anyone Rodgers could name in the outfield positions and accuse that player of being undeserving of at least being given an opportunity to play in the Champions League.
The goalkeeping situation is an odd one and no matter who starts, Craig Gordon or Dorus de Vries, they owe their team a couple of saves, and let’s face it the Celtic goalie is going to be kept busy.
AS a journalist, it is a real privilege to sit at Celtic Park under the floodlights when the best come to town on European nights. Tonight will be no different even if the millionaires from Manchester run amok.
They can be special nights and when that theme music blares out and the big ball is shaken, every Celtic fan will believe because that’s what being a football supporter is all about.
Common sense and realism can take a walk. At least until Silva starts playing his passes.
Tonight is more about performance than points. Celtic didn’t turn up in Barcelona and got gubbed. They were excused that. No Celtic team cannot turn up at their own place.
The players need to get in the faces of City, start on the front foot, put in some tackles, even commit a foul here and there would be okay, and believe they deserve to be on that park.
An early goal for Celtic would get the place rocking and even the most accomplished find it hard to find their top level in the east end of Glasgow when the home side have given the locals something to shout and scream about.
Celtic need to show the rest of Europe that they are not merely also-rans in this competition; rather, they have to put down a marker, at the very least give City some problems, and no matter what walk off the
field knowing that little more could be done.
THAT didn’t happen in the Nou Camp and that far more than the 7-0 result was unforgivable. Give it a go tonight and the punters will forgive almost anything.
Two non-performances in a row, even against such classy opposition, would be difficult to brush off.
The players are good enough to make a mark and not just sit back and allow themselves to be battered.