Bayern back to business in Europe
Northern Irishman recalls day Rangers snuffed
CHAMPIONS League holders Bayern Munich return to European action tonight for the start of the knock-out stage.
Liverpool, Paris Saint Germain and Borussia Dortmund gained victories on the road last week. Here, we look at the key talking points before the four matches to be played tonight and tomorrow.
BAYERN BACK-TO-BACK?
Bayern Munich were virtually untouchable in 2020 but have endured a tricky start to the new year and will not want to jeopardise the defence of their Champions League title this week with another belowpar showing against Lazio in Rome. Eintracht Frankfurt inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Hansi Flick’s side on Saturday.
SUAREZ FACES OLD FOES
There is no love lost between Luis Suarez and the Chelsea fans. It was back in 2013 the Uruguayan received a 10-match ban for a bite on Branislav Ivanovic at Anfield. It has not been forgotten by the Blues faithful but the former Liverpool striker does not boast the best of records against the Premier League side. He has scored only twice in nine appearances but with eight already to his name in 2021 with Atletico Madrid, the 34-year-old will be out to improve that tally.
IS THIS CITY’S YEAR?
Manchester City have been a domestic force for more than a decade but success in Europe continues to elude them. It has been a similar story for Pep Guardiola, who failed to lead Bayern to Champions League glory and has not won the trophy since 2011 with Barcelona. There have been close shaves but could 2021 be the year the cup returns to Manchester? On an 18-match winning streak, the Citizens will not fear Monchengladbach and with a perfect balance between defence and attack, they look favourites for a reason.
RANGERS ensured there would be no Celtic celebrations at Ibrox. Now they have the chance to party at Parkhead as Steven Gerrard closes in on the Premiership title.
It is nine years since Neil Lennon took his side across the city with their sights set on the silverware. Celtic would eventually get their medals, but they were denied an opportunity to gloat as Rangers provided one last stand against their Old Firm rivals.
On a remarkable afternoon, goals from Sone Aluko, Andy
Little and Lee Wallace won it for the Ibrox club. Cha Du-Ri, Victor Wanyama and Carlos Bocanegra would see red, while Scott Brown and Thomas Rogne netted late and in vain.
The first title on their way to nine was wrapped up just days later by Celtic. There will be no 10, though, as Gerrard prepares to lead the Govan club to title No.55 in a matter of weeks.
The crowning moment could well come at the home of their fiercest rivals. Minds will naturally be cast back to 2012 and Little rightly savours the occasion to this day.
“At the time, you would never have realised the significance of that game and it wasn’t until the Ryan Jack goal at Ibrox that Rangers would beat Celtic again in a league game,” Little said. “You would never have expected that Rangers fans would wait so long for it to happen again.
At the time, there was a real attitude of defiance, a siege mentality if you like. Everyone was against us and we needed to stick together and try and bring some joy, I suppose, to the fans who had gone through a horrible few weeks since the administration was announced.
“From a personal point of view, I was getting regular games and I felt part of the first-team squad so to get an opportunity to come into an Old Firm game was great. I had a brief taste of one before, but to come on and then for what happened to happen was incredible.
“Those 15, 20 seconds were incredible and I genuinely wish I could relive that moment and that time I had on the pitch and that 24 hours again and again. In my 31 years, if there was one thing I could relive it would be that moment. It was just amazing.
At the time you would never have realised the significance
ANDY LITTLE believes Steven Davis has assumed the leadership role once held by Davie Weir to inspire Rangers to title glory this term.
Davis has been a mainstay of the Ibrox side that have moved to within touching distance of their first Premiership crown in a decade and the fourth that the Northern Irishman has won at Ibrox.
The midfielder was part of the successful side managed by Walter Smith during his first spell with Rangers and he is now poised to complete the job that he started when he returned from Southampton two years ago.
Davis continues to lead the way on and off the park and countryman Little isn’t surprised to see his friend and former team-mate showing his class throughout another accomplished campaign.
Little said: “He has been unbelievable and from the very outset of the season you could tell how important he was going to be.
“Any successful, championship winning team has a really strong spine and you look at McGregor, Goldson, Davis
and Morelos and they are four stand-out players for Rangers that have formed that spine.
“You think of the experience of McGregor and Davis in those key areas of the pitch. The clean sheet record from McGregor is terrific and the experience that Davis has is so important.
“I think of him like Davie Weir when he managed that side to titles. Steven is a few years younger than Davie but I see them as very similar characters and he does everything right, he is the ultimate pro and a great role model for all those lads around him.
“The likes of Joe Aribo, Glen Kamara, Ryan Kent, they are guys that have really impressed this season and they will have been helped massively by having Steven Davis alongside him bringing that calmness.
“That is what Davie Weir did with Carlos Cuellar and Madjid Bougherra or even midfield players like Steven. Back then, he was the Joe Aribo, if you like, and now he is the elder statesman in there.
“I think his influence over the team has arguably been the most important thing in Rangers going ahead and no doubt winning the league this season.”
THIS has been nothing short of a car crash of a season for Celtic in which everything that could possibly go wrong pretty much has.
The Parkhead club’s chances of completing 10-in-a-row in the 2020/21 campaign were jeopardised from the very start by the fact that some players wanted to leave last summer and were prevented from doing so.
Not having any fans cheering them on from the stands because of the pandemic immediately put them at a disadvantage, too.
After just two competitive matches, their momentum was disrupted when Holyrood requested that two of their games were postponed due to Boli Bolingoli breaching coronavirus lockdown protocols.
Positive Covid-19 tests and periods of self-isolation for key men like Nir Bitton, Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard, Hatem Elhamed and David Turnbull soon followed.
James Forrest and Christopher Jullien, automatic starters for Celtic on the wing and at centre-half respectively, also suffered serious injuries that ruled them out for long spells. And Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and Shane Duffy, new signings of whom so much was hoped and expected, failed to justify the substantial outlay it took to secure their services and make an impact.
Then came the Dubai debacle in January – a calamitous affair from start to finish that effectively ended their slim hopes of staging a late fightback.
Yet, one important factor in Celtic’s annus horribilis has been largely ignored amid all the protests, political storms and poor performances.
Their defending at set pieces has been nothing short of diabolical.
The Jordan White goal they conceded at a second-half Harry Paton free-kick in the 1-0 defeat to bottom-placed Ross County up in Dingwall on Sunday night was far from a freak occurrence.
The weakness in their armoury may not be as headline-grabbing as their left back playing in a Premiership game just days after returning from a whirlwind visit to a country on the government’s red list that he had failed to inform them about.
But an examination of the goals Neil Lennon’s men have let in after corners, throwins and free-kicks in the past seven months show the failing has been every bit as damaging to their aspirations.
If Scott Brown and his team mates had done better when the ball was returned to play their bid to make Scottish football history and win their 10th consecutive title would very much be alive.
They are 18 points adrift of Rangers in the top flight and just weeks away from finally surrendering their grasp on a piece of silverware that has been in their trophy cabinet for the past nine years.
If they had dealt with the dead ball deliveries and throws into their penalty box and just outside their area more effectively they would be just seven back with two meetings with their city rivals to come in their final eight Premiership outings. Leagues have been won from far worse positions.
Celtic have drawn no fewer than seven league games this term. In four of them, they have let in goals after set plays. They have, too, lost four times. Switching off at corners and free-kicks has cost them dear in every one of those defeats
Rangers centre half Connor Goldson capitalised on that weakness in the first Old Firm game of the season at Parkhead back in October when he got on the end of a James Tavernier cross in just the ninth minute and nodded beyond Barkas.
The defender added another from open play in the secondhalf so his opener wasn’t vital to the result. The home side, missing Christie and Edouard, were absolutely dire. They didn’t manage a single shot on target in the entire 90 minutes.
That encounter, then, is disregarded in this review of Celtic’s myriad set piece slipups. Would remaining on level terms have seen them grow in confidence and possibly scrape a draw? It is highly unlikely given how bad they were that day. In many of their other draws and defeats, however, the flaw has been hugely damaging.
Against Hibernian at Easter Road in November, Scott Brown conceded a penalty with a clumsy foul on Martin Boyle after the visitors had failed to clear a Stevie Mallan free-kick. Scott Bain saved the Kevin Nisbet spot kick only for Jamie Murphy to net the rebound.
Just seven minutes later a Ryan Porteous free-kick from deep inside his own half wasn’t intercepted and Nisbet
atoned for his earlier miss. “The second goal was awful,” said Lennon afterwards. “It’s just people standing watching.” His team scored two late on to level. But they fell two behind after two set plays.
Chris Kane scored after a throw-in to ensure St Johnstone drew at Parkhead in December, Callum McGregor turned a Rangers corner into his own net at Ibrox in January and his men lost, Nisbet equalised for Hibs in the East End in injury-time after Conor Hazard flapped at a Mallan free-kick and Duffy failed to clear.
That last game was played while most of the Celtic squad and management team was in quarantine after their illfated trip to the United Arab Emirates. But when they returned against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena the
Defending at set pieces has been nothing short of diabolical
following week Ciaron Brown was allowed a free header in their box at a Julien Serrano free-kick and put the hosts in front.
Against St Mirren at Celtic Park just 10 days later, Edouard cancelled out a Kristian Dennis opener in the first-half only for a Kristoffer Ajer to fail to deal with a Joe Shaughnessey throw-in wide on the left. Kyle McAllister crossed to Ilkay Durmus who volleyed past Bain. Then came White’s winner at the weekend.
It is little wonder Lennon is so exasperated. His team would, despite everything they have had to deal with, still have a real chance of 10-In-ARow if they had handled set pieces.
“It wasn’t a problem for us last season, but it has been a real problem for us this season with more or less the same personnel,” he said on Sunday. “You have to go and head the ball, you want to block runners. It’s not good enough.”
SCOTLAND last night insisted they are preparing to fulfil their fixture against France in the Six Nations on Sunday despite Les Bleus announcing yesterday that 11 players and three coaches were self-isolating after positive tests in their camp.
France announced yesterday that five more members of their squad, including captain Charles Ollivon, had tested positive, taking the number of players affected to ten. That was later reported to have gone up to 11 after one of the replacements called up, Baptiste Pesenti, tested positive while with his club, Pau. Head coach Fabien Galthie and three other members of the backroom staff have also tested positive.
Scottish Rugby said in a statement last night: “Scotland’s national team are continuing their preparations to play France in Paris on Sunday. Our players, coaches and fans hope the game can go ahead as planned in the existing tournament schedule.
“Any postponement will have an impact on the player release agreement in place with clubs, which could see more than 10 Scotland players unavailable for selection if the game is rearranged. We will be working closely with our Six Nations counterparts to press the case for this week’s game to go ahead, should it be medically safe to do so.”