Barca, Brown ,Neymar and all that.....
Beating Barcelona twice in 11 months would be some
achievement, particularly from a team whose spine was dismantled in the summer
then replaced with lesser quality (apart from Virgil for Wilson, the only new
face to start last night), yes it would have been quite a feat, same with a
draw considering our player capacity compared to Barca’s.
What Lennon has achieved on the Champions League
stage is a style of play keeping Celtic in the game when class acts are running
about with the ball enjoying 75% of possession. Last night I thought every
Celtic player stuck to their task and gave it their all, (red card apart, Brown
played well) we’d be living in false dream expectation land if we thought we’d
be expected to beat Barca each time at Celtic Park, therefore with what we had
I wouldn’t expect more than what they players ultimately gave.
Yes we missed chances, as did the multi-zillion
pound players from Catalan, that’s the way it goes and there’s no point crying
over spilt milk. Excuses at missed good opportunities and ‘might have beens’ are futile, Milan was the same.
The talking point of the night was Scott Brown’s red
card. Would we have remained unbeaten at home from Barca within 11 months? Who
knows, possibly, then again! Scott Brown has matured as a player BUT he is not
engaging brain at this level of football, particularly with referees warned by
UEFA to make sure no fly kick-outs go unnoticed! Yes I had to go home and watch
it on TV to make a proper judgement and you’ll notice the ref has a great view
of it all. Being Celtic captain is a great honour as is the opportunity to wear
the jersey. It was mindless to aim a fly kick at Neymar after fouling him and
if Celtic are thinking of appealing this then please forget it, it would be
embarrassing. Get real here, aiming a kick is a red card offence, no matter how
soft anyone thinks it was.
For Neymar’s part his reaction was farcical,
ridiculous & theatrical, but he used his savvy, cheating, cleverness, call
it what you like to get Brown sent off. The Brazilian has a crime sheet as long
as your arm for over-cooking it and when you prepare for a game involving him then
surely you study that and take it into account. Pele recently offered advice to
Naymar saying “Even when he is fouled he
can make a spectacle out of it” Footballers like Neymar can have all the
skill in the world but when you’ve ‘nae
class’ then fans world-wide wont respect you.
Scott made it easy for the ref to make the decision and
if in the cold light of day he doesn’t understand that and the management don’t
take him aside then that’s even worse. Gavin Gunning did the exact same thing
in Virgil Van Dijk’s direction at Tannadice recently and none of us complained
at action being taken against him. We can’t have it both ways!
Neil defended him, but again in the cold light of
day, Neil cannot continue to ignore his captain’s unnecessary involvement,
there are plenty of examples, recently with Balotelli in Milan giving away the
free kick for their first goal or Scott’s involvement last night. Brain over
brawn always wins the day. Time Scott got clued up!
