Duran Duran
Morning, all.
I went into last night’s match with a certain amount of trepidation, and I’m not going to deny it. My misgivings were certainly justified, because LASK made this a very difficult night for us. They had more shots than us and more on target, and even outscored us in xG by 1.75 to 0.88. That we kept a clean sheet was down to some very good defending when required, and an excellent display from Sinisalo in goal. That we significantly outstripped that xG? Well, bear with me!
LASK started like a house on fire, and even had the ball in the net inside twenty seconds. A simple ball over the top into the left hand channel was met with an unstoppable strike across the keeper and into the far top corner. It really was a peach of a finish, but fortunately for us he had wandered offside. It was a wake up call-but it took us a while to do so.
We looked good going forward all night, but our defence took a while to get a grip on proceedings-and if I’m honest, the midfield didn’t quite get there. Baur played well, but he is still getting to know his colleagues. Nygren does his best work going forward, though he manned up well when needed. And CalMac took a while to come into the game, though his second half performance in particular was excellent. For all the criticism in those words, it’s worth remembering that they had five in midfield to our three. And even more as the game wore on and they went hunting for a goal to get back into the tie.
We knew before the game started that these difficulties were likely. What we didn’t know beforehand was what we were going to bring to the table-and what a feast it was! I’ve seen better performances from us over the years, but I don’t remember being able to say that every goal was a peach. Not even the 6-2 game, though as far as I was concerned at the time-and now!-they were all a joy to behold!!! Let me explain…
After 25 minutes of end to end stuff, we were all breathless but with hearts in mouths. It was obvious this game wasn’t going to finish goalless, but could we get that vital opener? It hadn’t been for the want of trying, with Duran unlucky early on after a great ball from Donovan, and then shooting wide just afterwards. Hogh was tireless in his endeavours, tying up the opposition centre backs, but the goal when it came had a comfortingly familiar look to it.
Tierney received the ball on the overlap, crossed it in to the danger area. It was half cleared to the edge of the box, but there didn’t seem any danger as we had nobody running onto it. Still, it was close enough for Nygren to step across and whack it with his left into the postage stamp. As I said, a peach. And better was to come. Twice!
The second one came about due to Yang pressing the keeper. The ball broke to Tierney again, and in an almost carbon copy of our first goal, he swung it in and it was half cleared to the edge of the box. This time it fell to Duran to hit with his left, and he whacked it on the drop past a helpless keeper. The stadium was rocking-and so were LASK! It remained that way till half time, and till halfway through the second period. And possibly the best of the lot.
Donovan, who had a career best match in my opinion, looked to be in bother in his own box, but got it to Sinisalo who immediately spread it wide to Trusty. He got it forward to the circle for Høgh to lay off to Nygren. He went wider still to Duran, who returned it as Nygren ran into the box. With me so far?
Nygren then switched it straight back to the onrushing Duran to hammer into the net for the third. Three goals, all left footed. There’s one for the anoraks amongst ye!
At this stage, LASK knew another goal could be fatal for their hopes but getting one back would put a different complexion on things altogether. They had caused us bother all night, and the loss of Baur from our midfield didn’t do us any favours. Neither, sadly, did his replacement Hatate. He didn’t hide, no suggestion of that, but the drop in standards from him is shocking to watch. Sinisalo had to work hard for his clean sheet, I can tell you. One of his saves (EIGHT on the night!) in particular was a cracker.
We also continued to press till the end, and a flurry of corners plus a late break from Hassan had us hoping. Unfortunately, the fourth wouldn’t come. Not last night anyway-but this team has goals in it, and hopefully we will prove that again over in Austria. It would be even better if Duran added to his tally, as he is now the top scoring Colombian for any Glasgow team in the Champions League. Fatboy, then, is back in second place again (!)
To sum it up? A fantastic game of football from a neutral point of view. A fantastic result for us. A frustrating night for LASK, who must wonder how they drew a blank. And with both sides not playing this weekend, there is a lot for each management team to think about over the next few days. Normally, it would make sense to hold what we have while hoping to hit them on the break. But I suspect that sitting off this side-who look excellent going forward-might not be wise.
Who’d be a manager, huh?
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Above article by BMCUWP
We now have a new JustGiving page set up to enable donations to be made for our latest charity appeal.
We wanted to focus again on a local charity, and this time one which is dedicated to helping those suffering from homelessness, addiction or poverty.
The one we have gone for is
GLASGOW CITY MISSION
You can find our dedicated page at
https://www.justgiving.com/page/sentinelcelts67
G64
That’s Colombian for 19 year old £6m cheaper and one of our own.
Lets be honest AJ and Engels would have just got in the way tonight
It is coming up to that time of year when the betting aficionados amongst us have to get our thinking caps on again.
As usual, our site will run a NAPS COMPETITION with some healthy prize money, and once again it will start on St Leger Day in September and run through till the last day of Royal Ascot in June. There will be a short break from the end of November till the end of January.
And for those whose betting interests are mainly centred on the football, we will also run our MAGNIFICENT SEVEN accumulator, starting on the same day and finishing when we no longer have eight leagues to pick from. Usually the end of April. Let’s hope that it gives us a more magnificent return than the litany of near-misses and total failures we got last term!
We will be looking for volunteers for this year’s ACCA , so please join up!
Both these initiatives are FREE TO ENTER, and will be on their own dedicated page nearer the time. I look forward to your participation.
D R M has also very kindly volunteered to operate a competition over the three days of the AYR GOLD CUP meeting. Usual rules, with a selection from each race.
There is £100 of prize money, and as alway is FREE TO ENTER!
More details will be available on the dedicated page nearer to the beginning of the event on 17th September.
POTY Competition.
sencelpoty@gmail.com
AWENAW
“Lets be honest AJ and Engels would have just got in the way tonight”
Comment of the night, mate. Well done!
After a nervy start Colby settled and from then on was outstanding barring a loose forward pass 👏 Not sure however if he’s good enough to replace AJ 🤔
Baur looked impressive always wanting the ball and looking to create
Benji excelled once again with another outstanding goal
But the star man on the night was our Columbian superstar Duran with two superb goals 👏
https://www.andymuirhead.com/p/celtic-park-roars-again-as-bhoys
Goals so far…
Høgh……… 3
Nygren …….4
Durán…..….3
McCowan …1
Tounekti……1
Trusty………1
******
Assists so far…
Nygren …. 4
Tierney…. 1
Høgh……..1
Engels …..1
Duran ……1
Tounekti …1
After such a feel good result, who’s now wishing they hadnt postponed this weekend’s game?😂
I was in the “need another rightback” camp, until tonight.
The best thing we could do is let Colby play, we are going to cruise the League anyway and CL experience would surely benefit the boy. AJs replacement is free and pure FSR profit down the line. Hope he does a KT, truly shines with one single stint elsewhere then back home.
Baur is impressive, looks real professional and very collected for a 22 year old.
Duran will be our first 30m plus sale, that lad is a star.
Couple players away from being a very good team plus Jota to return.
Martin O’Neill, making football management look easy for 30 years.
Great night and great result. Told you we would pump them, spend 40 million and be fine.
RIP the supporter in the stands.
I really liked Donovan about a year ago, thought he was a young KT. Wonder if the manager round about messed him up for a bit. I think the boy needs confidence and MON will give him that. Sorry that I don’t have the same feeling about Murray. Love our new attacking prowess.
Great result from three great finishes AND that third, from our box to theirs and a beautifully placed finish for Durans second, I’m a bit worried our board might sell Duran in THIS WINDOW, only half joking as Duran is just going to get better, especially if we bring in more quality and legs in midfield. Apparently LASK’s record spend is £2-3m, and it seems that by us spending that few millions more we get players who understand the offside rule, as luckily for us LASKs players either don’t understand it or are just short of the quality to abide by it. Lastly, with our dearth of bodies in midfield it’s just as well we’re not risking players in the league this weekend.
P.S. our board, see what happens when you bring in quality for these play off games, no, I fear they won’t.
Celtic’s win tonight, and the zombies’ loss tomorrow, will all but ensure no Celtic fans for them Cup semi-final.
Great lead Bobby. Can’t disagree with a word of it.
What a difference to this time last season. Amazing what happens when everyone ( mostly), is pulling together.
A week to prepare and possibly to practice being a counter attacking team, as they will come at us from the off?
Didn’t see that result coming tbh. Though it’s what happens when you spend a few quid on quality.
https://readceltic.com/2026/08/19/camilo-duran-celtic-best-signing-years/
If we had signed a 19 year old wonderkid right back from the Bundesliga in time for that game last night and he tackled blocked and passed like Donovan did last night we’d be ecstatic. 19 don’t forget. He was awesome.
CCV after shaky start grew into the game and was excellent. Calmac too was really good but is a poor defensive mid. The whole starting XI performed abd the holy trinity upfront of nygren hogh and Duran were sensational. We will score over there. Probably twice.
That’s two games in a row we have lost the xG battle and win 7-0 on aggregate.
Tough call but three for Jobo
The Reflex
Colby McGrain
Big Benji
On that note Jobo. I know you give appearance points. I think you should treble them for last nights starting XI
Only gripe last night. TNT in the build up kept bigging up the atmosphere and ax soon as the lights dimmed cut to 6 minutes of adverts. It was shockingly bad planning if it wasn’t deliberate not to show such a spectacle
Good summery….
Wild Bhoys coming back from the game,
Laughing, celebrating, rushin to get hame,
Wild Bhoys fallen far from glory,
Last nights game tells a different story.
Camilio Duran Duran, our Wild Bhoy.
DRM – Hope you are well, all the best and well done you!
Great to see all the 80s song references this morning.
I’m not a fan of Simon le Bon, but I did like Duran Duran, they could play their stuff. “The Chauffeur” in particular being a choon.
Thanks Bawheid hope we get good amount of entrants for the 1st competition for the new charity 🤞
Bobby is as usual being very coy with detail as its a joint venture between ourselves with equal sponsorship.
Wait there… a great team performance where everyone had to do their job well to ensure it was so.
However,
I’d caution against Colby’s arrival.
He worked like a Trojan, tacked like one as well
but was caught out for their offside opener, was got caught again with the cross for their header, loose in passing and with two aimless forward passes killed momentum.
When they ‘scored’ after seconds the quiet was broken by someone shouting ’Aw **** here we go again’
Thankfully it wasn’t.
Bobby, they switched constantly from 352 to 532 but with three struggled to play it out, going long… was us that made them do that.
Looking at the stats is a bit deceiving! Yes they had 8 shots on target but most were elementary saves, I may have missed one, perhaps when I went to the bog, but don’t recall any outstanding saves.
Stevenaive
I thought Colby was excellent last night. He is 19 not played that much and to put that performance in a CL game. Not convinced AJ woulda been better. I guess I’m saying he is barely off the floor and has a very high ceiling
Good morning, friends.
Great to wake up and find my first thoughts being that we won convincingly (in terms of the scoreline!) last night.
Tonight’s MOTM results will be delayed by around an hour but should be out just after 10.00pm. The voting deadline remains at 9.00pm although any that come in just a few minutes late may well get included. But why take the risk – vote now, please. A feature from the early games is a fair few ‘new’ voters and I hope that’s the same tonight. Anyone and everyone is entitled to have their opinions counted – 1 email with 3 players names, not even in any order, it’s simple! sencelpoty@gmail.com
Another point
See when you sign good players. First team ready players. Even CL players. Do you not think it helps those around them. Nygren is a different beast playing with Duran and hogh. Colby playing with experience around him is how he develops. Not playing with projects or in the lowland league
Quality, Quality, Quality 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Payback time for the faithful it’s like Celtic again beyond the miracle and magnificent seven. New signings making the existing players better, CCV continues like another new signing, CalMac was immense again, Nygren the same, all benefitting from the presence of Hogh holding up, with a physical presence.
Three quality strikes didn’t come along by accident we were clinical and now have a goal threat straight from the summer window. Mika Baur did well, no great loss from Engels departure for silly money. Star quality since pre season Columbian Camilo was class on a greasy immaculate award winning Parkhead pitch.
Stepping back to position himself for his first and stepping up for his equally sublime second, after Nygren had thundered in a trademark left foot strike to open the scoring. All of this after a LASK offside worldy, and gaps galore at the Celtic end.
Colby Donovan had a fine game, putting so much into his performance means the youngster usually tires, and we’re blessed to have Tony Ralston as back up. Yang’s new haircut same old shift as mentioned by various posters, vital in Europe covering the space, Seb Tounekti for late in the game freshness, Jota for Christmas?
Perth has been patched, any goal in Austria might conjure up a night on the piste, for Celtic supporters. MON will have altered the starting line up for the second leg, there will be no MTK Budapest reversal, no ‘trembling mince’ and actual sausage, in the new pie.
As they say in Glasgow ‘pure quality man’
M.O.M Camilo Duran
SteveNaive
How can he have been caught if both were varred offside ? That proves time and time again in fact after every replay that he wasn’t caught. He held his line
His crossfield ball to Duran was something that only AJ can do in his wet dreams while playing for Everton. Punt ASAP
Hogh requires/prefers a different ball a little less deep. The boy will get there in his decision making and maybe Hogh can sometimes be more offensive
Is it 900 quid a week or a month Colby’s on
He’s definitely arrived for a new contract to what at least Ralston is on.
We need to get Colby tied up to a new long term contract, as I believe his contract is up at the end of this season.
If Scales and McCowan can get new contracts, surely Colby can.
As an aside from a great performance last night.
More on the Louden closing down…
Apparently, Big Sevco fan Andy Smillie (of prank phone call fame) has bought the land and will be knocking it down to expand his Scaffolding Yard 😁
They are now singing 🎵The Cry Was No September🎵 😁
HH
No bookings last night. Bhoys playing to instruction. We’re on the road again.
Well done to the coaching staff yesterday. We all thought our right hand side was weak and pantywetted for three days about it. Me included. Yet it was that side that produced MOTM either Duran or Donavon. LASK who came out bravely targeted that side. They’ll wish they hadn’t and will try something different next week.
Good Morning Sentinels – Grand Day To Be A Tim
Great result yesterday and epic performance.
LASK were, as we were fore-warned, a dangerous and effective side, difficult to compete with that physicality and pace, yet scoring worldies and keeping a clean sheet seemed to do the trick…
An outstanding display all round and enough top performances to give those choosing three for POTY another headache…
Like the weekend I’m going to the goal scorers, whose all round contributions were awesome but a special mention for young Donovan superb, mature and classy performance from one so young for my three that are winging there way to POTY competition
sencelpoty@gmail.com
– Duran
– Nygren
– Donovan
MO’N & Co certainly prepared to succeed.
So, a fearsome game in Linz stands between us and the holy grail now – here’s where the team show their mettle…
Hail Hail
So many outstanding performances, the pace and fitness of the team lasted the whole game,good subs kept the tempo high,so many times in these games we run out of legs last 20,not last night.
I thought last night was a very good game anf performance all round. Sinisalo had me nervous early on with his wandering up field. Expected one of the LASK midfielders to try chipping him from halfway but never happened thank god. He did have some fine stops though especially one from USOR in 2nd half. Is 3-0 enough. We hope so and at least its a mountain for them to climb without losing goals at the other end. If we score next week then I would say its game over for LASK. 6 days rest prior to then and no injury concerns is a positive for once.
7 goals in our last 2 games with zero against is another. But as one individual said for every positive there is a negative and vice versa. So heres a thought – how different the conversations would be today if Dundee Utd hitting woodwork 5 times had been 5 goals and 2 offsides tonight had counted. Fortunately they didnt and we move on.
Hogh was an unsung hero last night as he forced them to constantly adjust and battle for everything.
In recent times opponents have usually just held 2 defensive lines while we cross field passed and bored everyone to death.
The 3rd goal was my favourite as the passing, movement and shot was a goal of the modern era.
Our midfield still gives up too many chances.
KT and Yang looked on from afar and neither really contributed though KT at least went forward more in second half.
Whoever is responsible for scouting Nygren and Duran should be given great praise and trust.
One thing you often see in Champions league is average but exalted teams given a lot of respect by opponents because of history and individual players.
This makes it easier as opponents react cautiously wether due or not.
The 3 great goals last night will have
been noted and future opponents will now have to move out of their comfortable defensive zones to counter our threat leaving more space for us to exploit.
Stiffen the central midfield area and we will be a tough opponent!
Hassan looked frightening when he came on.he will run riot over there ifhe starts
Really, really pleased with last night, and have no fear of us losing 4 without reply in Adolf’s old stomping ground.
Hat-tip to our coaching staff for having us at that level this early in what could be a season for the ages.
Hard to give all the praise to 1 or 2 when so many put in such a team performance. Like Fan I was impressed by the work Hogh got through, and was really impressed by how mature a performer Colby looked.
This team looks like it will bring us lots of joy over the next couple of years, and we’ll get the joy of watching them grow into those Hooped tops.
If the upside to AJs injury is getting to watch Colby become a man capable of being Celtic’s no2, I can live with that
Just a brilliant night all round, with very little, apart from our obvious need for a more defensive mid, that you could find to moan about.
HH 🍀
I’m still worried it could all go horribly wrong next week.
Need to give myself a talking to and tell myself to trust Martin. He hasn’t let us down yet.
Lask were a very good outfit and have goals in them. All in all that was some performance and some result last night,
I didn’t spot any obvious weaknesses in Lask but I think we all agree we have some. Definitely not as many as last season and we have brought in some terrific signings.
Hope we spend big to fill the obvious gaps. We have the money and are in profit so far this window. We are on the verge of being a top top side if we have the balls to go for it..
Reality setting in for these bears 🤣🤣🤣
https://x.com/WavejumperOne/status/2090374776460034387
Some random thoughts after last night.
what a brilliant atmosphere created by the fans and it’s wonderful to see players with smiles on their faces.
Surely there can be no better time to recruit.
I think we need 2 oven ready players for each position if we are to complete effectively on all fronts. That being the case we need a goalkeeper, two players who can play full back or CB. And least one proper defensive midfielder.
Management also need to be brave enough to change players when necessary to allow players some rest.
I think we have an adequate number of attacking midfielders and I include McGregor in that camp as well as a hopefully recovered Jota at some point.
McGregor isn’t a defender by any definition of the word and he was all over the place early last night. All his good contributions were going forward.
I also think a decision will have to be made on AJ. He was keen to leave and we don’t need players who are only fit when it suits them. He is missing far too many games for us.
Thats enough nonsense from me. I would finish by saying it’s been a long time since we have been this close to being reasonably competitive in Europe and as Frodshambhoy says, it only needs the club to grow a pair and finish the job.
RIP HH
Frodshambhoy
August 20, 2026 12:42 pm
I’m still worried it could all go horribly wrong next week.
Need to give myself a talking to and tell myself to trust Martin. He hasn’t let us down yet.
Lask were a very good outfit and have goals in them. All in all that was some performance and some result last night,
I didn’t spot any obvious weaknesses in Lask but I think we all agree we have some. Definitely not as many as last season and we have brought in some terrific signings.
Hope we spend big to fill the obvious gaps. We have the money and are in profit so far this window. We are on the verge of being a top top side if we have the balls to go for it..
—————————
FRODSHAMBHOY
Hogh asked you anyway? 🤣
Actually a great post. I share these thoughts. I still have nightmares about MTK Budapest! 😱
We must also be aware of our usual slow start, and if we have the misfortune to lose a goal, make damn sure we don’t lose another within minutes. I have lost count of the number of times we have done that, Shakhtar away being one example. I think we were 2-0 down in 8 minutes with McManus and Caldwell all at sea.
MON and Shaun played the limited substitution cards they had to perfection. I was surprised to see Hatate, and also Hassan, as the latter was obviously being careful about sprinting at full speed in training at Lennoxtown. When he is fully fit, he will get bums out of seats.
We all remember being bored by the Horseshoe of Death and by so many games where we hardly made an effort at goal, or saw a single moment of sheer skill. I think things will be different this season, but we absolutely MUST augment the squad in defence, midfield and at goalkeeper. Otherwise we are facing the strong possibility of inevitable injuries leaving us bereft. Neither CCV or KT will withstand 3 games per week for months without breaking down, unless we give them regular relief. Somebody like Emenalo would be ideal, because the boy can play several positions, and be looks really good.
Aff oot fer a while. Hope Jablonec do the business tonight. 😊
HH
INIQUITOUS IV 😊
Unique Angle Up.
Enjoy! 😊
Then enjoy again!😊
https://youtu.be/5IiGMvmBt4I?is=00kVzCgJusGkM8D3
Bored by the board
August 20, 2026 12:50 pm
‘Surely there can be no better time to recruit.’
####
Well a couple of months ago might have been better, but that aside yes, absolutely.
Right now Celtic is a very attractive place to be for an ambitious young player (and their agent) wanting a stepping stone to the very top flight. But it could be short lived. The turnaround is all down to one man, and he’s only here for one season, or two at the most. After that? Who knows?
So the tide is at the flood and we can only hope that whoever is running the show seizes the opportunity while it lasts.
Paul Lennon Thai Tims Founder
R.I.P
I have yet to watch the game. I developed a nervousness about it, mainly through reading the blog. Things looked promising with the new signings and I hated the thought of seeing such promise swept away at home in Europe.
Now the struggle is to not get too carried away! However, both the coaching staff and the players seem to be on top of that.
If I had any doubt about the quality of our performance then a positive article from Tom English on BBC would dispel them. Rarely have I seen him ring praises for a Celtic performance. You should read it. He does, however, set the scene for failure by saying losing now would be a monumental collapse. He cannot completely hide his colours.
I am pleased that the dire predictions did not come to pass and that a “sixties” style European performance returned to Celtic Park.
Have a great day,
Rebus
Reading the Austrian press and while I’ll accept their take that they passed up a barrage of chances and we were more clinical. I’ll not accept their assertion they were the better team last night.
We missed 2 or three good chances as well. Hit the post etc.
While Sinisalo made a great save when Trusty got skinned their daisy cutting shots basically don’t count. Their keeper had more real stuff to contend with than ours.
LASK are like Hearts their beginning to believe their own publicity.
We go again next week but they’re making a mistake underestimating us. The new boys will have another weeks training. Their stadium a really nice one in a nice location. Anyone going will love it. It’s not exactly a cauldron. 22k
Having seen them up close hand MON will make us harder to beat but it could well be squeaky bum time.
We will be going there to win
Except for Pep, Klopp and Arteta…..2yrs seems to be the shelf life of all top club Managers nowadays.
It was for Ange, BR and will be for MON. However, our recruitment is at last on track, so I’m hopeful our search for a new Manager is the same in coming 6 months.