pete

------------------------------time-----------TV Celtic v Motherwell------------15:00 Gretna v Inverness CT---------15:00 Hibernian v St Mirren-----------15:00 Kilmarnock v Hearts------------15:00 Sunday, 28 October 2007 Time-----------------TV Dundee United v Rangers-------14:00---------*** Aberdeen v Falkirk-------------15:00 A great looking fixture list for this weekend with four of the top five playing each other. Only Hibs seem to have a slightly easier game. Celtic-v-Motherwell. Celtic have been struggling of late with a very lucky last minute win against bottom team Gretna after being behind 1-0 for 85 minutes. Then a decisive 3-0 defeat at the hands of Rangers at Ibrox last week, followed by a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Benfica in the champions League. If there is a team at the moment you would not want to meet on that form then Motherwell springs directly to mind. Motherwell have been playing some of the best football in the SPL this season and Mark McGhee will be urging his players to have a go at a injury hit Celtic team. At Fir park i would go for Motherwell but i think Celtic will still be strong enough at home to win the points. Celtic win. Gretna-v- Inverness. Craig Brewster has got Caley going again and i would expect them to be too strong for a Gretna side that look more and more like the strongest candidates to drop back to the first division. Their defeat by St Mirren last time out means they are losing points to the teams they need to beat to secure a SPL place next season. Inverness also fall into that category if Gretna want SPL football next seson they have to win these games. I don't see Gretna beating Inverness. Inverness win Hibernian-v-ST Mirren. This would be easy to say a certain Hibs win but St Mirren are a team you have to be sharp to beat. They can grind out results as they make it hard for opposing teams. Hibs lost to Motherwell last week but played most of the game with ten men. If Hibs play to form then they should win but any weakness could see St Mirren grind out at least a draw. Hibs win. Kilmarnock-v-Hearts. Of all the teams Hearts are the Jekyll and Hyde of the SPL. A great game one week and an atrocious game the next. Before last week they seemed to have hit form but at home against a good Dundee united team they were always playing second fiddle. Kilmarnock are a refined middle of the league team who you need to be at your best to beat, but have had attacking problems this year. This game depends on what Hearts team turns up but i fancy it as a Draw, Draw. Dundee United-v-Rangers. Once again Rangers seem to get the inform team. It happened at Motherwell and Hibs and now at Dundee UTD. If you only look at October then United would in fact be top of the league as they were the only team not to drop points. This will be a game where we really have to be at our best to get the win. I can't see Dundee Utd beating us but they could grind out a draw and we really have to be sharp. Hopefully we can get a result as it would be a shame to undo the good work we put in last week. Rangers Win. Aberdeen- v- Falkirk. Aberdeen come back from a disappointing defeat at the hands(or feet) of Panathanikos, As they played on Thursday then they could suffer from Fatigue but i would expect them to get back on song and beat Falkirk to keep up their fight for a Euro place next year. John Hughes wants to play attacking football but to be honest he will have to rethink that strategy if results keep going against him, if he wants to keep his job. Even allowing for Jet-lag i think the Sheep will win and keep up their fight for that Euro place. Aberdeen win.

Great post Cal and another way of looking at things. The whole question is where do you defend. Barcelona close down players in the opposing teams half therefore it is crazy to say that the teams who defend in that area are playing anti-football. It is in fact Barcelona who force teams to play in that area. The point is then that it means they have to be sharp to take any chances that come their way and the 100mil strikers are not in form. If you force teams back like that then you have to use the flanks to open up teams. Henry and Messi cutting inside at every opportunity played into Rangers hands who are defensively strong through the middle with Thomson Weir and Cuellar. I agree Messi's comments were sour grapes but i still think as i said in other threads we were a bit too negative in the middle part of the game and didn't try to move forward when we had the ball.I honestly believe as was shown in the last 20 minutes that we could have played like that throughout the game with a bit more confidence in moving forward, This is not just from this game i feel it is something that is our downfall on more occasions. Moving off the ball is probably more important than moving with the ball and i feel that,that is our Achilles heel, we give the ball at times and think well i have done my bit, i can watch what happens. I honestly believe we we let a chance go to beat that mob. I just hope we don't live to regret it.

I would hold off to the summer. There is more money to be won in the CL(or at least the same) than the fee we would get, so it would not make economic sense to sell him in January. Unless he gets badly injured he will be worth at least the same in the summer. If we are knocked out the CL then Murray may decide to cash in sooner rather than later but i doubt it to be honest. I think it will take funny money to get him in January.

It would be fantastic to go through full stop......

They haven't kept a clean sheet in an away game in any tournament for 30 games, going back more than a year.

Yeh i thought maybe somebody in the world is waiting for my commentary.

GOOOOAAAAl Benfica what a shame so near and yet so far.

Blunder Boruc again dropping the ball unfortunately the guy hit the bar onto the line and out.

The other side of Boruc, what a brilliant save. Tims under the Quash now though.

Only 5 clubs out of 51(I think the guy said) have only ever lost 2 games and qualified. Hopefully that won't become 6.

Tims have had the best chances in the first-half. I disagree with the guy's who say they would not have Scott Brown at Ibrox he has good skill and fights for everything. Benfica don't look that great to be honest although they did have one good chance. This could go either way.

Excellent post Cammy and we really are more than a club. Boruc won't be questioned don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

Guy's that was a text message banner you guy's really need to get up to date. Thr crd sho was a txt message crd sho s wel.

Oh yeh they done the famous jig-saw puzzle one.

Well i don't think there will be any disagreement on this one. That is absolutely stunning. We must be European card display champions.

It sounded pretty quiet on the telly but that doesn't mean it wasn't electric in the stadium.

No problem Gav is a fireman.

Thats the great thing about the Gersnet everyone is entitled to an opinion. If you think Rangers played brilliant that is your opinion and i respect that. I think we defended brilliantly but as in a normal football game should be played we weren't at the races. Yes the result was OK, not great as a win would have probably put us through to the next round.I honestly believe with a bit more confidence we could have taken more from that game and making a forward movement doesn't automatically result in a 4-0 defeat as far as i know.(looking at the half empty glass on that one,mate) At what price of players do we start playing? Oh shit they have 5x 20mil players lets not come out the area. I am not saying we didn't have to defend like that yesterday as we were pushed back at times. I am saying when we had the ball we could have been a little braver which would have taken a little pressure off the defence as well. In my eyes Barcelona were not that brilliant certainly not 100mil better. Gribz you are right you do have to play a group stage different as a knock-out,i just found it a bit too negative.

They're certainly not worth that amount for sitting in their own area.

I don't see what the point is in getting into the CL just to sit in our own penalty area. We proved in the first 10 and last 20 minutes that we could match them. Surely the reason of playing CL football is to play against teams like Barcelona and try to match them or even beat them. Seemingly our vision is now to get to the CL, pick up 10mill, defend our penalty area so as we don't lose a goal and everyone is happy if we beat Celtic. Sorry that is not my vision i come from the era when we took on these teams and very often beat them. This was a chance missed to see how good we really are. Unfortunately money has become more important than sporting achievement in the CL Just my opinion.

Anyway it will be easier in the second leg. They will need to come at us.:fish:

Sorry i will take this back a bit as it sounds very negative but we were good in the first 10mins and last 20mins but i really believe if we had a bit more confidence on the ball and more important running into good positions off the ball then we could have done better. as Terry Butcher said it looked like we were thinking we have got the ball let's all stop and take a break. I mean this positively, i really feel we could have done so much better tonight.

Best in Europe i don't know but certainly the best in Scotland and the talent to get near the best in Europe.

Sorry Wij\jim i don't get that we were so good. Barcelona had almost a training session. For most of the game we were pinned in our own penalty box. I am actually a bit embarrassed we played the way we did. We defended one 100% that is certain but to say we were 10\9.5 out of 10 is taking it a bit far in my eyes.

Agree with that a totally correct decision. It will now be heartbreaking not to get into the finals.