After the disappointment of Thursday night’s home defeat to Copenhagen which ended our European adventures for another season, Lazio home and away will remain the highlights of this seasons Europa campaign. Rome proved to be everything it had promised for Celtic fans who travelled in their thousands.
A point away in Copenhagen seemed like a good result to take back to Celtic Park but defensive errors were the story of the second half. As the Copenhagen fans made their presence felt inside the ground, our own fans deserted the stadium in silence and shock and by the time the referee finally blew is whistle the stadium has already emptied.
The last time I felt that silent reaction leaving a game at Celtic Park was at the end of the 2009 season against Hearts which was also Gordon Strachan’s final game in charge of Celtic.
So it was great to see Celtic grind out the win yesterday away to St. Johnstone yesterday.
As usual Celtic fans travelled in big numbers taking advantage of a decent ticket allocation. It was a tough shift but the players showed plenty of fight to make sure of a return to Hampden for a semi-final date with Aberdeen.
The other semi-final will be an all Edinburgh derby between Hibs and Hearts after the Jambos beat the Rangers 1-0. Rumour has it the Stevie G is not a happy cookie and returned to Liverpool yesterday to lick his wounds and ponder his long term future at the Rangers.
Onwards to 9IAR as we continue the remarkable quest on Wednesday night away to Livingston and then at home to St. Mirren on Saturday.
Over the weekend we also heard the good news that Jackie McNamara has been released from hospital and will now complete his road to recovery at home.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
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