I was looking forward to sitting down and watching Celtic all be it in front of the TV and not in Lyon after no football since early March. Who would have believed what has happened since we spanked St. Mirren, as we looked forward to going to Ibrox to spank them in front of their own mob.
All in all is was a useful workout for the fitness of all the players, noticeable absentees were the trio of Rogic, Griffiths and Bayo although only Griffiths was the one who attracted tabloid talk before the game. No Surprise there then! and I was surprised with Neil Lennon’s comments regarding Leigh we are normally so good at keeping any problems in house.
In Summary, the players took the knee in support of BLM, Edouards goal should have stood, I thought we were poor for their goal defensively and Paddy Klimala sporting a fresh Skinhead look was rewarded when his pressure on their goalkeeper paid off with Celtic’s goal. Ryan Christie was guilty of missing 3 or 4 chances but he showed signs of what he is all about and Bolingoli looked lively when he came on.
It would have been a wonderful pre-season week for the Celtic fans, a bit of sun, a few jambons and some French wine could have been the order of day had travel restrictions due to Covid 19 not been in place.
Only a limited amount of home fans were allowed in the stadium. What a shame as it’s a fantastic newly build stadium, which was build for the Euros 4 years ago. It sits outside the City with good rail links in and out of the city.
On a sunny day back in June 2016 I was inside the new stadium with my mates cheering on Ireland but sadly the home nation proved too much for us on this occasion but we still partied the night away knowing we were soon heading back to reality and a maxed out Credit Card.
What a journey we had during the Euros, a new city every few days that was started in Paris a city I was back in to see Celtic get a hammering from PSG after Dembele put us ahead, well it was good for the few minutes it lasted.
I hear some Celtic fans are going to travel to the French capital with tickets now available but for this fan it looks like it’s a few beers in the house as it will be on Saturday when we take on Lyon in an almost empty stadium while the pubs remain almost empty too.
Celtic v Lyon, Liam Miller- Lyon v Celtic, a harsh penalty against us . Just two memories from both our games with Lyon in the Champions League back in 2003. Another memory I have is of how cold it was in France that night. Oh how we all long for another night in a packed stadium. Singing, Dancing and Hugging complete strangers.
Dam you Covid!
Andrew Milne started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. He is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of the Celtic Soul Podcast & 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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