Sometimes, selling your best player is the right move. Take, for example, Manchester United shipping out Ruud van Nistlerooy in 2006. In the aftermath of losing the prolific striker, a new set of players emerged to take up the burden. The side became less reliant on one focal point and spread the workload across an emerging generation of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Carrick.
Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney has now figured in two shock results for the Hoops in the UEFA Champions League — their stunning 2-1 win over Barcelona in November of 2012 and their not-as-stunning-but-still impressive 3-3 draw with Manchester City on Wednesday night.
Both matches were at Celtic Park.
But the 19-year-old’s role against City was certainly different than his task against the Blaugrana in 2012.
Last year, at Vicente Calderon Stadium, in the Champions League, against Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich were painfully eliminated from a competition they had every right to think they could win.
This year, at Vicente Calderon Stadium, in the Champions League, against Atletico madrid, Bayern Munich had this happen to them:
Theo Walcott can’t help Sven-Goran Eriksson’s strange decision to include him in England’s 2006 FIFA World Cup squad. The cruciate ligament rupture he suffered in 2014, resulting in a 280-day spell on the sideline, was equally unavoidable.
While Walcott’s progress from young phenom to seasoned veteran has been hindered by an assortment of shoulder, abdominal and groin injuries, it’s often forgotten that he’s only 27 years old.
Noticing the talent of Christian Pulisic and believing he’ll have a great career should no longer be classified as jumping on the hype train. The term 'hype train' is like the plans for a high-speed rail in the United States, a theoretical concept that’s been touted since 1965 but has never materialized. 'Hype train' infers that nothing is settled, that everything is still in the balance.
Chicharito scored a hat-trick this weekend in the Bundesliga, so we were on the edge of our seats with regards to what he might do in the Champions League.
He delivered with a goal.
Make it 4 goals in 4 days for @CH14_, and since he moved to Europe! https://t.co/uISlpAcf1k
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 27, 2016
On paper, Celtic don’t stand much of a chance against English giants Manchester City on Wednesday night in their UEFA Champions League group stage match.
But, as the old saying goes, the game won’t be played on paper, but on grass — specifically Celtic Park grass, where the Hoops have a history of pulling off the odd upset.
Coming off a 7-0 loss at Barcelona in the opening match of the group stages, the Bhoys will need a result to keep their faint hopes of advancing to the knockout round alive. However, they can draw on these momentous results for inspiration:
The UEFA Champions League is supposed to be the best club competition in the world, and an elusive competition where the best of the best would compete. However, that hasn’t been the case for a while now. At least not in the group stage.
We’ve seen too many one-sided results lately, such as Barcelona putting seven past Celtic, Borussia Dortmund dominating Legia Warsaw by six, and Bayern Munich hammering FC Rostov by five. The competition was losing its appeal and UEFA had to do something about it.