Blog

Celtic were in friendly action again this evening over in Austria, stepping up the competition as Ange’s men took on Rapid Vienna.

The game finished 3-3, and a draw overall was a fair result, with both sides showing great moments of quality, but also some very bad defending.

Celtic scored the opening goal of the game after Jota passed it to Matt O’Riley at the edge of the box, who slotted the ball beautifully into the bottom corner of the net past the goalkeeper.

Vienna equalised in the first half after Cameron Carter-Vickers played slightly dodgy pass back to Joe Hart. It wasn’t the best pass, but Hart should have dealt with it and cleared it away or passed it out, but instead let the ball roll past him into the path of the Vienna player, with Hart diving to win the ball, basically made another mistake by not just sliding the ball out of play, which allowed the Vienna play to keep it in play, play it past him, laying in into the path of their striker to put the ball into the open net.

It was a shame as not long before this, Hart made a world class save that even the greats would have been proud of.

Celtic took the lead again in the 2nd half, with Kyogo playing a quality low cross into the path of David Turnbull as he drove into the box and latched onto the ball and slotted it past the goal keeper.

Vienna again equalised after the ball got played into the box from the right hand side as Vienna drove forward, with Osaze Urhoghide defending very poorly and letting the attacker get goal side and head the ball at Scott Bain, who did well to save the original effort until the rebound comfortably scored.

It should be noted as well than Bain also made an excellent save of his own, diving high to palm over a powerful long range shot that looked like it could have been dipping into the top corner.

Celtic took the lead once more to make it 3-2, with Turnbull pressing brilliantly to return the favour and set up Kyogo, who played the ball calmly into the corner of the net past the goalkeeper.

After that Jullien made the first of two errors, with this one thankfully not leading to a goal, after he seemed to dwell on the ball inside his own penalty box while surrounded by opposition players and then tried to play and cute pass away which didn’t come off and fell to the Vienna player with the ball eventually just going wide of Scott Bain’s post, leading to a furious reaction from the keeper.

Jullien was then at fault for Vienna’s equaliser after he shockingly got out jumped from corner kick and his man powering in a header.

Jullien and Osaze were both very poor. I think Osaze got another game today and also played the 2nd half because he didn’t really seem involved in the first game or in the first half, so Ange probably wanted a longer look at him, but based on his 2nd half performance, I just don’t think he’s good enough for Celtic.

On the other hand, young Irish defender Bosun Lawal came on in the 2nd half and did very well again. There was one poor pass out from the back late in the game but he recovered beautifully, timing his tackle to perfection.

That’s one real good trait that he seems to have, great timing in the tackle. He isn’t rapid but he is strong and also played some good balls out from the back. I would love to see him start the next friendly with CCV beside him to see how that partnership looks.