Champions League Tuesday November 2nd

Celtic 1

Shakhtar Donetsk 0

1:0 Thompson 25

Att: 58,347

Ref: Poulat (Fra)

Celtic
Marshall Agathe Valgaeren Varga McNamara McGeady Petrov Lennon Thompson Camara Hartson
subs
Wallace for McGeady 79
Beattie for Camara 81

School of thought 1: Three points have been gathered in Europe's premier club competition by a Celtic team struggling for form and leaking goals. Good.

School of thought 2: One goal against 9 men at home! What kind of tactics were these? Booooo!

Yes, there were people booing after a Champions League win and, before we get a flurry of letters explaining it, I don't really think this had anything to do with satire, irony or quirky senses of humour.

Of course the bottom line is that we now really need to get more than three points in the remaining two games, given that Shakattack have a 3:1 advantage in goals over us. Naturally the fans that were unhappy with the way the game panned out had a point: Celtic didn't make the numerical advantage tell, and indeed the Ukrainians looked more likely to score in the latter part of the game than the Hoops. But then they had nothing to lose. Conceding a second goal wouldn't have made any appreciable difference to the outcome, so why not have a go?

On the other hand our bhoys looked as if they were scared stiff of losing a goal, so of course we were far more cautious.

The goal was a seriously curious matter - the referee penalising the Ukrainian keeper with a free kick inside the penalty area for the heinous offence of holding the ball too long. Thompson gratefully blasted the ball in.

So it now comes down to the Nou Camp and home to Milan. Three points from Spain isn't going to happen, but we should be capable of beating Milan here. Who dares wins.