Friendly Thursday July 21st

Celtic 2

Sporting CP 2

0:1 Douala 13
1:1 McGeady 28
2:1 Hartson 41
2:2 Douala 91

Att: 35,000

MIB: Calum Murray

Celtic: Marshall Beattie Balde Varga Camara Petrov Lennon Sutton McGeady Aliadiere Hartson
subs
Maloney for McGeady 65;
Wallace for Aliadiere 77;
Zurawski for Hartson 80

Much better all round and some attempts at goal even! things are looking up.

Mind you the green shoots of recover only began to sprout after half an hour, by which time Sporting were a goal up and knocking the ball around the way Levein's sides knock around opponents.

The equaliser heralded a period of nifty football from Celtic and we went in at the break ahead.

The players ran out of steam in the second half and Sporting got a deserved equaliser in the 91st minute, but this was a reasonably good performance against a side who are twenty times better than anything Celtic will meet in the SPL - Rangers included.

I don't know what Strachan will have learned about the side from these three games in less than a week that he didn't know already, but it's pretty safe to say that the side that rolls the shutters up for business next week will be changed both in terms of personnel and playing style from that which we've seen in these matches. Quite simply they'll have to be if we're going to progress to the Champs League.

Remember, these games don't matter, it'll be alright on the night. These games don't matter... These games don't matter...