AEK Athens v Celtic – ‘Celtic’s manager is a great personality,’ Ouzounidis

AEK Athens manager Marinos Ouzounidis reckons that Celtic will be unaffected by any after effects from their week of woe when they take the field tomorrow evening in the Champions League qualifier.

Ouzounidis has been watching as the John McGinn and Dedryck Boyata controversies unfolded. He watched from the dug-out as Celtic gifted an equaliser to his side on the stoke of half-time and failed to capitalise when the Greek Champions were reduced to ten men. And he will have seen what happened on Saturday lunchtime in the bruising 1-0 defeat to Hearts.

None of that will matter come kick-off time tomorrow, reckons the AEK boss, who has developed a great respect for his opposite number Brendan Rodgers.

“Yes, there might be some issues within the club but you are talking about a Champions League match and all these issues will become of minor importance when it comes to a Champions League qualifier.

“I have to say that Celtic’s manager is a great personality.

“I have been analysing the opponents and I have seen that he has been able to build some beautiful stuff inside the team.

“So both the coach and the Celtic players will put aside all the issues because they have a major chance ahead of them.

“This is what is important and as far as I can tell they will not be affected at all, they will be 100 per cent concentrated during the match.”

Ouzounidis is kidding no-one when he reckons that the absence of Boyata (huff) and Ajer (suspended) will not create a weak spot in the Celtic side for the Greek side to exploit.

“They also have Jack Hendry and Jozo Simunovic and they both played in some of Celtic’s major wins last year, so they are great players with great qualities.

“We saw in the last match that when we exercised some pressure quite high then this might create some issues for their defence.

“It is quite reasonable at top clubs, great clubs with defenders like theirs – they don’t want to just clear the ball away, they want to play on the ground and build the play.

“But as far as I am concerned Celtic are a big club, a great club and all the players in their roster are of great quality.”

We looked at the results that AEK Athens have had in European football in recent years earlier – see HERE – and any of their successes have been achieving 0-0 draws when it mattered.

That would of course do for Ouzounidis tomorrow, thanks to that away goal Celtic gifted last Wednesday.

“Some might say the first match leaves room for thinking about not conceding a goal,” the AEK boss said.

“First, we need the performance to be better than it was in the first leg and second, we want to try to win the match.

“We are not going into the match thinking that we have to take a goalless draw.

“That is not our objective. Our objective is to win so we can proceed to the next round.”

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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