SCOTT BROWN yesterday talked about the significance of the next two games that Celtic play – at the Friends Arena in Stockholm and the Foes Arena on Govan on Sunday – and The Celtic captain looked the media straight in the eye and told them that Celtic plan to win both games.
“It’s a huge week, but every game for Celtic is huge. We just look forward to them. We just want to win the next two games and that’s our mindset,” Broony said.
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“We had European football after Christmas last year, and that’s the aim again for this season, so hopefully we can get through to the group stages and take it from there.”
The Celtic captain fully expects a much more positive attacking performance from AIK this evening – remember it is a 6pm kick-off, Celtic Park time) – as the Swedish Champions chase the tie.
“AIK played well together as a team, tried to defend deep, and now and then played quite direct” Broony noted.
“For us, it was about how we dictated play, how we controlled the game, how we squeezed the game, and our wide men worked extremely hard to do that. They set the tempo for us early on, they caused the problems and we were able to back it up,” Broony said in Stockholm last night at the club’s pre-match Media Conference and as reported on the official Celtic site.
“It’ll be different tonight. They’ll come a bit more attacking because they know they have to score some goals to try and get through.
“We’ll play our game and we’ll also got the pace to catch them on the counter-attack. We’ve got the pace to hurt teams, we’ve got flare and we’ve got the players to score goals, so we’re in a good place at the moment.
“It’s good to have a 2-0 advantage but we need to try and score a goal which would put them under pressure.
“They did well at Celtic Park and they defended well but they’re going to have to attack and try and put us under pressure. They’ve got to score goals but we’ve got the pace and the quality to catch teams on the counter-attack as well.
“Our forward players have been on fire recently with the amount of goals that we’ve been scoring, so we’re looking for a little bit more of that as well.
“For us, it’s about our mindset and how we go into this game because away games in Europe are always hard as you’ve got the crowd against you. So it’s about us getting a touch of the ball, playing our game, and then try to dictate play, keep hold of the ball and not panic.
“We’ll approach it the way we do every game – we’ll try to win it, whether it’s home or away,” The Celtic skipper said.
“You don’t want to come over here and maybe get a 1-0 defeat, and just go through that way. We want to play positively, get the ball down, play our game and our style as well. That’s what we’ve done in the last couple of weeks.
“We went into the first game and showed how well we can press as a team, how much we can put them under pressure, especially high up the park and try to force mistakes. More often than not, we kept the ball in their half, created a lot of chances and we were unlucky not to score more goals on the night.”
Remember AIK v Celtic kicks off at 6pm Celtic Park time this evening.
Here’s Broony’s Media Conference from Stockholm…
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AIK v Celtic – ‘There is always going to be negativity. The reality is we had one little bad game,’ Broony…see HERE.
UEFA hit the Rangers with second Racist and Sectarian Charge…see HERE.
Missing Players from Celtic’s flight to Stockholm, likely starting eleven…see HERE.
‘Either Celtic will be superior or it will be a magical night for us,’ AIK Captain…see HERE.
