Celtic head into the Europa League Conference League play-off tie with Bodo/Gimt on Thursday Night at Celtic Park, looking to end an 18 year wait for a knockout stage win post-Christmas, for the first time since Barcelona were defeated in 2004 that will take us into the last 16 of this new competition.
The Norwegian Champions captain Ulrik Saltnes has been sent out to deal with the pre-match propaganda, and as reported by Daily Record, Saltnes started with the standard, praise the fans and drop in an old player or two who wax lyrical about the Hoops routine.
“Celtic are obviously a big club with a lot of history. Everyone in Europe has heard of Celtic. We know they have a great stadium, fantastic fans. I actually hope there will be 60,000 people there – that would be fantastic to play in that environment and see if we can cope with that pressure.
“It will be an amazing experience. A lot of Norwegian players have played there as well, guys like Stefan Johansen and Kristoffer Ajer. Stefan is from the same club as me and when he was back in Norway he’s always talk about Celtic. He tells me it was a massive club and a great place to play football.
“The culture is similar in Scotland to Norway so Norwegians tend to like it there. I haven’t spoken to Stefan before this game but I’m not sure he would give me too many details!”
Saltnes then moved on to ‘operation fear’ as he pointed out the big Jose Mourinho scalp the Norwegian champions had already taken in European competition, but at the same time ensuring the underdog status Bodo/Glimt would wish to retain remains in place for the first leg, as he talked up a win over Roma, whilst being careful to point out the opponents’ lack of preparedness played a part, and then having planted the seed of scary opponent, reverted back to the ‘we’re ever so humble’ routine.
“I don’t think Roma were prepared for us in any way. They came late to the city, they didn’t have a training session, I don’t think they were ready for the weather, the conditions – or our players.
“Football is a strange game, If you give them a knock at the beginning then it can shake you for the rest of the game. I think that’s what happened in the first game. Hopefully we can do it again. Maybe not the same scoreline but let’s see if we can get a result.
“We are always confident in our own abilities – but we are also humble. In Europe you meet great teams and Celtic are in that category. It’s not like we are going to be over-confident, but we believe in ourselves. That allows us to focus on ourselves.”
And there was of course time to try the false sense of security message, in the hope Celtic and the supporters would buy into the hard time the Norwegians have had with close season sales of important players, the fact they may be vulnerable having just returned from pre-season training, and ensuring the Celtic are the favourites line was fully planted in the Norwegian’s preferred narrative.
“It has been a bit messy and there has been a lot of players in and out. We have not been able to play together as long as we hoped for, but it is also very good. We actually look pretty good for this time of year.
“We are still in our pre-season so that could maybe give Celtic an advantage. But it’s hard to say. We’d obviously like to have been playing regularly but perhaps we can go in with a bit of extra energy.
“Celtic have had a pretty hard schedule. If Celtic think they are favourites – that’s fine with me.”
And there was still some time for the captain to have us all believe the players of Bodo/Glimt are actually just a rag tag group of ordinary players who simply struck lucky with a manager who makes a good fist of turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
“What’s the secret here? How long do you have? It’s a great story at Bodo and it’s got a lot of attention globally. It’s the perfect tale of a small club coming out of nowhere and doing well.
“But we’ve been doing the same things for years. We’ve been working hard physically and doing a lot on the mental aspect. We’ve managed to keep our coach and staff and they’ve built the club stone by stone. We’ve had tremendous results and when you do that it’s easy to stay on the same path.
“No one is as important as the manager. You could change any of the 11 players and he would still be the most important by far. He’s had a huge influence on the club. He’s a fantastic manager and I hope we can keep him for a long time. And I’m not just saying that because he might be standing behind me!”
As far as opposing captain’s go it is an impressive interview and ticks all the boxes when it comes to dropping in a bit of fear of what may lie ahead when Celtic visit the Arctic circle, while ensuring the message that Celtic are catching Bodo/Glimt at the right time for the first leg is also relayed, in the hope the Hoops are caught off guard.
For Ange Postecoglou and Celtic there will be no falling for mind games. Changes in personnel or apparent rustiness from pre-season will not be a trap Celtic will fall into.
The Celtic manager is not in Scotland to build a domestic success story, instead he is here to construct a side he can eventually turn into a team who can mix it at Champions League level, as such no stone will be left unturned, and no-one will take their eye off the ball when it comes to preparation for this two-legged affair.
Instead, Ange Postecoglou will see an opportunity to benchmark his side’s recent improvements and increased consistency against an impressive opponent out with Celtic’s domestic environment, with a view to progressing in this tournament and gauging which of his players can cope with the step up in standard and which perhaps can’t.
Thursday night’s game therefore is a huge opportunity to compare where Celtic were in Champions League qualifying and Europa League group stage football and where we are now, as the squad takes shape and good options for rotation are now available to the manager.
As such Celtic will be ready for a tough task to get past the Norwegian Champions and they certainly won’t be falling for any perceived weaknesses in our opponents, no matter how the captain has been asked to spin it.
Niall J
