‘We’re defending three trophies, our idea is to stay the dominant force,’ Davies

CHRIS DAVIES still can’t quite get his head around Celtic losing to AEK Athens or the fact that the Scottish Champions are required to play 8 games in qualifying if they are to earn a place in the Group stages of the rigged Champions League.

The Green Brigade summed this unacceptable situation up perfectly with their Champions League, Having a Laugh Banner before the first leg of the tie with AEK Athens kicked off.

That doesn’t take away from our own failures – they are a pretty ordinary side and Celtic should have beaten them home and away.

“The landscape of the Champions League has changed,” said Celtic’s assistant manager. “I think the frustration on our part is that we felt we were the better team, and that’s what can happen in qualifying.

“We’ve now gone to four rounds and I still can’t quite understand how the Scottish champions have to go through four rounds to qualify for the Champions League, but that’s the landscape, that’s where it’s at.

“What’s probably been lost in all of this is that we were the better team and deserved to go through over the two legs. We’d more control, more domination, more goal chances, while the opposition had three or four shots on target, and we lost, having scored home and away.

Davies feels pretty much the same as us, judging by his comments yesterday, and although extremely disappointed at losing out on Tuesday, the European focus has to turn to making a go of things in the Europa League.

“It’s disappointing in that respect but we’re going into qualifying for the Europa League. That’s something we have got to do before we start going into depth about it, but it’s a prestigious competition with some very prestigious teams and we’re a prestigious club.

“We’re going in there with the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea. Atletico Madrid, who beat Real Madrid 4-2 the other night and are the holders of the competition. It’s a prestigious competition and if we can get in there, then hopefully we’ll do the club proud on the European stage.”

Celtic are back in action at lunchtime today, striving to defend better and avoid a third consecutive defeat that would end the Rebel’s Treble Treble stone dead.

“We’re the holders and we’re defending our trophy,” the Celtic Assistant manager said.

“Partick Thistle are a team who I thought were a decent side when we played against them in the league, and I was surprised that they ended up getting sucked into a relegation battle last year after finishing in the top six in our first year.

“They have some good players and they have a good coach, and it’s a difficult place to go away from home. We’re not going to have any complacency there. We have to go and be fully focused and do a job.

“We’re defending three trophies this year, we’re the Double Treble winners and our idea is to stay the dominant force.

“You have to win trophies, and hopefully we can start with the League Cup, but you have to go step by step which is now a tough test away from home against Partick, and hopefully we can start there and move forward.”

DID YOU TRY OUR LEAGUE CUP QUIZ?

CELTIC historian David Potter over the past few weeks has been posting a daily feature on all of our League Cup wins, starting in 1956 and running through to last season’s 2-0 win over Motherwell.

We’re trying to add a few new features to the site and would like to get the hang of the Quiz and and Survey options.

Here is a League Cup quiz for you to try. There are plenty of additional features we can add as we go along, but this is just the basic version, so forgiven any rough edges etc.

See how you get on. Good luck!

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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