Bo Henriksen has sent out a rallying cry to the FC Midtjylland supporters to turn up on Wednesday night and roar his side on as they look to get past Celtic and into the third Champions League qualifying round with a guaranteed Europa League spot available to the winners on Wednesday night, regardless of what happens next in the Champions League.
But Midtjylland manager will be sensing a huge opportunity as he considers the events at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon and how West Ham were able to destroy the Celtic defence and exploit the atrocious standard of goalkeeping currently contesting the number 1 spot for Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Incredible. This man has no goalkeeping qualities at all. pic.twitter.com/oCuCBqclPc
— A.C ART (@AidanCregan) July 24, 2021
Barkas is now surely done as a Celtic goalkeeper with every side he’d face this season targeting him and looking at exploiting his lack of quality in a Celtic jersey. Worryingly the alternative, Scott Bain, is hardly much better and if Celtic are going to have a decent season this position is going to have to be addressed.
Who will get the gloves on Wednesday night? Most supporters would probably opt for Bain ahead of Barkas but so far it would appear that Ange Postecoglou favours the former AEK Athens man. Bo Henriksen and his players will be focusing on the defensive problems at Parkhead yesterday in what was a remarkably bad performance by the defensive line and indeed the two goalkeepers that is going to take a minor miracle for Postecoglou to turn this around over the next few days.
The grim facts are that his two goalkeepers are nowhere good enough for this level of football or a club the size of Celtic. The full-backs are journeymen nowhere near Celtic class and the central defensive options – with Bitton suspended – are young boys trying to play a mans game. West Ham will not have an easier game all season that they had yesterday in the sunshine at Celtic Park.
And Henriksen reckons that his fans can he turn up the heat on Celtic on Wednesday night in central Jutland, to continue his side’s improving form after their 1-0 over Aalborg yesterday to record their first competitive victory of the new season.
“My message to our fans is that they must go crazy against Celtic and support us all they can. It is such an important match for the whole club and the players deserve tremendous backing. We need that.
“I am really pleased with the development this team have shown over the past week. We were better against Celtic than we were in the first league game of the season against Odense and we were better against Aalborg than we were against Celtic in midweek,” the Danish boss said, as reported by Daily Record.
“Our three-man defence put in their best display so far and the opposition created next to nothing. We also created a lot of chances. Tactically, we were excellent and really I was very impressed with the performance all across the pitch.
“If we can keep that up against Celtic then we are a really hard team to play against. This is just the start for us and we want to build on this. We are really looking forward to the match against Celtic. That’s what it’s all about – a game where everything is at stake. We have a good starting point from the first leg and we are really excited about it.”
