It’s back Europa League action for Celtic on tonight with a trip to Denmark to face surprise group leaders FC Midtjylland at the MCH Arena in the early 5.45pm kickoff…
Celtic opened the campaign with a 1-1 draw in Belgrade away to Crvena zvezda, more commonly known to older readers as Red Star Belgrade. That was a case two points dropped rather than one picked up on the road for the Scottish Champions, but for those backing a share of the spoils using no deposit free chips NZ it was certainly a favourable outcome.
Next up was a double header at Celtic Park against Portuguese side Sporting Braga then the Austrian Champions SK Sturm Graz and hopes were high that Celtic could pick up maximum points. However things didn’t plan mainly due to the worst VAR decision of the season to rob Kelechi Iheanacho of a perfectly good equaliser which somehow VAR decided was handball win the ball clearly hit the Celtic striker’s face before he fired it into the net.
Celtic had better luck against Sturm Graz in terms of the scoreline, fighting back from a goal down to deservedly win the match with goals from Liam Scales and Benjamin Nygren.
Those games left Celtic on four points from three matches and they head to Denmark five points behind their hosts who currently top the table on nine points after three wins. Many will feel that the Danish side are somewhat punching above their weigh in the early stages of the Europa League’s group stage and will fancy a flutter on Celtic to secure a windfall almost as pleasing as a tidy return on NZ-CasinoOnline.NZ on Thursday night.
FC Midtjylland opened their campaign with a 2-0 home win over SK Sturm Graz, who beat Rangers FC at home in their second match before losing to Celtic the next week. The Danish side added to former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou’s woes by securing a tremendous 3-2 away win at the City Ground as Nottingham Forest early season crisis continued.
Midtjylland then travelled to Israel to M.Tel-Aviv last week and picked up another three points on the road with an impressive 3-0 with confidence high that they can take into the game against Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers has moved on from Celtic after resigning this week and in his place is legendary Celtic manager Martin O’Neill back after two decades away and picking up exactly where he left off with a fine win in midweek in the Scottish Premiership, following consecutive away defeats to Dundee and Hearts.
Midtjylland, who usually play a 4-3-3 or sometimes a 4-2-3-1 variant, is a hard-working side who will press Celtic relentlessly and be tough to break down on their own pitch. Franculino, Aral Şimşir and Darío Osorio are the principal threats to Celtic.
Despite their respective standings in the Europa League table this is a match that Martin O’Neill will believe his side can win, especially as Daizen Maeda is now back after injury but Kelechi Iheanacho will not be ready to play. Celtic’s ‘Young Guns’ Johhny Kenny and Callum Osmand, who both scored at Hampden in the cup semi-final win over theRangers at the weekend, are both available this evening.
Benjamin Nygren played his football in Denmark last season before his summer move to Celtic and he has been a goal threat this season.
How will it all pan out? Well you can expect A tough match for both sides and there may just be the one goal in it, with Celtic taking the three point back to Glasgow as Martin O’Neill gets his return to European action as Celtic manager off to a flyer.
