Celtic head into the unknown this week with a trip inside the Arctic Circle to play Norwegian Champions Bodo/Glimt in the second leg of the Europa Conference League Play-off for a place in the round of 16.
The Scottish Premiership league leaders have been on brilliant form in domestic football since the turn of the year, winning every match played in both the league and the Scottish Cup and that has allowed Celtic to remove current the Scottish Champions from the top spot in the league, and yesterday the gap increased further with theRangers being held by Dundee United at Tannadice to a 1-1 draw while Celtic’s summer signing from Dutch side VVVV Venlo Giorgos Giakoumakis netted a hat-trick against Dundee at Celtic Park to give Celtic a dramatic 3-2 win.
Yet the manner of the 3-1 home defeat to Bodo/Glimt will have frustrated Ange Postecoglou and his players and surprised supporters on punditfeed who expected a comfortable Celtic victory. The way the Norwegians wasted time, play-acted, over celebrated at the final whistle and most annoyingly went into a Celtic style huddle after Daizen Maeda had reduced the deficit to 2-1 with a lovely header, before going up the park and adding a third with a wicked deflection off the out-stretched leg of the Celtic captain Callum McGregor.
So Celtic are heading to Northern Norway with a point to prove and with one or two scores to settle. After the recent 3-0 in against theRangers, McGregor ensured that his Celtic teammates did not over celebrate the win, denying the current Champions the chance to pin anything on their dressing room door. Bobo/Glimt didn’t take the same approach at Celtic Park and it could come back to haunt them this week.
Several of Celtic top stars underperformed in that first leg tie, most notably Israeli winger Liel Abada and Jota, Celtic’s Portuguese superstar. Both players have the ability and the motivation to turn the tie around for Celtic. Then there is Giakoumakis who rather surprisingly started on the bench in the first leg. Ange Postecoglou won’t be making the same mistake twice and after that hat-trick on Sunday afternoon at Celtic Park against Dundee, the Greek striker has surely played his way into the starting eleven for Celtic at the Aspmyra Stadion.
Speaking to Celtic TV after yesterday’s win Giakoumakis was delighted with his goals and also the win that may turn out to be one of the most important of what has been a dramatic season in the Scottish Premiership.
“It was great, to be honest. I was looking forward to scoring for this club and this team, it was something that I was really missing. The most important thing is that we won and we increased our lead in the league.
“We showed a lot of character and proved we’re a big team and we have some personality. We conceded twice from set-pieces and that’s something we have to improve but we won and that’s all that matters.”
Those five conceded goals in four days at Celtic Park against Bodo/Glimt and Dundee will be a major concern as Celtic chase at least a two goal victory that will take the tie to extra-time. Can Celtic get the goals needed while at the same time keep the Norwegian Champions out? Remember this is the team that beat Jose Mourinho’s Roma by 6-1 earlier this season at their home ground, when the weather was less harsh. Celtic are going their with forwards from Israeli, Portugal and Greece looking to adapt to the conditions and pull off a dramatic turnaround in this tie.
Can Celtic do it? The first goal will be crucial and if Celtic can get it early in the game then there’s plenty of time to get a second. The Norwegians have just come out of their winter break and playing 120 minutes of demanding, high intensity football might prove to be too much for a side whose players – if you believe them – were cramping up badly at Celtic Park last week. So will Celtic get through? Put it this way, don’t bet against it happening.
