‘We are not sharp,” AEK Athens boss admits BIG disadvantage

AEK Athens manager Marinos Ouzounidis was not surprised in the slightest last night when Celtic knocked Rosenborg out of the Champions League.

The Greek boss fully expected a Celtic win and while he believes that Brendan Rodgers has a good side, he is confident that AEK Athens can win through – even though he admits that they are still rather rusty having yet to play a competitive match this season.

Usually this is a factor that works against Celtic in the summer qualifiers but perhaps this is an occasion where it will work in our favour.

Brendan Rodgers has already identified the crucial first leg on Wednesday evening as a chance to take advantage of the lack of game-time in the Greek legs by being extremely aggressive in our play and building up a decent lead to take to Athens six days later – see HERE.

Here’s what the AEK Athens boss has being saying this morning:

“I always expected Celtic to get through against Rosenborg so that comes as no surprise they made it.

“We have studied a lot of footage of Celtic. They are obviously a good side who get into the Group Stages, but we certainly think it is possible to beat them.

“At the moment, we are not as sharp as we could be because we have not played a competitive match and that’s a disadvantage to us.

“I think Celtic have really improved in the past couple of years because of their manager Brendan Rodgers. He is a very good coach.

“But we are ready to deal with them. We were always going to have play good teams to get through to the group stage and Celtic are just another challenge for us.”

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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