Celtic tonight begin their Champions League campaign at home to Slovan Bratislava…so let’s make incredible noise for the Bhoys!
The new format means each team plays eight different opponents once, four at home and four away. Most teams will be looking to their home matches to prioritise expected points and Celtic will be no different…
For teams like tonight’s opponents an away match might be a chance to steal point, so expect the visitors to sit deep and try to get some joy on a counter attack or a set-piece. Pretty much like we’re used to seeing in domestic games at Celtic Park.
Their manager and his son, who used to play for Rangers and is now in the Slovan side that will play this evening in Paradise, know all about playing at Celtic Park.
“That was a long time ago,” Slovan Bratislava manager Vladimir Weiss Snr said when asked about his 5-4 aggregate win over Celtic in 2005 when he was the Artmedia manager. We covered that game extensively yesterday on The Celtic Star, including publishing an extract from Majic, Stan and the King of Japan by Matt Corr, which covers Gordon Strachan’s first season as Celtic manager.
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Weiss Snr continued: “Of course, there are nice memories and nobody will take them away from you. But now we are up against a different Celtic. They play a different style of football to 19 years ago. Brendan has a different type of football here, very fast. But we are capable of doing that as well. We will put in our best performance.
“We know what we can expect. We have players who have played here and they know about the atmosphere. Many other players have said that this is really the best atmosphere in the world you can experience. But I think we have enough experience not to give in to that atmosphere, not to make mistakes,” he said.
“Of course, we know that most of the game we will be under pressure. Because obviously, just like we get the energy and emotions from our fans, Celtic will get their energy from their fans. So you have to have the self-confidence, but also the discipline,” Vladimir Weiss Snr said.
He is understandably proud of the journey his side has been on since he took over and reckons that they have exceeded even his expectations in reaching the group stages of the Champions League ahead of the time he reckoned it would take.
“When I joined Slova, I wanted to prove something and I am happy that we managed to do that maybe even earlier than I thought. But after three years of working with the team to get into the main stage of the Champions League, I am very proud of the team, of the players and of the fans.
“Because Slova have evolved. We have brought joy to the fans and the fans have come back to the stadium. And this is the biggest motto of our work. I think the players deserve to be here. We have not come here as tourists.
“It’s a different kind of a model of the Champions League. We will try to snatch some points, maybe one point, maybe surprise them. Everything is possible in football. We have proved it many times and we have seen what is possible to do. We are very happy, and are looking forward to it,” the Slovan Bratislava boss said.
“We will want to show our fighting spirit, our pride, and show what we are made of. It’s the Champions League, it’s the best teams in the world. It’s like the club World Cup. You have to be excited about it. And we can always surprise people.
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“They are fast and they have great quality. We know where we can surprise them. If we manage to do that, if we manage to break their good defence, if we manage to win one-on-one duels, then it’s going to be good.”
Last time Vladimir Weiss Snr caught Celtic cold with the home leg. It was Gordon Strachan’s first game and the Celtic squad was still dealing with fall-out from the end of the previous season and the departure of Martin O’Neill. Losing the first leg 5-0 was disgraceful yet Celtic almost overturned that with a 4-0 win at Celtic Park.
And in the new Champions League format we only play Vladimir Weiss Snr (and Jnr) once and that is at Celtic Park. Maybe history will repeat itself and Celtic will come away with a 4-0 victory this evening. That would be lovely!
Morning all, match day for Celtic and it's going to be a noisy night at Paradise. The Hoops played Slovan 60 years ago and won both legs of the tie 1-0. It'll be a tough tie but I'm quietly confident the team can prevail tonight. (Pathe News) pic.twitter.com/jwVUbvVPv4
— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog_09) September 18, 2024
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