In the late summer of 2012, Celtic travelled to Sweden to take on Helsingborgs in the first leg play-off for the Champions League Group stages.
Celtic put in a competent away performance and with an early goals from Commons and a second from Samaras with a quarter of an hour remaining to give The Hoops an impressive 2-0 first leg win in Sweden. The starting team for Celtic was: Forster, Matthews, Izaguirre, Mulgrew, Rogne, Brown, Commons (Watt – 89′), Ledley (Wilson – 65′ ), Kayal (Forrest – 46′ ), Samaras, and Hooper, with Zaluska, Wilson, Lustig, Chalmers, McCourt, Forrest, and Watt on the bench.
Although it was a fairly even game in terms of possession (49%-51%), the Swedes managed to get more shots at goal than the Hoops with 16 attempts (7 on target) to 11 attempts (with only 4 on target). Crucially however, two of Celtic’s hit the back of the net while Helsingborgs found it might difficult to get the ball past Fraser Forster.
They wouldn’t be the last team to experience that in the Champions League that season!
21st August 2012, Helsingborgs 0:2 Celtic.
Commons and Samaras. pic.twitter.com/0lLZaN7OSQ
— Li’l Ze (@LilZe_7) August 20, 2023
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