ZENIT won’t be too pleased to see the referee on Thursday evening.
Damir Skomina has been appointed by UEFA to take charge of the Europa League match at Celtic Park on Thursday night.
For the Russian visitors Skomina brings back bad memories.
But for Celtic he was there with the whistle on one of the most enjoyable European evenings under Brendan Rodgers.
The Slovakian has refereed our visitors’ games on two previous occasions and the St Petersburg club have lost 2-0 each time.
These Zenit defeats to Monaco and Auxerre will have the Russians thinking ‘oh no, not him again’.
And Celtic will be looking to join that list alongside the French clubs on Thursday evening.
A 2-0 scoreline would do very nicely indeed.
Skomina is no stranger to Celtic Park. He was in charge of the Champions League qualifier last season against Hapoel and witnessed a exciting evening of football as Celtic ran out 5-2 winners against a decent Israeli side. Celtic raced into a 3-0 half-time lead before the visitors fought back early in the second half. to get within a goal of Celtic.
Two late strikers, the second from skipper Scott Brown gave Celtic a 3 goal margin which as it turned out they needed in Israel.
Hapoel won the match 2-0 with Craig Gordon saving a penalty.
Assisting Skomina on Thursday will be Robert Vukan, Matej Yug and Slavko Vincic. The reserve referee will be Tomazh Klanchnik.
Meanwhile here is an early look at the stunning programme that Celtic have produced for Thursday night’s match…
THE CELTIC STAR PODCAST FEATURING INSPIRAL CARPETS’ CLINT BOON, LISTEN NOW!
This week, Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham are joined by Inspiral Carpets’ Clint Boon, who wrote a classic song that will forever be associated with the club’s invincible treble-winning campaign – ‘This is How it Feels’.
Crafted by Clint in the late eighties, ‘This is How it Feels’ became one of Inspiral Carpets’ biggest hits upon its release in 1990. This song became a Madchester classic, and renditions have previously rang out at the city’s Old Trafford and Main Road stadiums. Now, in homage to Brendan Rodgers’ quest to lead Celtic to ten consecutive league titles in-a-row, the tune has travelled to Glasgow for a reworking by those renowned tunesmiths, The Green Brigade.
But what does Clint Boon think of Celtic’s version of his melancholic slab of genius? The Oldham-born psychedelic organ-grinder joins A Celtic State of Mind to chat about ‘This is How it Feels’, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Noel Gallagher, Lee Mavers, Morrissey, Mark E Smith and more in Episode 34 of The Celtic Star podcast.
