European football time again. My favourite games outside the old fashioned Glasgow derby matches, hopefully we get an extended run in one of the competitions this season.
We start with the Finnish Champions HJK Helsinki and after watching them extensively since the drew I can safely say that out of all the teams we have played in Europe since Neil Lennon became manager, this will be our best chance at qualifying.
HJK Helsinki compete in the Veikkausliiga and are easily the most successful club in it with 24 league titles. They are also the only Finnish team to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League in the 98-99 season.
Their home games are played at the Sonera Stadium with a capacity crowd of 10770 but they only have an average attendance of about 4000. This surprised me that the most successful team in the league don’t attract big crowds and if you factor in that they are the only team from Helsinki in the Veikkausliiga, you have to ask why they don’t get big crowds.
Well it turns out that Football is very low in priority for Finnish spectators. Pesapallo, Ice Hockey, Athletics, Skiing and Formula One all attract bigger crowds and better TV Ratings.
So with this knowledge I thought I would have a look at all Finnish teams European performances. Below is a list of all results over the last three seasons not including this year, which have already eliminated all but HJK Helsinki and Kuopion Palloseura (KuPs). I put the Europa League games aggregate total only.
2011-12 Champs Lge
2nd Qual Rd
HJK Helsinki 10-0 Bangor City
Bangor City 0-3 HJK Helsinki
3rd Qual RdÂ
HJK Helsinki 1-2 Dinamo Zagreb
Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 HJK Helsinki
11-12 Europa
1st Qual Rd
Honka 2-0 Nomme Kalju
2nd Qual Rd
KuPs 1-2 Gaz Metan Medias
Hacken 3-0 Honka
TPS 0-1 Westerlo
Playoff Rd
HJK Helsinki 3-6 Schalke 04
 2010-11 Champs
2nd Qual Rd
Ekranas 1-0 HJK Helsinki
HJK Helsinki 2-0 Ekranas
3rd Qual Rd
Partizan Belgrade 3-0 HJK Helsinki
HJK Helsinki 1-2 Partizan Belgrade
10-11 Europa
1st Qual Rd
TPS 7-1 Port Talbot
Narva Trans 0-7 MYPA
2nd Qual Rd
Cercle Brugge 2-2 TPS
Honka 2-3 Bangor City
MYPA 8-0 UE Sant Julia
3rd Qual Rd
MYPA 4-5 Timisoara
Inter Turku 3-8 Genk
Playoff Rd
Besiktas 6-0 HJK Helsinki
2009-10 Champs Lge
2nd Qual Rd
Inter Turku 0-1 Sheriff Tiraspol
Sheriff Tiraspol 1-0 Inter Turku
09-10 Europa
1st Qual Rd
Lahti 4-3 Dinamo Tirana
2nd Qual RdÂ
Honka 3-0 Bangor City
Gorica 1-2 Lahti
Vetra 3-2 HJK Helsinki
3rd Qual RdÂ
Honka 1-3 Karabakh
Club Brugge 4-3 Lahti
As you can see for yourself there is not one noticeable scalp in any of their wins. They have beaten teams from Albania, Wales, Slovenia, Estonia, Andorra and Lithuania. Not exactly turning heads with their European performances. HJK did beat Schalke 04 2-0 at home in the Europa League last year, but of the squad that started the game that day there are only four players remaining. They have gone through huge changes since last year.
Lets have a look at the squad then. They have one regular international player in Mika Vayryen who only signed a three month contract before the game against KR Reykjavik. A few other players have a couple of caps, Demba Savage looks like he has broke into the Gambia national team but with 6 caps this makes him the second most experienced international Helsinki have.
So Finnish football is as high a level as this team are used to playing. There are two ex SPL players in the squad, striker Juho Makela played 25 times for Hearts between 2006-09 and Sebastian Sorsa had two appearances for Hamilton in 2008.
This will be their probable lineup.
Wallen
Sorsa     Lahti      Hakannpaa  Sumusalo
Savage    Väyrynen  Schuller    MannstromÂ
Makela    Pohjanpalo
The centre backs might change as well as the right back but I think this will be close to the actual team we will see on Wednesday night. Formation will be a standard 4-4-2 and depending on how attacking they are going to be they might switch Mannstrom and Savage.
Who is the danger man? Honestly, I have watched two full games as well as extended highlights of their last 5 league games. There is no one that really stands out. At a stretch I would say Joel Pohjanpalo.
This kid has potential, a little bit raw but he scores goals. The thing is, he is only 17 years old. I can’t see him taking the game by the scruff of the neck and winning it by himself. I actually think he will be fairly anonymous in the first leg, so they will have to rely on someone from the midfield.
Most obvious candidate would be Vayrynen, but he was substituted after they went a goal down to Honka at the weekend. So that leaves Demba Savage. Savage is a pacy winger who can create a goal if given a bit of time but he is not as good as some of the other wingers we have faced under Lennon.
Mertens(FC Utrecht), Sio(FC Sion) and Pitroipa(Stade Rennes) are all more talented than Savage. If we get caught out again by a direct running speedy winger it will be a major oversight by our management.Â
CLICK HEREÂ for HJK fans give their Celtic view
Follow Video Celts on Twitter and Facebook
Good work. Encouraging. Here’s to a Celtic victory!