Craig Thomson will be in charge of tonight’s top Europa League tie between Sevilla and Porto.
The mention of those two names brings back a thousand memories for Celtic supporters- probably the best footballing memories of our lives.
Without indulging headlong in nostalgia tonight’s match looks very evenly balanced with Sevilla priced at 6/4 and Porto at 7/4 for an away win.
After last weeks training trip to Marbella with the SFA Thomson finds himself back in the Spanish sunshine along with Iain Brines, Calum Murray and Alan Muir.
Brines will be the fourth official tonight ahead of his first ever Celtic-Rangers match with Murray and Muir behind the goals as additional assistant referees.
On the pitch Sevilla’s season has collapsed after a promising start with Gregorio Manzano’s side going into tonight’s match on the back of a 3-2 defeat away to Racing Santander at the weekend- their fifth match running without a win.
While Sevilla are toiling outside the top six in La Liga Porto are eleven points clear in the Portuguese league and unbeaten this season.
With 46 goals scored and just seven conceded in 20 league matches, Andre Villas-Boas’ side will head into tonight’s match full of confidence.
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Elsewhere in the Europa League Aiden McGeady’s Spartak Moscow travel to Basel for their first competitive match of the year.
Spartak dropped out of the Champions League after finishing third to Chelsea and Marseille and failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League after finishing fourth in the Russian League.
Basle go into the match as favourites with Spartak priced at 12/5 to repeat their away wins at Marseille and Zilina in the Champions League.
Russian clubs have got a strong record in the UEFA Cup/Europa League with Spartak coach Valerie Karpin setting his side the target of reaching the Dublin final despite not playing a competitive match for more than two months
“We have seen CSKA and Zenit playing with the same schedule and winning the UEFA Cup,” Karpin said
“It’s difficult, not just for Spartak but for any Russian team, because there are no competitive games scheduled.
“We’re expecting a tough game in Basel tonight but this is a competition that we want to do well in and go as far as we can.”
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If you fancy a bet on Sunday’s match Celtic are priced at 11/10 to win and go eight points clear of Rangers.
Kenny Dalglish- Messi would be a snip at £100,000
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How these clowns get European games god only knows
Can’t help but think this explains the rather uncharacteristic performances of Thomson and Brines in the matches they recently officiated of ours lately.
They were far less obvious in their bias against us lately and their performances were much fairer than normal.
Could it be they were being observed to see if they deserved this and normal service regarding any of our games will now be resumed, with many more blatant decisions against us and in favour of the currant buns?
We shall see just how biased Brines is this Sunday I guess.