Celtic Park’s most lucrative match
Back-to-back away wins in the Champions League, albeit qualifiers, but a win is a win. Any win is difficult but away from home in Europe is always difficult to achieve. It’s also a quite unusual occurrence so well done Celtic for doing such a good job versus Helsingborg. I guess, now, the main thing is to ensure that we can finish what we have started.
I would suggest that the game is nowhere near over, however, the Swedes would much rather be in the position we are in than the one that they are in.
I was talking to a colleague before the game and we talking about how noisy Parkhead could be next week if we are still in with a chance of qualifying. I have to admit, this is the first is a long time that I have been so fired up for a match so far in advance.
Remember if we do qualify, it’s worth approximately £15m to our club. For us, that’s a massive amount of money. It also increases our chance of retaining the league championship and it gives the chance of re-entering the champions league next season as well.
I think it’s safe to say that next weeks return leg could be the biggest match at Celtic Park in several years.
I have written, in the past, about Champions League nights and as we all know, there’s nowhere better than Celtic Park for a Champions League match. A floodlit Celtic Park at full capacity with the famous theme playing beats just about any football occasion that most of us have been part of.
Two nil away from home is a lovely advantage to have but what are your thoughts on it, are we good enough to go through? Were Helsingborg off form and should we expect a more formidable opponent next week?
I don’t think that they were off form. They created a lot of chances, defending and passed the ball well and looked dangerous at times.
I think it was obvious to see that they are a decent team who can cause damage. Fraser Forster had a good game and kept us in the tie with a few outstanding saves. I feel towards the end of the game when the Swedes were chasing the game, they were getting frustrated which can only be a good thing. They were committing more fouls later in the game. Hopefully this a sign of fatigue and frustration.
When you look through our team, I don’t feel that Beram Kayal played at 100%, I don’t feel Emilio Izaguirre was at 100% either. We hit the woodwork and were very unlucky when Georgios Samaras shot wide after his run down the left.
We have a lot to be positive about and I for one, will be going to the game in a confident mood. I think our players have to go in with the same mindset but also make sure that they are not arrogant about things going into the match.
The next thing to look forward to if we do get qualify for the champs league will surely be at least a few new faces in the squad. We all know that we can’t match the premiership for wages or many other leagues but how many clubs can offer an ambitious player champions league football?
Not very many in the UK. The English clubs, when in the Champions League, aim to win it so really are only looking for the top end players. Top end players that we would be unable to offer a similar wage to.That leaves a big opportunity for us to step in to offer a deal to a player who is a top player but maybe not quite at the top end of the premiership & champions league winner yet.
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