HJK Helsinki came back from being 3-1 down to snatch a draw at home to VPS yesterday.
Coach Antti Muurinen was without suspended goalkeeper Ville Wallen and made five other changes from the side that lost 2-1 to Celtic.
Former HJK striker Jarno Parikka opened the scoring for VPS in the 34th minute when he was sent through one on one with goalkeeper Saku-Pekka Sahlgrenut but 5 minutes later Akseli Pelvas equalised for HJK when he netted from 6 yards out with the VPS defence static.
The visitors struck again just before the break through a low 25 yard drive from Sebastian Strandvall then increased their lead through a penalty from Parikka but HJK retained their unbeaten home record with goals from Demba Savage and Mika Väyrynen in the final 16 minutes.
“I’m not happy with a draw,” Muurinen claimed. “If we’d lost 3-1 I would have been very disappointed. It was a confusing game with an exciting last 20 minutes.”
Wednesday’s match will be played on the plastic pitch at the Sonera Stadium with Neil Lennon admitting that the surface could play a part in his team selection.
The Celtic boss said: “The surface is making me think about how we approach the game tactically.
“Thomas Rogne may have been a concern – but he has played on plastic many times in Norway. Scott Brown has a hip problem so we’ll see how he is for Wednesday.
“But this is one-off game. I can’t let that affect my thinking too much.
“Last season we had good results in Rennes and Udinese. We’ll need to play as well as that, if not better, but we’re capable of doing it.”
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They can ship goals from home so easily. This is good. If we score even once over there I think it’ll kill them mentally.
Our defence is shocking and we need somebody old and slow but with experience because were to young (thought i would get that in there before someone else said it) This team are here for the taking no problem if we play as we can i expect a victory over there, KC has started on fire long may it continue. hail hail
Match them up and press them all over the park. We seen how badly they struggled when playing at a high tempo…we are a wee bit fitter now.
Vic in centre midfield…take control of the game and keep it.
Start fast and attack them…don’t give them the initiative….learn from previous mistakes
Rennes, Madrid, Sion, Utrecht…no more horror stories – make it happen
We need a centre half now!
Christophe Berra is available from Wolves and he could, in my opinion, do a job. He has been in the Premiership and has played against better players than he will face up here
Also has Ki done a job on seLling himself after his penalty last night? I think he is a great player but needs more time on the ball than he gets in SPL.
Their coach admitted after the 1st leg that his team didnt cope very well with the pace and tempo celtic played at last week so that should be the 1st thing lennon should be telling the players – get in their faces and dont let them relax when they have the ball. A lot of their players didnt look too composed on the ball so if the likes of ledley, wanyama and brown get in their faces the odd stray pass could lead to something for us. The strategy should be the same as the 1st leg – get the ball,
Keep it and be smart with it in terms of working it towards the helsinki goal. We have to get rid of this ”away in Europe – aw naw” mentality, personally I think its more of a psychological thing than anything else but I think big Johan and Lennon will have told everybody that we played well against better teams away in Europe last season and drew away to 2 good teams so I think if we get the 1st goal we could go on to get 2 or 3, but I have a feeling that if they score 1st they’ll try and sit back and defend.
Their wide guys didnt cope well with the pace of izaguirre and matthews, even if izzy didnt have a very good game, but matthews was defensively solid so I think he’ll cope and play well. Juho makela is out aswell I think so that will be another boost to the team. We shouldnt go 4-5-1 but should stick with the tried and tested 4-4-2 so my team would be:
Forster (obvious)
Matthews, Rogne, Mulgrew, Izzy
Forrest/Brown, Wanyama, Kayal, Commons
Hooper, Stokes
The keeper, back 4 and front 2 pick themselves but Im not sure about midfield, wether or not to play Brown. Lennon will want to pay him because of his physical, ball winning style and the fact that he is the captain. But the team played really well last week without him so, if fit, I think I’d go with Forrest with Wanyama and Kayal in centre mid would be solid, tough tackling, a good threat going forward and fast. With sammy and ledley on the bench, options would be there depending on circumstances during the game.
There you have it, my long and drawn out opinion and I think we’ll win in Finland so I think I’ll get a wee fiver on Hooper 1st goal 😛 mon the hoops!