CELTIC will face Gibraltar side Lincoln Red Imps in their opening Champions League qualifier on The Rock next Tuesday.
The minnows provided a shock by knocking out Flora Tallinn 3-2 on aggregate last night – and they are refusing to move the fixture away from their plastic pitch.
Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers admitted: “I was surprised that Lincoln are through, if I’m honest. From our reports, the Estonians were the better side in the first leg.”Our only issue is that it gives us a day less to prepare. If we’d been playing in Estonia, the tie would have been on Wednesday night. Now the game is Tuesday and that’s a quick turnaround. But we will deal with it and look forward to it. I believe it will be in Gibraltar.”
UEFA deadlines puts some pressure on the champions to sign players if they want them to face Lincoln,
Rodgers added: “We have a couple of items ongoing and if we can them done, then great. But we will see.”The Red Imps overcame Flora 2-0 in their home tie after trailing 2-1 from the first leg in Estonia. Joseph Chipolina netted the opener from a penalty-kick in the 15th minute to put the hosts ahead on the away goals rule.
Substitute Antonio Calderon made certain of their historic date with Celtic when he claimed the second 11 minutes from time.
The Gibraltarian champions went out at the same stage last season, losing 3-0 on aggregate to Danish side Midtjylland, who then featured Hoops defender Erik Sviatchenko.
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE KINGDOM OF GOVANIA is the new fantasy beach book written by CQN’s Mea Culpa and wonderfully illustrated by Cartuja. Copies started arriving with readers yesterday and Connaire 12 was first to remark on the new book posting:
“Received my copy of In the Kingdom of Govania at 11.15 today. Started reading and could not put it down till the very last page. If you want to be entertained in a hilarious way about things that transpired in Govania do get a copy.
Well done to the authors and artists involved…”
The Zombies are going crazy about this beach book – absolutely foaming at the mouth. You, on the other hand will laugh your socks off!
Get your copy, in the post today (first class) by ordering from www.cqnbookstore.com
