If it’s a choice between a trip to Macedonia or Azerbaijan, Celtic would doubtlessly prefer the former. Baku, where Azerbaijani club Qarabag reside, is not as far west as Astana, where Celtic played two years ago, but it’s east of Iraq and it’s not a city which appears in many tourist lists.
Rudar Pljevlja returned from Baku midweek with a 0-0 draw. In days gone by that was regarded as a great away European result, but the lack of away goal will much of the second leg is played on a knife-edge.
One large note of caution, Qarabag went out of Europe last season by a one goal aggregate margin to Red Bull Salzburg, who lost in Baku, but won in Glasgow a few months later. They have twice eliminated Polish opposition in the last five years.
My hunch is that Celtic are better than each potential opponent, but if we’re short of fitness or preparation, we’ll have more trouble than we want.
The good news is that neither club plays summer football, so they should be no better prepared that Celtic. Rudar finished competitively in May, Qarabag a week later, while both played their first competitive games of the season on Wednesday. From what I can tell, both also play on grass, so we’ll avoid the Scandinavian bounce.
Before concerning ourselves too much with the 3rd Champions League qualifying round we need to use today’s game against La Liga side Eibar to sharpen fitness, and take care of business in Iceland on Wednesday.
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2
Perfect
Goal
Leigh takes and SCORES
Smacked home
Right in the corner from Griff
2!!!
The Griff back on track
Efe’s goal
He hit it high and to the goalies left.
Mass substitution
Rake of subs on now
4 more subs as Westwood drops back to level
Four subs.
Nae Jo though
Subs galore
Happy Days
2-0
now as someone said ,take everyone who plays next week off
HH
Great intercept from Janko
Rogic, Tierney, Janko, Lindsay?
Janko did well to defend that 1 on 1
bsr
thanks for the clips
HH
Top corner rocket by LG
Rogic,Tierney,Jainko and Lindsay on
Nice move across field Tierney shoots well over
I think my stream may be slightly delayed ……..
HH
Canamalar
18:25 on 18 July, 2015
Mass substitution
That sounds like papal bull :))
Young Lindsay putting himself about
Izzy misplaces pass
Then fouls needlessly.
FK in good position on our left 30 yards out
Corner Eibar
Happy bunny, great workout here and winning
The game is in Spain & it is summer, why Efe & VVD wearing long sleeves..??
Their goalie bangs a back pass from centre circle
Pen
You are joking
Penalty Eibar as Izzy blocks
Griffiths Penalty
Dodgy penalty Eibar
This ref is a zombie
What the feck was Izzy to do???
2-1