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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Water bear after 30 mins.
Keeper saves penalty then swings at a cross and misses at edge of box –
kind of a ‘Won’t you come home’ ball Bailly :-)
Eiber keeper blooters the ball oot the stadium
LG down. Limping a wee bit
Eiber striker booked
ian black booked
Yellow for the perpetual fouler Iriate?
I like that Guinness oot the fridge break for us armchair fans, great idea.
:-)
15 finally booked
Ciftci wins free kick at edge of box
FK Celtic on D slightly left
Is it our movement up front or lack of creativity that’s causing our impotency?
Irrate is in need of a kick in baws.
Big virgils speciality
With this team on the park I would put Cifti up front Leigh on the left with SA in the middle.
VVD off-target.
Virgil blasts it over
Virgil just over
VVD gets it up but not down soon enough
Well done Virgil blocking that cos the shot was flying!
Short free kick and then shot blocked by VVD
Boyata can shift alright..
The 2 up front is making a difference to the pressing game
NC almost blocks GK clearance
Boat a makes last ditch clearance for corner
Great tackle Boyata to stop guy going through on keeper. Corner.
Bhoyata does really well getting to that
Good last ditch clearance from Boyata
Saving tackle Bhoyata.
We have been very poor
Great challenge Boyata. I’m liking this ghuy a lot.
Nir getting into a wee flare up
We’re not doing anything up front, Forrest has gone awol and Armstrong gone looking for him..
Retaliation from Wibar player.
Handbags out
Big Nir getting riled
……..
there’s me aw geared up for 7.30 start on Setanta……
….’sake!
ma schedule’s a shambles…
Fisher fed by Fisher into side net.
Better looking break from James
Good run Jamesie, griff reverse pass to Fisher, shoots wide.
HT.
HT Nae goals. Nae fitbaw
Someone on the coaching staff needs to teach us how to play a diagonal pass.
Everything straight and square.
Poor passing and movement.