NEIL LENNON admitted setting his Celtic team up in a defensive formation against AIK Stockholm this evening would be “sheer folly”.
The Hoops boss will prepare his players for the crucial Europa League play-off second leg with a two-goal advantage courtesy of strikes from James Forrest and Odsonne Edouard in the first game in Glasgow last week.
With a place in the groups stages up for grabs in Sweden and the visitors, who have scored in every game since the start of the campaign with a total of 33 goals from 10 outings, are looking to add to the total.
Lennon, speaking to the BBC, said: “We’re a front-foot team and know we’re capable of scoring goals, we’ve shown that already this season.
“I don’t think we can sit in for 90 minutes. It would be sheer folly to ask players to do something alien to them.
“If we score one that would put us in a tremendous position in the tie. There may be bad moments we have to weather, but we’re capable of scoring goals here and getting a positive result.”
AIK coach Rikard Norling added: “We have some ideas how to attack this time. We can’t be naive because we’re facing a very good side with very good individual skills, especially in the transitions.
“We need to be clever.”
The eight-in-a-row champions have scored in their previous three away European trips this term – FK Sarajevo (3-1), Nomme Kalju (2-0) and Cluj (1-1).
The draw for the Europa League group stages is scheduled to be made in Monaco tomorrow.
* DON’T miss the unbeatable match report from AIK Stockholm v Celtic tonight – only in your champion CQN.
