Hoopsmaygo from riches to rags with Euro elite but will beoddsonto pip Belgians
AMONGST the mudslinging and hullaballo of a domestic tiff, it might have been lost that Anderlecht were none too shy about throwing their own insults around last week.
Given the company they have kept in the significant riches of Group B in this Champions League campaign, Celtic may not have just cause to argue with the label of “peasants”. But they would most certainly take some umbrage at being accused of being little more than ‘woodcutters.’
“We should never have allowed ourselves to lose to a team of peasants like Celtic. They were a bunch of woodcutters,” claimed aging Anderlecht legend Paul van Himst, who boasts a long association with the Brussels club.
Lamenting the loss that came back in October under caretaker boss Nicolas Frutos, he did not mince his words. Hein Vanhaezebrouck has since become the permanent replacement for Rene Weiler and, in fairness, Celtic may well see a different Anderlecht side tomorrow night than they did a few months back.
The comments perhaps reflect a team from a more prestigious league and with a far greater pot to organise themselves irked at t he prospect of propping up the group.
Little wonder, then, that there is a soreness about losing out to Celtic for place in the Europa League.
Interestingly, though, for all that the Parkhead side have suffered – and suffered is the only word for it – throughout merciless beatings against the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG over their last two Champions League campaigns, there is an argument to claim they have held their own against teams of comparable and slightly greater resources.
Of the six teams that Celtic have cone up against over the course of those two campaigns, only Anderlecht have not emerged from one of the elite top five leagues.
SEEING off the Belgians and securing a spot in the Europa League presents a form of progress for Celtic and in many ways could be argued, economically at least, as the ideal situation.
The finances of the Champions League will ensure that Celtic remain ahead of the pack in a domestic sense while the opportunity to create an im- pression in a competition that the club reached the final of in 2003 will appear tantalising to a number of supporters.
At the minute that would present a significant leap of imagination – some of the teams still in there are not to be taken lightly – but still, the chance of a decent run, will present itself outwith the cutthroat environment of the Champions League knock-out stages.
For Belgium internationalist, Dedryck Boyata, the opportunity to try and eliminate his fellow countrymen from European competition in the Champions League tomorrow night is a tantalising one.
“I am looking forward to it,” he said. “I think a lot of people were surprised with the way we played when we played in Brussels.
“When we played them over there I was just coming back from a long injury and wasn’t quite fully match fit yet. But since then I have managed to get up to speed and I feel good just now.
“We j ust need concentrated.
“I think we just approach this the way we would approach any game. We want to win. That doesn’t change for us.
“I don’t think we will take too much notice of the score from the previous game. This is our last game in the group and to stay we want to go out and put on a performance for ourselves, for the manager and for our supporters.”
The warm-up act for this one couldn’t have gone much better.
Celtic hit the iconic 67 on Saturday afternoon against Motherwell as they stretched their sequence of undefeated domestic games with their biggest win of the league season this term.
It was an afternoon that belonged to Odsonne Edouard who claimed a hat-trick but whether or not the French striker has played his way into a starting place against Anderlecht remains to be seen.
Moussa Dembele is expected to be declared fit for the meeting while Leigh Griffiths too is available. In a game such as this it may be that experience is favoured.