Rosenborg skipper - hosts are favourites

Rosenborg skipper Mike Jensen insists Celtic are favourites to progress from their Championship League second-qualifying round tie.

The two clubs met in the penultimate qualifier last season and it took a superb strike from James Forrest in Trondheim to send Brendan Rodgers’ side through 1-0 on aggregate.

Ahead of the first leg at Parkhead tonight, Jensen, pictured,

30, claimed Rosenborg had a “small chance”. When asked if that meant he considered the Scottish champions favourites to get through to play AEK Athens in the next round, he said: “I would say that, yes. We played Europa League last year and they played Champions League – and they beat us.

“Celtic is a bigger club and it’s an advantage to them that the first game is here. But we are really looking forward to the game.

“Last year we should have scored a goal. We were happy in how we played, but football is small margins and we needed a little bit more quality and luck and maybe we could have won the first leg.

“You have to work hard for those small margins and we will do that.”

The Denmark international refused to discuss the managerial upheaval which saw academy director Rini Coolen put in charge of the Norwegian club last week after Kare Ingebrigsten and assistant Erik Hoftun were sacked following the narrow win over Valur of Iceland. The controversial decision led to the Rosenborg players issuing a statement “vehemently” disagreeing with the move.

Coolen, who expects to return to his academy post at the end of the season, admitted he was in a strange position. The Dutchman said: “I was not celebrating when the situation came about, but I am honoured to be asked to take over. I’ve been working hard with the players over the last few days and we will be ready.”