Free-scoring Celtic have the chance to equal best winning run in Europe
Records were rattled up at such a rapid rate during the Brendan Rodgers era it might have appeared that Neil Lennon would have had no new highs to hit on taking charge. Yet, already, he has the opportunity to notch a notable first for the club.
No-one is pretending tonight’s Champions League third qualifying round first leg at Romanian champions Cluj isn’t a dicey assignment. However, the free-scoring nature of Celtic in winning all five of their competitive games this season means they will go into the encounter in Transylvania having serious designs on victor y. Should they achieve that, on the back of their home and away successes over FC Sarajevo and Nomme Julja, they will have equalled the club’s longest run of wins across 58 years of continental competition.
Moreover, they would also match the longest sequence of away victories the club has achieved in Europe. And were they to beat Cluj home and away, they would bring up a first-ever six-game winning streak in this domain for the club as well as, more importantly, booking a playoff with Slavia Prague. Twice Celtic have registered five straight wins in cross-b order competition: the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965-66 and, with Lennon as Martin O’neill’s midfield enforcer, when the club reached the Uefa Cup final in 2003.
Only once, though, have the club ever racked up three straight wins on the road in Europe. And that came during Lennon’s first stint at the helm, in their Champions League exertions of 2012-13, famed for the group -stage victor y against the might y Barcelona at a frenetic Celtic Park. This unforgettable night was set up by a qualifying campaign that brought home and away victories over Helsinki and Helsingborgs. The reward came in the form of a section that comprised Dynamo Moscow and Benfica, as well as the Catalans. Following a scoreless draw at home to B enfica, Celtic’s first group jaunt came in the form of a trip to the Russian capital. A last-minute goal by Georgios Samaras, pictured, who also netted in the previous two away wins, brought the club a first- ever group stage victory, which followed 18 defeats in their previous 20 such outings. It also made for a club record of seven European games unbeaten and five away games without defeat in this span.
Lennon is not without form, then, when it comes to taking Celtic into uncharted territory in the foreign arena. Of course, it should be noted that the club are able to stitch together victories in a manner that proved beyond them during their halcyon days from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s – when they won the European Cup, reached the final, two semi-finals and two quarter-finals, as well as two Cup Winners’ Cup semifinals – because they are now so far removed from the epicentre of European football.
Evidence of that is provided by this current Champions League qualifying campaign. Never before have the club had three consecutive opponents hailing from countries not ranked in Uefa’s top 30 nations: Sarajevo from a Bosnia-herzegovina in 42nd place, Estonia, providers of Kalju, sitting 49th and Cluj the champions of a Romania currently 32nd. That is what can happen, though, when you must negotiate four rounds simply to earn the right to play in the Champions League group stages.