It is crunch time already for Old Firm
WE MIGHT only be heading into game two of the Champions League but it’s already crunch time for Celtic and Rangers.
Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops must take something from their game against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Wojska Polskiego Stadium in Warsaw tomorrow evening if they are to have any thoughts of finishing second in Group F.
Equally, Rangers can’t afford to lose at home to Napoli tomorrow night or the Ibrox outfit will be facing an extremely tough path to make the knockout stages.
Last week’s 4-1 win for Shakhtar in Leipzig was a huge blow to Celtic. I don’t think any of us saw that one coming.
But that surprise has really increased the stakes for this week’s game against the Ukrainians. If they lose, they’d not only be six points behind Shakhtar but way behind in terms of goal difference — and that could prove vital in qualifying.
Lift
It also looks like Leipzig received a major lift under new manager Marco Rose after their 3-0 beating of Borussia Dortmund in the league last weekend.
Of course, Real Madrid are expected to beat them tomorrow but Celtic can’t rely on other teams doing their job for them. The Bhoys have to make things happen.
I expect Postecoglou to adopt his normal style as he only wants to play one way. If he was to go more cautious, he’d have to make around five changes to his side — and that’s not going to happen.
Celtic will leave some spaces which could be exploited. But the other major factor is the Shakhtar players are fired up and play with tremendous pride and commitment after the shocking invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February.
Celtic will get their chances, but must do better than against Madrid when several were passed up.
I believe Callum McGregor will be crucial. He needs to hit more forward passes so Celtic can hurt Shakhtar as he didn’t manage against Real.
Bad
Rangers, meanwhile, are not suddenly a bad team. They’ve rightly been heavily criticised over the 4-0 defeats by Celtic and Ajax but some of the stick aimed at Gio van Bronckhorst is way over the top.
I’ve watched Napoli a couple of times in Serie A this season and, while they have some impressive players, there are areas to get at them.
Van Bronckhorst has to be clever — and he’s shown that before in Europe — and play this one as if it’s an away tie and he needs big performances.
I think if Rangers play a bit deeper, protect and grow into the game I can see them getting something from it. So they might tweak it to a back three — or even at five at times.
The postponement of the Aberdeen game has been a blessing for Van Bronckhorst because apart from it being a tricky fixture, it allowed him to completely focus for this Napoli game.