LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GOLD FIRM
Lennon hails big two for generating money-spinning Euro draws like Zlatan and Co
WHEN the walls of economic turmoil are fast closing in, anything deemed good for business is to be cherished.
Two sides safely in too the European group stage for a third successive season also brings rings into focus the possibility y of future direct entry into the Champions League. That’s t’s surely a scenario worth th celebrating in these dark rk days for the wider world.
If Celtic and Rangers rs supporters are fully entitled ed to take a myopic view of their eir respective team’s progression on to the serious stage of the Europa League, the boon for the Scottish game in general eral is inescapable.
To say it’s unfortunate e that jousts against AC Milan n and Benfica will take place in empty stadiums is a gross understatement. These are the occasions the rank-and-file live for.
But t he shadow Covid- 19 continues to cast over sport doesn’t detract from the importance of those occasions — or diminish the co-efficient points on offer.
Already assured of two places in the Champions League qualifiers next season thanks to the collective effort of recent times, further progression this term could yet see Scotland move up from 13th place to ninth in UEFA’s country rankings table — thereby seeing the Premiership champions go straight into the group stage of the main event from 2022-23.
‘I think it is fantastic what Celtic and Rangers have done and I feel we deserve a lot of credit for it ,’ said Park head boss Neil Lennon following Thursday’s victory in Sarajevo.
‘I think over the last couple of years, both clubs have done very well and raised the bar.
‘I really do think Celtic and Rangers deserve credit for what we’re doing also for Scottish football. I think it’s very difficult to do what we have.’
When a sequence of results on Thursday edged Lennon’s men into the pot of top seeds, the expectation was of a soft landing yesterday lunchtime in Switzerland. Some hope.
Third favourites to win the tournament outright, seven-time European champions Milan were no one’s idea of an easy third seed.
Sure, it’s been 13 years since the last of those continental trophies was lifted. Nine, indeed, since the Rossoneri were champions of Italy.
But they remain one of the most revered names in the game and, in 38-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they boast a veritable superstar.
Sparta Prague don’t carry quite the same pizzazz but the side who finished third in the Czech Republic last term are seasoned campaigners at this level.
Seen as an emerging force in France, Lil le finished fourth in Ligue 1 last year — just a point adrift of Champions League-bound Rennes. Longterm admirers of Alfredo Morelos, they spent £27millon to land striker Jonathan David from Gent in the summer. In every sense, they mean business.
But if Celtic are entitled to feel a little miffed at discovering their prize for being a top seed was a Champions League group in all but name, what’s not to like? Lazio, Cluj and Rennes were assuredly no slouches last year but it was a challenge Lennon’s men met head-on. ‘We want to beat the forefront of that again,’ the manager added.
‘We had a great group stage last year, so we’re hoping for more of the same this season. ‘Hopefully we can also get out of the group and take it into t he knockout stage after Christmas. ‘ We’ve done the hard yards and now we’ve got so much to look forward to.
‘From our point of view, I think it’s our tenth straight groupstage qualification — and that’s great. It shows real consistency.’
The same could be said of Celtic’s response to exiting the Champions League to Ferencvaros five weeks ago.
Seven straight wins have been ticked off across all competitions since then.
Still in the hunt for a left-sided player of the ilk of Ryan Sessegnon ahead of a trip to Perth tomorrow, Lennon (left) is further comforted by the growing number of options at his disposal.
‘You saw (Hatem Abd) Elhamed come on and he did very well,’ reflected the Celtic boss. ‘Griff (Leigh Griffiths) is almost fit, he’s just lacking a bit of match practice. It’s the same with (Tom) Rogic.
‘We’ve got (David) Turnbull, while we will maybe think about (Olivier) Ntcham, who got ten minutes against Sarajevo.
‘ We’ve still got some good players to come into what we already have. So, we’ll balance things off as we go along.’
This final Premiership match before the international break comes with a warning sign. By common consent, Callum Davidson’s St Johnstone ought to have accrued more points to date than they have done. Lady Luck has not been on their side.
For all Celtic’s recent record against Saints is excellent — they haven’t conceded a goal against them in 951 minutes — there’s traditionally a vulnerability about teams travelling back from taxing midweek assignments.
‘I think it is to their advantage to a point, but we’ve got a real strong squad with depth,’ said Lennon. ‘It’s a very quick turnaround for us. We only flew back on Friday. We can’t do anything with them on Saturday.
It’s a second- day recovery and then we travel to Perth.
‘ We’ve had analysis of St Johnstone. Now it will just be softly, softly. I think the boys will look forward to the game. I think they’ll get a psychological boost from the win over Sarajevo.
‘St Johnstone are in a transitional period after Tommy Wright was there for so long and did a great job.
‘Callum will want to put his own stamp on things. But it takes time.
‘ There’s been a turnover of players there, too. We’re under no illusions, it’s going to be a tough game. They’ll be fighting for every yard.’
The comfort for Lennon is how adept his players now are at dealing with this situation.
Last season, they played seven league matches immediately following away games in Europe and not a single point was dropped. Tomorrow’s trip also
throws up a chance to extend a winning run to eight games, thus completing a perfect sequence since the l ast i nternational break.
‘ We l ook at these periods between the international breaks and break them into sixes or sevens,’ explained midfielder Callum McGregor.
‘Our aim was to try to win all seven in this run, so we’ve got one more to go and we need to try to do that on Sunday.
‘It’s always difficult when you travel back from european games and you have to be on the money come a lunchtime kick- off, but that’s what we need to do. We need to recover well and we need to be ready to go on Sunday.’