Celtic have been drawn against Malmo in the final Champions League qualifiers.
This is a difficult one to properly judge.
Teams from Sweden are generally well organised. Their players are usually technically skilled and strong.
Malmo also took care of Red Bull Salzburg to get here, and they would have been viewed as a very difficult side.
They are currently sixth in their domestic league after a dreadful first half of the season (they are 18 games into their campaign) but they will be fit, fully up to speed, and capable.
On league duty so far they’ve scored 35 goals – the joint highest total in the league – but they’ve also conceded 24.
They will have to be respected, but there are opportunities here.
They hail from the Malmo municipality in Sweden, which looks to be a nice enough place for a visit.
It’s in the very south of the country, so the weather should be pretty mild for the most part.
That’s good.
This isn’t the kind of journey the players will be having nighmares about and will be a nice place for the fans to go to.
They play in the Swedbank Stadion, which holds 21,000 fans when it’s being used for Champions League games.
It looks as if there’s a lot of transport infrastructure, with the local authorities running buses to and from the stadium on match days.
They got to the Groups last year, having knocked out Ventspils, Sparta Prague and Red Bull Salzburg (again) on the way.
When they got there they were put in a section with Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Olympiakios.
They finished bottom, with one win, a 2-0 victory over the Greeks at home.
They scored 4 goals and conceded 15.
Their most potent player is their front man Markus Rosenberg, a veteran of Europe’s top leagues and a 33 times capped international.
Magnus Wolff Eikrem, their talented attacking midfielder, will also have to be closely watched.
Their squad also features Jo Inge Berget, who we’ll know from his brief spell in the Hoops and who our coach knows well.
I always hate playing against someone with something to prove.
This could be a tough one … but it’s navigatable if we stay focussed and our team plays as a unit.
It’s off to the Land of Larsson then.
Great blog!
I have faith we can pull this off!
Great blog!!! I have been to Malmo a couple of times and I am in Sweden for 2 weeks (fly on the 24th) If you fly to Copenhagen its a quick train ride across the Ostersund bridge made famous from the Swedish/Danish drama ‘”the bridge”. Malmo is a lovely place with very good transport as mentioned in the blog. They have a massive shopping mall well worth a visit. HH