The draw for the last 32 of the Europa League is sending us to Denmark.
It’s a nice place to go for a visit and in the current circumstances I wouldn’t particularly mind living there either.
Copenhagen are a decent side but not world beaters.
We should have their measure.
We got the draw we wanted, and we got that draw because we put in the hard yards beforehand. In particular, we put a shift in against Rennes when people were wondering if it was even worthwhile to top the group. Today showed that it was.
The draw has been kind to us. We should be good enough to qualify for the last 16. It’s obviously going to be a big leap from there into a round which has the word “final” in the title, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We know what we must do here.
The game is in February. We should see some signings in for the next window, and that’ll give us a hint of what we should be looking to do in the competition. Clearly it would be absolutely immense to get the last eight or better … it means a lot of games though.
That means getting the title race wrapped up nice and early.
We would get no help from the governing bodies, and we know it well. So as we did when we were in the qualifiers, the important thing – from the league point of view – is to get the job done quick smart. It means finishing this month with a series of wins and doing the same in January.
If we do that I firmly believe we’ll be well clear by the time the Denmark trip comes. That would give us the latitude to focus on beating them and focussing on who we’d face in the last 16. This is where Celtic belongs, in the latter stages of big competitions.
This will give us a good grounding for next season’s Champions League qualifiers.
Remember, you can still do our Slapping Sevco quiz at the link above … just answer the first question about who scored our first goal against the NewCo …