Celtic Is More Than Capable Of Turning This European Tie Around.

The European defeat in midweek raises two questions; number one, can we turn this tie around and number two, how much effort should we expend in trying to do so? This article won’t focus on the second of these questions, but only the first.

My feelings on the second are already pretty well known, which is that it’s just not worth it.

Bodo-Glimt are clearly a decent side. Their European performances have proved that.

Their domestic league performances have proved that. In order to go through we have do what Roma failed to do and win in the ground where they were beaten by five.

Not only that, but we need to do it by three clear goals. Difficult? Extremely.

But if we go over there and do as they did here – score early – we put them on the back foot.

If we race into a 2-0 lead I think the tie becomes ours to lose at that point. We are capable of that. We know we are capable of that. We were brilliant for spells in Germany and Spain, and so we can certainly do it Norway.

No-one should kid themselves about the difficulties of this though.

Few teams have beaten this Bodo side by more than two goals in the last couple of years.

We would be bucking all kinds of trends if we were to manage it. They have played Milan as well as Roma – Milan beat them, in a one off qualifier, 3-2 but it was tight as you can gather.

They will be flying high, and confident they can take care of us.

They are a side who fancy their chances of punching above their weight in the Champions League; they like ourselves believe they are slumming it at this level, and maybe they are.

Our performance will have to be exceptional.

As good as this team has been in any of its games this far in this campaign, we will need to be better.

This would be the standout result in this campaign so far if we were to pull it off … but it will take a Herculean effort and we have Easter Road to visit in the following game. That’s not the ideal scenario to say the least.

But on a purely one-off basis, taken in isolation, with no other considerations, can we do this?

And I think the answer is yes and the manager and the players think the answer is yes.

But it’s not just a straightforward task, this lot are playing on a ground where they seldom lose and certainly not by such a wide margin.

Difficult, not impossible is what I think.

Lose an early goal and it becomes impossible. Lose our focus at that stage and we’re in for a very long night, just as Mourinho and his humiliated players were.

That result was freakish … but it wasn’t a freak.

This team have a very, very good record in their wee tiny stadium … we are really up against it here.