Though we’re merely at the baptism of the new season, over in Scotland, Celtic are appearing to shine a little less brightly than usual this year.
Whilst still remaining favourites to take their ninth consecutive Scottish league title, the Hoops’ odds have shortened from 1/10 to 1/5 over the past week, there is disgruntlement within the ranks mainly stemming from Dedryck Boyata’s frustration at not getting his desired Fulham move, as well as reported animosity between chief executive Peter Lawwell and manager Brendan Rodgers, due to the latter’s frustration about Celtic’s lack of transfer activity this summer.
The imperativeness for Celtic to succeed tonight against AEK Athens in their final Champions League qualifying game is unquestionable.
Whilst many leagues across the continent take qualification for granted, the route for the less-distinguished is long and arduous.
The league may have just begun in England, and Serie A, La Liga and the Bundesliga have yet to kick-off, but Celtic, not only with the incentive of achieving an unprecedented treble-treble in Socttish football, have already had to see off Armenian Premier League champions Alashkert, triple Tippeligaen/ Eliteserien winners Rosenborg and now have a final challenge tonight away in the Greek capital
All this simply just get to the group stages of the Champions League, to be drawn on the 30th August.
Last Wednesday, despite a battling brave performance at Celtic Park, Viktor Klonaridis’ goal on the stroke of half-time for the away side to cancel out Callum McGregor’s opener has put those Celtic Champions League aspirations in jeopardy.
Celtic fans now know that they travel to Greece needing to win a two-legged European tie for only the third time in their history, and on the back of a demoralising league loss to Hearts at the weekend raising questions about Rodgers’ ability to emulate his own success. Boyata refusing to travel with his teammates to Athens is a far from welcome distraction.
Furthermore, AEK are favoured by the bookmakers to take the tie tonight, at around 7/5 compared to Celtic’s 21/10. The Kitrinomavree have an extremely impressive home record, only losing once in their last 20 matches at the Spyros Louis.
However, in a positive for The Bhoys, a two or more goal draw will be enough for Rodgers’ men to sneak through to their second successive group stage selection, should the incumbent Scottish champions decide to bounce-back in style and quieten the naysayers.
Kick-off is at 19:00 GMT and you can follow the match live with The Sportsman below.
