We've said it before and we'll say it again, no doubt - when the stakes are high, rookie gaffer Neil Lennon plays it all wrong.
2-0 up from the first leg, many were treating Celtic's progress into the Europa League as a given - and it probably should have been. But yet again their diabolical away form came back to haunt them, they conceded four goals to Utrecht and now they are out.
To be fair to him, Celtic had lots of defenders unavailable through injury - but that have made protecting a makeshift back four a priority. Instead Lennon picked a front two of Samaras and Fortune, plus new "wonderkid" James Forrest, plus Joe Ledley (who's not known for putting in a shift)... reckless stuff, and they paid the price.
Motherwell couldn't score the 1-0 victory that would have put them through against Odense, and Dundee Utd came close but missed the chance to progress ahead of AEK.
Both clubs acquited themselves rather better tonight than the green giant from Glasgow, however.
Where do Celtic go from here?
Showing posts with label AEK Athens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AEK Athens. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Dundee Utd tie finds a venue at last
Dundee Utd are in Athens tonight, trying to turn around a 1-0 deficit from the first leg that will allow them to progress to the Europa League Group Stage at AEK's expense.
But AEK's stadium isn't fit for purpose, so an alternative venue at Panionios was found. But Panionios, upset at the thought of AEK using their home, broke into the ground and destroyed the pitch.
So the tie has moved to Olympiakos' stadium. But now the fear is AEK fans will ransack the place, so they have been banned.
Dundee Utd now face the odd prospect of playing an away tie in front of 500 of their own travelling supporters, and no one else. It's going to be a weird atmosphere, that's for sure, more so if any AEK trouble makers manage to disguise themselves as Tangerines to sneak in and cause mayhem.
Anyhow, good luck tonight to the team, and to the fans who will hopefully avoid any trouble. Very much the underdogs here, maybe they can use these unusual circumstances to their advantage.
But AEK's stadium isn't fit for purpose, so an alternative venue at Panionios was found. But Panionios, upset at the thought of AEK using their home, broke into the ground and destroyed the pitch.
So the tie has moved to Olympiakos' stadium. But now the fear is AEK fans will ransack the place, so they have been banned.
Dundee Utd now face the odd prospect of playing an away tie in front of 500 of their own travelling supporters, and no one else. It's going to be a weird atmosphere, that's for sure, more so if any AEK trouble makers manage to disguise themselves as Tangerines to sneak in and cause mayhem.
Anyhow, good luck tonight to the team, and to the fans who will hopefully avoid any trouble. Very much the underdogs here, maybe they can use these unusual circumstances to their advantage.
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