After the disappointment of dropping points on Saturday against Motherwell at Celtic Park and the amusement at seeing theRangers fail to capitalise on our slip-up at Pittodrie, it’s now time to turn our attention to Rome on for Tuesday’s early evening kick-off in the Champions League.
The Pope was clearly unhappy with the draw at the weekend and has called Brendan Rodgers in for a clear the air session on Wednesday morning at the Vatican. Hopefully the Holy Father will be in a much better mood after a two goal Celtic victory the night before in the Stadio Olimpico!
Joking aside and In all honesty our chances of competing in Europe after Christmas are slim. Qualifying for the last 16 of the champions league is still technically possible and dropping into the Europa League while more realistic, but even that looks out of our reach. So Celtic go to Rome with nothing to lose and knowing what has to be done to keep our slimmest of chances alive – we need to beat Lazio by two goals.
Of course a two goal win in Rome would make the task look more promising particularly if the score go our way in the other game – we want Atletico Madrid to beat Feyenoord in Rotterdam – but it’s going to be a tough ask to win in Rome as Lazio know that they can secure their qualification by beating Celtic. And crucially from their point of view, they won’t therefore need to get anything away to Atletico Madrid on match-day six.
It’s not impossible though and we have won in Rome previously, four years ago when Oliver Ntcham’s last minute goal earned us a historic win against a Lazio side arguably better than the one presently.
If we play the way we did against Atletico Madrid last time out we will get nothing out of the game, that’s a given. We may even end up on the wrong end of another embarrassing result. The Celtic defending against Motherwell for their goal on Saturday will be getting watched this morning after the Lazio training session.
But if we play to our potential, such as the way we performed at home against Atletico we can get something out the game, and a 2-0 victory would be more than achievable if we get a wee rub of the green which usually favours our opponents at Champions League level. A wise man once said that you make your own luck and it’s time Celtic wisened up in Europe’s premier club competition.
So it’s not unrealistic and we need to go into the game with some belief and plenty of hope that we can get the result we are looking for. Our form has got to improve in this competition and a win surely has to be on the horizon some time soon. I don’t see why that can’t be in Rome yet again. Let’s hope so. Taking it to the last game would set up an incredible night against Feyenoord at Celtic Park on Wednesday 13 December.
Save travels to all the Celtic supporters making their way to Rome, including Matt Corr of this Parish, so we’ll have a European away-day diary to look forward to later in the week on The Celtic Star.
