Photo courtesy sandro.s's Flickr account
Football fans have for years had to endure the proverbial old chestnut from managers and players about how minnows are playing in ‘their cup final’ when they travel to play against bigger clubs.
Unfortunately for Celtic, which visits Hamburger SV in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday, the Hoops’ matchup with their German foe marks one of those instances. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo courtesy Iism (via Wikimedia Commons)
Thursday’s UEFA Europa League clash between Celtic and Hamburg in Glasgow may in fact present Tony Mowbray with a battle for European survival, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to him.
The Hoops’ manager knows that his charges face a tough task with last year’s UEFA Cup semifinalist coming to Celtic Park to face a Celtic team that currently sits bottom of Group C, but he’s right to try and downplay the idea that Thursday’s match is a do-or-die situation for his team.
After all, if keeping the morale up in the dressing room isn’t enough of a contributing factor for him, all he would need to do is look across Glasgow at Old Firm rival Rangers and what happened to that club some 48 hours ago. Read the rest of this entry »
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Photo courtesy Stephenh-9287 (via Wikimedia Commons)
The longer St. Mirren goes without registering its first Clydesdale Bank Premier League victory at its new stadium, Buddies fans have to be wondering more and more why their club allowed their old Love Street ground to be sold to the supermarket chain Tesco.
(This, dear readers, is the point where you should try and suspend disbelief, so as to forget that St. Mirren is now largely debt-free because of that sale. Anyway, as I was saying…)
St. Mirren is usually tough to beat at its Paisley home, but since the club moved to its new Tesco-financed abode in Greenhill Road at the end of January (Note: Both the present and former stadium are commonly referred to as St. Mirren Park, so ‘Greenhill’ Road will be used from hereon to avoid needless confusion), the Buddies have yet to win a league match.
There was a lot of hope going into the new campaign that that would change, but St. Mirren were held at home by both Dundee United and St. Johnstone, and manager Gus MacPherson’s Buddies will face another tough task on Saturday with the visit of league-leading Celtic.
The pacesetters bounced back from a tough loss week before last in the UEFA Europa League at Hapoel Tel-Aviv by steamrolling Falkirk 4-0 last time out, and the Hoops will be keen to get another win under their belt before welcoming Rapid Wien to Parkhead on Thursday.
St. Mirren will be banking on Celtic’s first-string squad still being weary from its Europa League defeat in Israel, but even with winger Aiden McGeady out with an ankle injury, Celtic manager Tony Mowbray’s men shouldn’t be low on fresh legs as they try and keep their hosts on Saturday from that long-awaited first win at their new ground.
For information on Saturday’s other action in the SPL – All this weekend’s games in the SPL are on Saturday! Hurrah! – follow along after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo courtesy timsnell's Flickr account
Despite it’s rebranding and rethemeing, the revamped UEFA Europa League will never be as exciting as the UEFA Champions League.
Not that it isn’t trying, of course.
In Monaco, Thursday’s first group draw for the competition since it’s reformating from the old UEFA Cup produced quite a lot of fascinating ties and not much in the way of easy groups. UEFA will be hoping for bigger attendances for the group matches this time around than it had seen in recent years, and with such mouth-watering ties as Panathinaikos against Galatasaray in Group F and Celtic against Hamburg in Group C, getting bigger numbers going through the turnstiles shouldn’t be as big an issue this time around for most matches.
Celtic, Scotland’s only entry in the Europa League group stage, will have a mountain to climb in its group, squaring off with the aforementioned Germans as well as Hapoel Tel-Aviv from Israel and Austrian side Rapid Wien, whom many of our readers will know for having knocked England’s Aston Villa out of the competition in the final qualifying round.
“It’s a tough draw,” Celtic boss Tony Mowbray told Uefa.com. “I saw Hamburg play Manchester City last year and they were a very good, attack-minded side.
“I watched Rapid Vienna put out Aston Villa. To beat a top-six Premier League team shows they are not bad. It’s quite exciting. I’m looking forward to it.”
The full group draw:
Group A: AFC Ajax (NED), RSC Anderlecht (BEL), NK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO), FC Timişoara (ROU)
Group B: Valencia CF (ESP), LOSC Lille Métropole (FRA), SK Slavia Praha (CZE), Genoa CFC (ITA)
Group C: Hamburger SV (GER), Celtic FC (SCO), Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR), SK Rapid Wien (AUT)
Group D: Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR), SC Heerenveen (NED), Hertha BSC Berlin (GER), FK Ventspils (LVA)
Group E: AS Roma (ITA), FC Basel 1893 (SUI), Fulham FC (ENG), PFC CSKA Sofia (BUL)
Group F: Panathinaikos FC (GRE), Galatasaray SK (TUR), FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti (ROU), SK Sturm Graz (AUT)
Group G: Villarreal CF (ESP), S.S. Lazio (ITA), PFC Levski Sofia (BUL), FC Salzburg (AUT)
Group H: FC Steaua Bucureşti (ROU), Fenerbahçe SK (TUR), FC Twente (NED), FC Sheriff (MDA)
Group I: SL Benfica (POR), Everton FC (ENG), AEK Athens FC (GRE), FC BATE Borisov (BLR)
Group J: FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)*, Club Brugge KV (BEL), FK Partizan (SRB), Toulouse FC (FRA)
Group K: PSV Eindhoven (NED, FC København (DEN), AC Sparta Praha (CZE), CFR 1907 Cluj (ROU)
Group L: Werder Bremen (GER), FK Austria Wien (AUT), Athletic Club Bilbao (ESP), CD Nacional (POR)
*-Last season’s UEFA Cup winner
Matthew Semisch
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