Celtic winning in Bologna will be tough, but not impossible

Celtic’s incentive in winning the game is clear. We’ll be just about there as far as the playoffs are concerned and can make sure at home to Utrecht who have had a wretched campaign, on the closing night of the group stages a week on Thursday.

It won’t be easy of course, as the Serie A club are a quality side, but we can take heart and confidence from our last away performance in this competition, which saw us triumph in Rotterdam against Feyenoord after a terrific professional performance.

It was a different story last time out in Europe’s secondary competition, as we were well and truly humbled by Bologna’s fellow Italian side Roma at Celtic Park. However that loss was under the inept leadership of Wilfred Nancy, so this time out we should face the game with a different approach, be more tactically aware, and more up for the challenge, that you can guarantee.

We’ve not exactly been firing on all cylinders recently, but since the return of Martin O’Neill, he’s steadied the sinking ship as we’ve won three out three games, and all without conceding a goal. The difference in the squad under the Irishman compared to that of Nancy (a world class appointment by Michael Nicholson and recommended by Paul Tisdale) is night and day.

Our Italian opponents are not exactly on a good run themselves at the moment, and fell to a home defeat at the hands of Fiorentina on Saturday, meaning that they have only been victorious twice in their last eight outings, with one of those coming via a penalty shootout.

It will undoubtedly be a tough test, but one we are more than capable of overcoming. A draw wouldn’t be the worst outcome, but a win is what Martin O’Neill should be targeting. There really isn’t any reason why we can’t, we just have to believe, and perform the way we did in Rotterdam.

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