UEFA Cup Third Round
Thursday 26th February 2004
Celtic Park
Kick Off 7.45pm, Live on Setanta
Celtic's UEFA Cup campaign for this season begins with the relatively unknown prospect of Czech side FK Teplice, in the third round of the competition.
Teplice arrive in Glasgow tomorrow, with most of the Celtic support wondering what they will bring. There are under 30 Teplice fans travelling to the game, but unlike their support, the team travel well.
Teplice have reached the current round of the UEFA Cup by knocking out Feyenoord and German side Kaiserslautern, both of whom underestimated the Czechs. Defeating these two sides in their own grounds is something which many high profile European clubs would fail to achieve, but the underdogs, Teplice, came through.
From what we hear, Teplice have sold their two frontmen - the men who caused the damage in the previous rounds of the UEFA Cup, but have drafted in two new strikers - one of which played for a certain Viktoria Zizkov!
Their recent results have not been the greatest, they drew 0-0 at home at the weekend and currently lie in 10th position, in a 16-team league. Viktoria Zizkov are second bottom.
Teplice are sure to admire Celtic's run of 24 unbeaten league games, they sent scouts to our two recent league games against Dundee United and Partick Thistle. I believe they will replicate Dundee United's tactics from two weeks ago - shut up shop and counter attack against us. This is not the most ideal style of play to compete against, but Celts are well capable of picking teams off.
Both Didier Agathe and John Hartson returned to training today, but Celtic boss Martin O'Neill spoke at the weekend, saying that the game will come too soon for Hartson. Agathe should start the game, as his rest on Sunday was merely a precaution.
If Celtic are to avoid the same result of Rangers' performance against Czech opposition, we cannont afford to underestimate the opposition. Teplice will come out to frustrate us, but if the crowd get behind the team and we can get a couple of goals in, we should be comfortable enough to travel to Prague with confidence next week.
Enjoy the game.
Celtic-Mad Prediction: Celtic 2-0 FK Teplice