Tonight, and for the second consecutive season, Celtic will face the cream of European Football in the last sixteen of the greatest Club competition in the World!
It is with fear, pride and trepidation that we face up arguably the most famous group of players in the Western Hemisphere. And we fancy our chances!
The fact that we are in a rich vein of form has allowed us to approach this game with a form of cautious bullishness, which has been displayed by Gordon Strachan and his charges in all the pre-match interviews that this game has generated. Well it is now time for the talking to stop, and the action to commence! All of the praise from the Barca camp regarding our support and the quality of McGeady et al is welcome and assists to compound our conviction ahead of the match but we must be sure that our pride does not come before a fall. We should not let our faith become our undoing!
Our home record in this competition is what inspires more faith and tenacity and this is probably more attributable to the legacy of players and staff gone by as it is the current personnel but that does not devalue its importance. Yes Strachan’s charges have had some impressive results at home in this competition but only the Benfica match of last season really lives up to the expectations propagated by dream games such as Juve and Lyon from days gone by. Gaining the scalp of Barcelona would be an impressive addition to an already sumptuous and mighty collection.
We are about to face the mighty Barcelona, who are the only team ever to beat us at home under the current Champions League format and they can also boast a litany of talent that highlights the fact that they are more than capable of repeating that task! We should not read too much into the fact that Barca are enduring a terrible run of form, and the fact that hey have highlighted the champions League as being their only chance at silverware this season makes them all the more dangerous.
Gordon Strachan has a few selection issues to deal with ahead of tonight’s tie. The unavailability of Scott Brown and Andreas Hinkel leaves Strachan with puzzle that is two-fold, - The fact that Paul Hartley is the first choice pick to replace both players makes this riddle a little harder to solve.
So Strachan is left to ponder who to play at right back and which players to use in midfield.
The fact that both Hartley and Donati are more effective in defensive roles must be causing a few ginger headaches so it will be interesting to see how Gordon blends some attacking potency into the personnel at this disposal.
For once though I am not going to try to second-guess the Manager, I am just going to enjoy the atmosphere and the build up without worrying about whether or not Evander Sno is going to start the match!
So enjoy your day Bhoys and Ghirls, and more importantly enjoy the match tonight!
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt