Football

Neil Lennon wary of Romanians’ threat in Champions League qualifier


Celtic’s manager, Neil Lennon, feels there are plenty of areas his team can exploit in theTuesday’s Champions League second leg against Cluj after they drew 1-1 in the first leg in Romania.

James Forrest’s first-half equaliser shifted the balance of the third qualifying-round tie in Celtic’s favour and the Scottish champions continued their free-scoring start to the season with a 5-2 win at Motherwell on Saturday to make it 12 goals in two Premiership games, on top of the 12 they scored in the first two rounds in Europe. Lennon will look to unleash their attacking arsenal on Cluj on Tuesday night.

“They are a big, strong team, they have good pace in certain areas and they are direct,” Lennon said when asked if he expected a physical encounter. “They are a threat at set-plays. I don’t think it’s going to be over-physical, it wasn’t in Romania. There was plenty in the game in the first leg to suggest we could hurt Cluj in certain areas, so that’s what we will be trying to do.”

But Lennon added: “Cluj will be hungry. You can see from some of the soundbites coming from them what the game means to them as well. We have to match that hunger and earn the right to play and then really play with purpose and a forcefulness.”

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

Some Cluj players have claimed it would be a “miracle” if they qualify and the manager, Dan Petrescu, has been quoted as saying Celtic normally get an extra 10% of decisions from referees when they play at home in the Champions League.

Lennon said: “I just ignore it because we have had our fair share of decisions go against us in Europe over the years. I thought the referee was excellent in the first leg. I have no complaints over any of the refereeing performances we have seen so far and I don’t think there is any bias from referees either.”



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.