Celtic are set to play their first ever UEFA Europa Conference League game when they welcome Bodo/Glimt to Parkhead. The Hoops were originally in the Europa League but failed to make it past the group stage. It was a valiant effort from Ange Postecoglou’s side though as they had been placed in arguably the toughest group of this season, with Bayer Leverkusen, Real Betis and Ferencvaros. Still, they managed to get 9 points out of a possible 18.
In fact, it was a great performance from Celtic. Real Betis currently sit at third in La Liga while Bayer Leverkusen are third in the Bundesliga, Ferencvaros are top of the Hungarian league.
That is the calibre of opposition that they came up against and almost made it past the group stage. That is a commendable effort for sure. Now though, they will take on Norwegian champions, Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League.
There are still some big teams remaining in the competition and it will be interesting to see how things play out. But Postecoglou is firm in the belief that Celtic are in it to win it. As reported by The National, the manager said:
“What’s the point of rolling up on Thursday night if you don’t think you can win something?
“For me, it’s about constantly exposing our players to this level and playing our football.
“I think you saw it during our group stage [of the Europa League]. We ended up winning three games in a tough group. It’s not like we struggled through it, even though we didn’t get through.
“We saw improvement there. We are in a different competition now, but you look at the calibre of teams left and there are still some fantastic clubs represented. We have a big challenge facing Bodo.
“You play in these things to try and have success. Why miss the opportunity if the opportunity is before you? If we don’t succeed, then we dust ourselves off and go again next year.
“But you don’t enter something to just participate and potentially miss an opportunity to create something.”
UEFA Europa Conference League: Celtic are in it to win it
Celtic have a very tough game coming up against Bodo/Glimt. It would be a huge mistake to take the Norwegian champions lightly. They hold a 6-1 win against AS Roma this season and drew 2-2 against them away in Italy as well.
Thus, if Celtic are able to get past them, especially with a tough away test in Norway in the second leg, the team would have done brilliantly.
But then, there are some huge teams remaining in the competition as well. Leicester City, AS Roma, Rennes, Marseille, PSV, Feyenoord, Fenerbahce and AZ Alkmaar are just a few of them.
This article was originally posted here