Bodo/Glimt manager Kjetil Knutsen has admitted that his team failed to see the game out comfortably last week and believes it’s imperative they defend well against Celtic tomorrow.
Bodo took a 3-1 win from Celtic Park last Thursday night in an impressive display that now has them favourites. However, despite having a 2-0 lead and crusing, the Hoops did force a goal through Daizen Maeda. Bodo hit back immediately, but it was a promising sign that Celtic were able to break through them.
In the end, the task tomorrow night remains an extremely difficult one. Celtic have to win by 3 clear goals to go through. The only other route would be a victory by 2 and a penalty shootout success.
Yet even though the Norwegian champions are now in total control of the tie, Knutsen has still highlighted the mistakes they made at Parkhead.
As quoted by Norwegian outlet TV2, Knutsen said: “It’s our culture. Our focus on achievement and development helps us in such struggles. We never talk about matches that have been beyond what we can learn from them. It does something to our entrance mentally in terms of being able to reset.
“The important thing against this team is to defend themselves smartly. They want us to open rooms, and I felt in the previous match that we defended well, but that we gave away too much room towards the end.
“We have recovered on artificial turf, and trained a completely normal week towards this match.”
Celtic weren’t able to take advantage of Bodo/Glimt frailties
There weren’t many, but Bodo/Glimt did seem to give us more joy as the second half wore on. Perhaps that was down to superior fitness levels on our part. But the issue there was that it became very clear very quickly that we had no real clue how to break them down.
They were, for the most part, well organised and cleared every cross-ball we put into their penalty area. However, there were times in the closing stages, particularly after Giorgos Giakoumakis came on, that we were getting much more in their faces.
When we got a bit more physical with them, we had some penalty box opportunities that we simply couldn’t seize upon. Whether that be down to poor ball control or an inaccurate final ball, we still made poor mistakes despite Bodo opening the door a touch.
It’s clear that Knutsen isn’t totally happy with what went on in Glasgow last week though. Bodo/Glimt are anything but perfect, especially when you consider what stage of the season they’re actually in. Their league campaign has still yet to get underway.
We still have so much to prove tomorrow afternoon. That much is clear. We didn’t do anywhere near enough to hurt the Norwegian champions when we did get into good areas.
Let’s see if that changes tomorrow.
In other news, Callum McGregor states Celtic haven’t trained in away stadiums “for years”
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