It shouldn’t be understated that Celtic stand on the brink of a new bit of club history.
While we’ve qualified for multiple knockout stages in previous European competitions, we’ve never finished top of a group in either the Champions League or Europa League.
That’s what is at stake this Thursday when Ligue 1 side Rennes visit Celtic Park.
Victory in that match, coupled with a Lazio win over Cluj in Rome, would mean we head into the Round of 32 as group winners. With that comes an extra financial bonus and seeding status for the draw.
It’s a massive opportunity and thankfully Rennes arrive suffering a pretty poor season, with one big weakness in their European efforts so far.
Poor in attack
Rennes’ inability to punish the opposition is what’s cost them the chance to compete in the latter stages of the competition. In fact, they’ve only scored two goals throughout the group so far.
Only four teams in the group stages have netted less than them.
It’s important to consider as well that their effort against us resulted from a pretty bad mistake from Kristoffer Ajer, who hauled M’Baye Niang down in the box in a moment of madness.
We really should have beaten them on their patch.
As they head to Celtic Park, their toothless attack is a major weakness. In all competitions this season they’ve only netted 19 times, while Lennon’s Hoops have already blasted past the 80 landmark.
Obviously, we can’t become complacent. I doubt Lennon is feeding this kind of information to the players. He’ll want his team aggressive and on the front foot from the off.
If the form book stays true though, we should have more than enough to pick up the win, with all eyes on Rome to see how Cluj got on.
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