Cluj not ruling out Emmanuel Culio return vs Celtic

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Emmanuel Culio’s return to action could still occur on Tuesday night for Cluj against Celtic.

The midfielder has been labeled by Dan Petrescu as the best player in their history (Scottish Sun). Unfortunately for the Romanians, however, he missed the first leg after seemingly picking up a knock in Tel-Aviv.

Cluj made 11 changes to their starting line-up for the 3-0 win over Hermannstadt on Saturday. Despite that, however, Culio still wasn’t one of them as he continued his recovery.

But he still hasn’t been ruled out of contention for tomorrow night either. Speaking to DigiSport, Cluj director Bogdan Mara stated several days ago that they hoped he would be fit for Parkhead.

“We know what awaits us, we know what goes on in their stadium – what an atmosphere they make. But we are a mature team with extraordinary attitude.

“I hope we are inspired. I hope Culio returns, and he is capable of playing. And (he hopes) Dan Petrescu can invent something for us to achieve an extraordinary qualification.”

Culio’s return would provide an added layer of difficulty for Celtic

Culio already has a goal and an assist from centre-midfield this season. It was he who effectively took Cluj through against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, with his goal and assist coming in Israel.

Overall, however, Culio has played 214 times for the Romanian champions, and has bagged 24 goals. He also has 32 assists to his name overall. He was their key man last year too with 32 outings, seven goals, and three assists.

At 35 years of age, Culio is still racking up some fine numbers with Cluj. If he features, the majority of their play will go through him, and it will be down to Callum McGregor and Scott Brown to keep him quiet.

Luis Aurelio took Culio’s place in Romania, but he was non-existent. It will be interesting to see just how differently Cluj play if they have their talisman back in the side.

At the moment, Dan Petrescu has still to rule him in or out of the tie. Preferably for Celtic, he misses out – we could do without that kind of danger available on hand for Cluj.

But we’ll deal the hand we’re given. Even if we are to come up against who Petrescu calls their greatest player ever, it’s still a tie we should be seeing out at Parkhead.