FC Copenhagen’s results this season may be lukewarm, but there is one aspect to their game that Celtic must be wary of – their goals.
As it stands, Copenhagen are the joint top scorers in Denmark with 37 goals in 20 league matches. However, even more impressive is the fact that they’ve only failed to score in four of 34 competitive games this season.
The first leg of our Europa League last-32 tie with the Danish champions will be away from home. In 17 games there this season, Copenhagen have only fired blanks on two occasions. That’s quite the record to have at this stage of the season, and it’s clear to see why they managed to qualify.
It’s fair to say they’ve brought their goalscoring form into Europe too. Copenhagen have managed to score in 10 of their 12 European matches this season including qualifiers.
Then again, you could also twist it and say that, in all six of their Europa League games this season, they haven’t managed to score more than one goal in a single game.
A consistent stream of goals
There appears to be a consistency in Copenhagen’s goalscoring. They seem to do it in near enough every match, but they struggle to rack up scores of three goals or more. In fact, over the course of their 34 games, they’ve only managed to win by three or more on two occasions. There’s no reason to believe we’ll have an uphill task at Parkhead in the second leg.
Celtic won’t be fearing them whatsoever. Our own goal return is ridiculous for this stage in the season. Neil Lennon’s Hoops have played 34 games like Copenhagen. However, we’ve managed to rack up a total of 90 goals. That’s 35 more than what our last-32 rivals have managed this season.
Pieros Sotiriou is the club’s top scorer with 13 goals. Behind him sits the likes of Dame N’Doye and Michael Santos (Transfermarkt).
They seem to have a string of goal threats throughout their squad. Celtic, despite our clear superiority, can’t underestimate what Copenhagen will bring to the table.
Yes, we may be favourites and yes we do have the better attack-minded players. But Copenhagen know where the net is, and rarely seem to go through a game without scoring.
Hopefully they have a rare blank day when Celtic come to town in February.
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