Ferencvaros have suffered a surprise defeat at home to mid-table Zalaegerszegi TE this weekend as they prepare to face Celtic on Tuesday afternoon.
The Hungarians had won six league matches in a row prior to the 2-1 loss yesterday and had fully expected to pick up another three points for their title charge.
However, two early goals from Nikola Serafimov and Mark Kostza had them up against it and there was no grand comeback in the second half.
Ferencvaros boss Peter Stoger admitted his disappointment after the match, also referencing the strength of the Celtic attack he’ll face in just a couple of days time.
As quoted by The Daily Record, he said: “We knew that we could expect crosses from Zalaegerszegi and there are two solutions – you either prevent them or defend against them but we didn’t do either consistently.
“On Tuesday, a lot of similar situations await us against Celtic, the task is to better defend against such balls and find consistency.
“We also had opportunities, good chances, and even penalties but we couldn’t take them. We were also a bit unlucky, I could see that the boys were doing everything they could to win, but we’re still disappointed.”
Like Celtic, Ferencvaros have suffered two defeats from their opening two group games in the Europa League. However, they did compete well away to Bayer Leverkusen on matchday one, losing 2-1 after taking the lead.
Tuesday’s match will be far from easy but it does represent Celtic’s best chance to pick up serious points in the group.
Qualification for the knockout stages of the Europa League looks beyond us at this point but we can certainly secure third place with a couple of good results against the Hungarians. That would be enough to drop into the Europa Conference League and play exciting matches in 2022.
We need to show we have the quality to compete at that level this week.
In other news, Disappointment for Celtic as they miss chance to pressure SWPL title rivals.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
