Hungarian pundit and former Ferencvaros defender Andras Telek has gone on a bit of a rant after watching his team lose to Celtic at Parkhead on Tuesday.
Peter Stoger’s side managed to stifle the Hoops in the opening 45 of their Europa League group stage match in Glasgow. But when Celtic upped the tempo in the second half, the Hungarian champions couldn’t live with us. As well as the 2 goals scored, huge chances were missed through Callum McGregor, David Turnbull, and Jota respectively.
It was a bruising afternoon for Ferencvaros, who still sit at the bottom of the Europa League group with 0 points. Celtic, meanwhile, are only 3 points off the pace in the race for last-32 qualification.
And Telek has stated that Celtic are more than beatable as he used some rather extreme and bizarre language to call out the Ferencvaros performance.
As quoted by Borsonline, the former Hungary international said: “I don’t think Celtic offered too much, but unfortunately that little bit was enough to leave the field with our heads down. The first half might have been acceptable, we could have even figured it out if Mmaee was a little smarter in the start of the game.
“Admittedly, the Scots now seem like a better team. They’re faster and braver. And, they can also score a goal, which cannot be said of us. It is always the coach who decides what his team should play. However, I don’t really understand why I didn’t even see our players donate their blood for success. The guys should have been fired up during the break, not content with 0-0. I have to say, we are simply weak, but this was already felt during the fiasco against ZTE [on Saturday]
“We can only play better on November 4th. I am convinced that we will defeat the Scots, and maybe then we can still pinch third place in the group. You have to play football more imaginatively, more militantly, as the Franciscan crowd expects that from Peter Stoger’s team. True, this requires a lot more work for everyone.”
Celtic blow Ferencvaros away; not everyone appears convinced
That scoreline could’ve been whatever Celtic wanted it to be on Tuesday. The Hoops managed to tire Ferencvaros out in the opening 45 minutes and then the chances started flowing from there onwards. At the end of the day, nobody can complain about the result.
If anything, our opponents got away with only losing 2-0. It should’ve been a lot more convincing. Apparently, however, it wasn’t enough to overly impress Telek, who feels we don’t have much about us.
Sure, you can slam the Ferencvaros manager for their approach to the game. After all, they looked in awe of Celtic at times and fearful of being overrun in the game. It’s why they set themselves up so negatively after all. But the fact is they were just beaten by the better quality.
It will indeed be a different game in Hungary. The challenge of playing away from home in Europe always offers stiffer tests. It doesn’t matter where you go, an away game in Europe can never be taken for granted. And Ferencvaros won’t be any different.
The contest will be the final opportunity for our UEL rivals to try and stake a claim for last-32 qualification. And also likely their last chance to put themselves into contention for 3rd place too and a parachute drop into the Conference League.
But there’s only one team coming out of Tuesday with the right to feel confident. Regardless of what Telek says, we’re huge favourites to do the business in Hungary once more.
In other news, Brazilian Report: Celtic considering January move for Fernando Henrique
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