Neil Lennon has given an indication of the tactics he will employ in Thursday’s Europa League return leg in Sweden.
Celtic travel to face AIK, holding a 2-0 advantage from last week’s clash in Glasgow. That means that a win, draw or narrow defeat will do the job for the Hoops on the outskirts of Stockholm.
But as they target a place in the 48-team Europa League group stage, Lennon insists it is the former that he and the players will be striving for.
“We have a good lead, but that can be eaten up very quickly and psychologically the tie can change,” he told the Scottish Sun.
“It’s important we start the game well. If we can get control of the game, even better.
“I would imagine AIK will be a little bit more aggressive in their play than they were at Celtic Park. But that may play into our hands a little bit.
“There are goals in us. If we get one Stockholm have a mountain to climb really. That would be the objective, to try and score at any time.
“It might take patience, but we will try and approach the game in the same way and keep the momentum going.”
Lennon will have to get tactics spot on in Sweden
Lennon and Celtic face two very different challenges in different competitions over the next few days. However, they will arguably come up against a similar style on both occasions.
At both the Friends Arena and Ibrox, the Hoops are likely to face opposition that will put them under the cosh in the early stages. AIK were pretty passive in last week’s first leg and they will almost certainly try to unsettle us from the off in Sweden.
If we can withstand the opening barrage then we should be able to control the game and pick them off on the counter attack. However, if we do lose an early goal then things could get very tricky, very quickly in front of a raucous home support.
The same is likely to apply for Ibrox on Sunday too. Just like the past two derbies, Rangers will try to come at us in the early stages and get the crowd behind them. They scored after less than two minutes in May’s meeting and we never fully recovered as a result.
A similar start on Sunday would be absolutely disastrous.
The team have two massive physical and mental tests ahead of them before the international break. It truly is time to find out what they’re made of.
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