Bodo/Glimt star Elias Hagen has stated that everyone at the club has been left blown away by the atmosphere at Celtic Park last week.
The Norwegian champions will welcome Celtic for their Europa Conference League last-32 second leg tomorrow night at the Aspmyra Stadium. The Hoops will walk out in front of around 5k supporters, a huge change from the 60k they’re used to at Parkhead.
The Hoops fans packed out Paradise to see their team go down 3-1 to Bodo last week in a hugely disappointing night for the football club.
And as they prepare to try and finish the job on us tomorrow night, Bodo/Glimt’s Hagen states that Parkhead’s atmosphere has been the talk of the dressing-room.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, he said: “It was an exciting game and everyone here is talking about the atmosphere in Glasgow. I had never played in front of more than 40,000 fans, which was our game in Italy against Roma, so it was a new experience for me.
“When we played in front of 40,000 fans in Italy, it was a totally different game as you could not communicate with each other. That helped us when we went to Glasgow, I think. You just have to play on your instincts and trust each other.”
Celtic need to adapt well to Bodo/Glimt’s Aspmyra
The truth is, if we’re to somehow manage to still get through this tie given how it’s set up tomorrow night, it would likely be Ange Postecoglou’s biggest achievement at Celtic yet.
The weather is set to be torrential, with storms, rain, and strong gales expected. In addition to that, we’ll be playing on a plastic surface – something Celtic have historically hated playing on.
Bodo have managed to sell out the Aspmyra for tomorrow’s game which should be a big boost for the Norwegians. However, that’s not a particular game-changer in itself. Bodo were hardly fazed by the Parkhead atmosphere last week.
From a Celtic perspective, we’ll of course have one eye on going through. But in reality, it’s just as important to show as good a side to us as possible. We want to see an improvement on what we watched last week even if it doesn’t mean qualifying for the last-16.
Getting any sort of win in Norway tomorrow night would be a morale-booster. With such a heated title race still on the go, all that matters is securing the Premiership title.
But we don’t want morale being deflated before we visit Easter Road on Sunday. A good performance and a second-leg victory would certainly do wonders for belief.
In other news, John Hartson leaps to defence of Celtic star Giorgos Giakoumakis after winding up rivals
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