CELTIC WILL BENEFIT

Celtic will certainly benefit from the winter break according to the manager Neil Lennon. Celtic have so far had a busy first half of the season. Not only have they had to contend with the league fixtures, but also the Champions League group stages as well. They have also progressed to the last 16 stage of the European competitions that will resume its action in February. Due to the fact that they will be facing one of the heavyweights in the form of Juventus, Celtic certainly welcome this break according to Lennon.

The former Celtic player revealed that the club will be taking the players to a training camp in Marbella. Celtic have already played more than 30 matches this season, while the tally is expected to cross 60 by the end of the season. This is due to the progression in a number of cup competitions. The season started with the Champions League qualifying match against HJK Helsinki back in the first week of August, and Celtic have been going non-stop since then. The club are the favourites to lift the Scottish Premier league title due to their hugely impressive nine-point advantage at the top of the table over the second placed Inverness.

“We’re Looking forward to the break. The players are into the mid-30s in terms of games, so it is coming at a good time for everyone. It will give the players a chance to refresh themselves mentally and give their bodies a rest for a week. We’re going to Spain for a week’s training and hopefully a bounce game at the end of it. Then we’ll come back and do a mini pre-season training camp and get ready to go again,” said Lennon. Celtic will be resuming the action in the second week of January against Heart of Midlothian.

DRAW DISMISSED

The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has dismissed suggestions that he feels that the 1-1 draw with Arbroath will have a significant effect when the team takes on Spartak Moscow at Celtic Park in the Champions League. Celtic were coming into the match against Arbroath in the Scottish cup fourth-round replay looking to banish memories of the first match. However, they were held to a 1-1 draw with the minnows from the second division, which has once again increased the pressure on the manager. Celtic were on course to record a 1-0 win over the team, but Arbroath scored in the match with just 4 min remaining on the clock.

Neil Lennon made significant changes to the starting line-up for this match, but still, they were expected to win the match without any major incidents. This draw comes as a shock to the players, fans, and the manager. However, Lennon has said that he feels that this match will have no influence on the midweek encounter with Spartak Moscow. The Ukrainian team will have no opportunity to qualify for the next round of the Champions League, but Celtic come with a need of three points in order to progress after having lost the previous match.

“It will have absolutely no bearing on Wednesday whatsoever. It will be a different team, a different opposition, a different atmosphere and a different prize at the end of it so the players will be fully focused and I am hoping to get a different scoreline. You always feel that at 1-0 anything can happen and it did. We have missed a hatfull of chances to see the game off but we are still in the competition,” said the Celtic manager, who is coming under increasing pressure following a recent run of poor results in the league and Europe.

LENNON SLAMS PLAYERS

The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has criticised the players after the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Kilmarnock during the weekend. Celtic are coming into the match on the back of the huge moral boosting defeat against Barcelona in the Champions League. Even though it was a defeat, the 2-1 scoreline did not tell the whole story of the match. Celtic were extremely good against Barcelona throughout the match, but they were beaten by extremely soft goals from the Spanish club. They were coming into the match on the back of the 3-2 away victory over Spartak Moscow – their first in the competition.

Even after the defeat, Celtic have four points from the opening three matches and stand the chance of qualifying for the last 16 stage if the results go according to plan in the last three matches. However, they did not concentrate well during the weekend against Kilmarnock and were the beaten 2-0. The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said that this result is a reality check for the team and that they should not take their opponents lightly. Lennon said that he was not satisfied with the amount of chances the team created against Kilmarnock.

“We’ve been brought back down to earth with a big bump. Second half, we created some decent chances, but not enough, and we’ve come away with a massive dose of reality. But I take responsibility. I picked the team, so the buck stops with me. We tried to freshen it up, but we were poor. There was no fluidity in our play, there was no aggression in our play, we were very passive,” said the manager after the match. The club will be playing against St Johnstone in the league cup in the midweek action, and will be hoping to bounce back from this defeat.

NO EASY TASK

The Celtic manager Neil Lennon has said that it certainly will not be an easy task for the Scottish club to get past the group stages of the Champions League. Celtic have been drawn in the same group containing the likes of Spartak Moscow and Barcelona, while the Portuguese club Benfica also will play against Neil Lennon’s men. Obviously, one of the biggest challenge for Celtic in this group stage will be facing Barcelona twice. However, the manager Neil Lennon has said that the clubs like Benfica and Spartak Moscow should also be not discounted.

It has been four seasons since Celtic last made it into the group stages of the Champions League. This appearance in the group stages will earn Celtic around £ 30 million, which will be going a long way into addressing the debt issues. There has been a talk that Benfica will be weakened a lot following the sale of two important players in the last few days of the transfer window. They recently sold the midfielder Axel Witsel to the Russian club Zenit St Petersburg for around £ 32 million, while the defensive midfielder Javi Garcia was sold to Manchester city for £ 16 million.

“They sold two players in the window, Garcia went to Man City, and the other player went for a lot of money as well. They still have a very strong squad, though. They may be weakened by those sales but they are still a formidable opponent. We are going to take one step at a time so our focus will be Benfica. We had them watched at the weekend because they are our first opponents and they won 3-0 against Nacional at home,” said Neil Lennon ahead of the start of the group stages. Lennon has said that he hopes his players don’t get injured on international duty.

Want to win a Pepe Reina signed photo? Send us your score prediction for the next match via twitter, and you might win! 🙂