Our European opponents LASK warmed up for their trip to Glasgow with a thumping win…
Our Champions League playoff opponents LASK warmed up for their midweek visit to Paradise, by winning against SV Ried on Friday evening.
The Austrian Champions, despite finishing with ten men after Midfielder Robert Ljubicic was ordered off on the 74th minute, made it three wins out of three as they thumped the ninth placed Austrian Bundesliga side, and in some style as they fired a warning shot to Celtic ahead of Wednesday night’s clash at Paradise.
Despite falling a goal behind after just nine minutes, Lask levelled just 60 seconds later thanks to a Samuel Adeniran strike. Moses Usor put the home side in front just eight minutes later before American Adeniran struck again just before the half hour mark to make sure LASK went into the interval 3-1 to the good.
LASK made it four just before the hour mark, thanks to a goal from Christoph Lang in a fine dominant performance by the Bundesliga Champions, with the only negative being the dismissal of midfielder Ljubicic who is on loan from AEK Athens.
The Austrians are a well drilled outfit under manager Dietmar Kuhbauer, and have scored nine goals in their first three fixtures, whilst only conceding once, which shows their power up top, complemented by a tight defensive unit.
It’s the Austrian’s fire power that should be a concern to Martin O’Neill, with the likes of powerful attackers Adeniran, and the skilful winger Moses Ulser posing a great threat to the Celtic backline.
LASK’s midfield is also steady and compact with the impressive Sasha Horvath dictating the play in the middle of the park.
At the back LASK also have talented defenders in Colombian Andres Andrade, and Dutchman Xavier Mbuyamba.
The Austrian double winners will prove to be a tough, challenge, but one we should be confident of overcoming due to our own recent form and the new additions to the squad. It is however not going to be easy.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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1 Comment
Our main problem, as I see it, is that the new players brought in may have come too late to really gel with each other and the rest of the team. They will need to hit the ground running.
The loss of Engels in midfield is also a major concern, particularly if we don’t bring in another player to add the steel that we’re now badly missing there.
Johnston’s absence is yet another blow at right back and while Ralston is dependable and will run through brick walls for the team, he’s lacking in games to bring him up to match speed. Young Donovan has the pace to match Johnston but at 19/20 yrs old has proved to be somewhat naive in his defending at times.
That all sounds negative but it’s realistic and we’ll need to be really on our game to beat Lask over the two legs.