Celtic returned to action for the first time since last Tuesday’s calamitous Champions League exit to Cluj on Saturday afternoon and were given what looked like on paper to be the pretty simple task of dismissing Championship side Dunfermline Athletic in the second round of this year’s League Cup.
In reality, said task proved to be anything but.
Dunfermline under Stevie Crawford were competitive, tenacious and well organised and proved a hard nut to crack.
Celtic, on the other hand, looked weary and even a little dispirited which was perhaps to be expected considering the events of their last game on the very same pitch only four days previously.
We dominated the possession but with the visitors placing ten men behind the ball, it was hard to open them up.
Callum McGregor returned to his usual position in midfield and big-money summer signings Christopher Jullien and Boli Bolingoli -synonymous by their absence from the starting line-up on Tuesday – also both got starts.
Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard were also both started in a rare two-pronged attack.
But all these seemingly positive changes failed to provide much if any inspiration and only served to add more fuel to the fire over concerns regarding our new signings with Boli once again looking ineffective and Jullien looking rusty.
Indeed our new ÂŁ7 million centres back had all he could handle and then some in the shape of the Fifers 22-year-old striker Kevin Nisbet, a summer signing from Raith Rovers.
Nesbit scored an impressive 34 goals in 46 games for Raith last season before getting his big move to the Pars and has hit the ground running with six goals in five games coming into this one.
With frustration growing around the stadium as Celtic failed to open the scoring – partially due to a lot of asinine play but also due to an at times inspired display from Pars keeper Ryan Scully – Mikey Johnston stepped up and put us ahead on 55 minutes thanks to a cross come shot that whistled straight into the top left-hand corner of the helpless Scully’s goals.
Thereafter you figured it would be a turkey shoot but Celtic continued to labour and were punished on 77 minutes when substitute Andy Ryan rampaged to the byline and cut back for Tom Beadling to equalise with a lovely right-foot finish inside the box.
As the game entered extra time you began to fear the worse. Celtic have won their last 27 consecutive domestic cup games but under Neil Lennon, in his first period as manager the League Cup had proven a perennial banana skin with final defeats to Rangers and Kilmarnock not to mention a semi-final exit to St.Mirren and a home early rounds elimination to second-tier Greenock Morton back in 2013.
Would this be another one to add to the collection?
Thankfully not as James Forrest cut onto his right foot just inside the box and his shot was deflected past the despairing Scully for the winner with only six minutes of extra time left.
After the match, Neil Lennon took to the filed and rounded up the team for some sort of post-game huddle pep talk.
Hopefully, whatever he said does the job as the team will need to find extra gears and a new sense of purpose to get past the oncoming challenge of Swedish Champions AIK Stockholm on Thursday night when they visit Celtic Park in the Europa League play-off.
Whilst exiting the Champions League is always disappointing the truth be told that despite its inferior financial riches the Europa League provides for more beatable opposition and realistic chances of progression.
Last season we finished runners up in our group with nine points from six games having scored six goals and conceded eight for a goal difference of -2.
The previous two seasons in the Champions League had seen us ammas only six points from a total of twelve games with ten goals scored and a rather shocking 34 goals conceded for a catastrophic goal difference of -24.
So the difference in quality and our ability to compete is pretty clear.
Now for the opposition and their actual name is AIK Fotboll and they’ve been on the go since 1891 collecting 12 Swedish League Championships and 6 National Cups in the process with no European honours to date.
Their victory in the 2018 Allsvenskan was their first league title in nine years and was won by a whisker as they accrued 67 points from 30 games, only two more than runners up IFK Norrköping.
AIK lost only one league game last season, winning 19 and drawing 10 with 50 goals scored and only 16 conceded. They lost no home games all season domestically though struggled past Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers 2-1 on aggregate in the 1st Qualifying round of the Europa League before suffering a 2nd round elimination at the hands of Danish side FC Nordsjælland who beat them 1-0 in both legs for a 2-0 aggregate victory.Â
Their manager is 48-year-old Rikard Norling who is in his second spell in charge of the club having taken over the reins again in 2016. His first tenure was between 2004-2008.
He began his coaching career aged only 22 after an injury put paid to his playing career and has also led Malmö FF to the Swedish title in 2013. He’s only suffered 19 defeats in 140 games as AIK manager since his return three years ago and has a 60% win ratio.
So far this season AIK have played more expansive football compared to last seasons rather conservative approach.
They’ve scored 30 goals in 21 league games though have already conceded 17 – already one more than their total for last term – and sit third on 40 points just one point behind second-placed Malmö FF and four behind leaders DjurgĂĄrdens IF.
They’ve also lost five games already this term – compared to only one last – though before the weekend had won their last five straight, scoring 12 in the process and had only conceded 2 in a run which has seen them totally reignite their previously fading title retention aspirations. That unbeaten run came crashing down yesterday though as they lost 2-1 at home to lowly Kalmar FF.
| They have suffered a semi-final national cup loss which mirrors their result in that competition from last season but that was back in March. |
In Europe, it’s been a mixed bag.
In the Champions League 1st Qualifying round last month they struggled past Armenian minnows FC Ararat-Armenia 4-3 on aggregate rescuing a 2-1 away defeat with a 3-1 home victory which saw all three of their goals come in the second half before conceding in the last 13 minutes and having to hold on for dear life in the dying embers.
In the 2nd Qualifying round they were eliminated by Slovenian Champions Maribor on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate draw. Having lost 2-1 away in the first leg the second leg went to extra time where Tarik Elyounoussi put them ahead before Alexandru Crețu scored for visitors to make it 3-2 on the night and ultimately eliminate the Swedes with a goal three minutes before the final whistle.
In the 3rd Qualifying round of the Europea League, they struggled past FC Sheriff Tiraspol of Moldova 3-2 aggregate. Having won the first leg away 2-1 they looked on easy street thanks to a strike by Nabil Bahoui on the hour mark but Sheriff scored with only minutes to go to see AIK slip through by the skin of their teeth.
They haven’t actually made the group stages of the Europa League since 2012 – where they finished bottom – and have no real significant European history to speak of. Indeed eliminating us would arguably go down as the best European result in their history.
In terms of players to watch out for their captain is striker Henok Goitom of Eritrean extraction and he has 78 goals in 215 games over two spells at the club with 13 in 40 games last season and seven from 30 games this term. At 6’2 he’s a handful.
Him aside the other big goal threat is the previously mentioned Tarik Elyounoussi. A nippy striker at 5’8 the 31-year-old has 55 caps and 10 goals for Norway and 21 goals in 55 games for AIK as well as 110 career club goals overall. He’ll be suspended for the Thursday night game though should return the following week. He’s also been pretty vocal dismissing the quality of the Scottish league though at #20 it currently sits two places higher than the Swedish league in the UEFA European league coefficient table so he might want to wind his neck in a little on that.
At the back Per Karlsson has notched up 340 appearances for AIK since making his debut in 2003 and veteran Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson arrived home last year having spent his entire career in English football and has an incredible 113 caps for his country.
So that’s pretty much the whole picture.
They aren’t gimmies by any means but also aren’t really anything to be afraid of either. They’ll come to camp in and try and get the home crowd on the teams back. So we’ll need to come out of the blocks and hit them hard and fast. Hopefully, McGregor is back in midfield and Lenny keeps the formation simple. As for Jullien and Boli getting starts truth be told neither has done themselves any favours after Saturday’s display.
We really will need at least a 2-0 scoreline to take over there considering our history away in Europe so that final score has to be the minimum aim.
Fingers crossed.
....Always A Tim! 