I’ve been in my sick bed these past ten days and was only able to watch bits of the weekends match on my phone from said bed as I drifted in and out of sleep.
The juggernaut of form we’ve been on came to an end but getting a favourable result was still achieved against a robust and determined Aberdeen team clearly emboldened by gaining their first win since returning from the winter break via their midweek hammering of Hamilton Accies which had put them back up to 3rd spot.
On a windy day, Odsonne Edouard struggled to get much change out of the Dons backline but he still played a pivotal part in both goals with Callum McGregor and Kristofer Ajer providing the goods in a 2-1 win and the latter’s goal was a clinical finish that any top striker would have been proud of.
The Dons clearly had a point to prove having been hammered 4-0 the last time we were up there and prove it they did with easily our toughest game since returning to action last month.
Victory keeps us ten points clear of Rangers who toiled to a 1-0 win later in the day at home to Livingston and with only eleven league games to go now the end isn’t too far in sight.
But now we take a break from league action and return to the European fold.
It’s been a long wait – our last European game against Cluj was way back on the 12th of the December – but finally, it’s here and we travel to the Danish capital tomorrow with hopes justifiably high.
Let’s be honest when the draw was made we all fancied out chances and with good reason as Copenhagen are hardly one of Europe’s thoroughbreds.
Formed only 27 years ago after the merger of local clubs Kjøbenhavns Boldklub and Boldklubben they’ve achieved unprecedented success capturing 13 league championships and 8 national cups meaning that in their short history they’ve already become the countries most successful outfit.
The current reigning champions they’ve won three out of the last four domestic championships though are struggling to keep up with current league leaders FC Midtjylland who currently have a seven-point advantage after 21 games.
Indeed they only pipped Midtjylland by a solitary point to the title last season and suffered a 4-1 thrashing at their ground back in November.
Midtjylland, by the way, were hammered 7-3 on aggregate by Rangers in the Europa League qualifying rounds this season so aren’t exactly world-beaters themselves.
Tomorrow nights hosts have just returned from a two-month winter break and lost 1-0 at second-bottom Esbjerg at the weekend.
Added to that in a bizarre move they’ve also just punted their star striker, Cypriot intentionalist Pieros Sotiriou for £4 million to Astana which their veteran manager Ståle Solbakken has admitted: “isn’t ideal.”
You could say that again.
With thirteen goals in all competitions, three of which have been in Europe, he was their main marksman
Back in the summer, they brought in over £25 million thanks to the sale of stars such as Finnish internationalist goalkeeper Jesse Joronen, Danish internationalist winger Robert Skov and Slovakian internationalist centre back Denis Vavro though they did invest quite heavily too with millions spent on the likes of Danish under-21 internationalist defender Victor Nelsson, Uruguayan striker Michael Santos and Spanish playmaker Pel Biel for £4.5 million from Real Zaragoza.
They also brought in two pretty recognisable names in former Everton and Sunderland midfielder Bryan Oviedo and veteran striker Nicklas Bendtner who we’ve been up against before in a Rosenborg shirt. Neither has made much impact on the first team though.
In recent weeks they’ve just dropped £2.5 million on young Aalborg striker Mikkel Kaufmann – he was originally meant to arrive this summer but after recent events was brought in earlier – and veteran Sengelelese striker Dame N’Doye is in his second spell and has 120 goals in 206 games for Copenhagen including nine in fifteen this term so they still are well-served upfront.
In Europe this season they struggled past Welch champs The New Saints F.C. 3-0 on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers before being eliminated on penalties by Red Star Belgrade and then triumphed 3-2 on aggregate against Estonian side Riga in the Europa League play-offs.
Suffering only one defeat in six games they emerged from their group alongside Sweden’s Malmo eliminating Switzerland’s Lugano and Ukraine’s Dynamo Kyiv in the process and they are unbeaten in all six of their home European ties this season with three wins and three draws.
This is their fourth appearance in the Last 32 of the Europa League having never been beyond it though they did make it to the Last 16 of the Champions League back in 2011.
We met them in the Champions League group stages back in 2006 with a Kenny Miller penalty giving us a 1-0 victory at Celtic Park and setting us up for a successful campaign. They did win the reverse fixture 3-1 back when we couldn’t buy an away win in Europe though we had already progressed from the group by that stage so there was nothing at stake. Still, it didn’t stop me being pissed off watching it at the time up in the Sports Cafe on Sauchiehall Street. Ah, memories.
Manager Ståle Solbakken is in his second reign as manager having originally been in charge between 2006-2011 before brief unsuccessful spells in Germany and then England which saw him return to the Danish capital in 2013.
In his time at the club, he’s won 8 Danish titles and four cups and has also overseen all of their best European runs.
Their home ground is the rather impressive Parken Stadium that holds around 38,000, has a retractable roof and is also used by the Danish national team.
With excellent facilities and views, it can generate quite an atmosphere so it should be a fabulous experience for our likely vast travelling support.
So that’s FC Copenhagen then.
Safe to say a pretty capable outfit though struggling at the moment domestically by their high standards and they’ve just sold one of their best players.
I don’t expect it to be easy by any means but this is a very winnable tie and we really are the team in form and also not looking to find full match sharpness after a long lay-off.
In recent weeks we’ve regularly deployed a new 3-5-2 formation with Griffiths and Edouard upfront and as refreshing and at times exhilarating it’s been to watch, delivering great results into the bargain, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll be going with that on the road in Europe.
Instead, I think we’ll revert to a standard 4-5-1 with Christie likely coming into midfield alongside Ntcham, Brown, and McGregor with Forrest on the right flank and Edouard in the lone striker role.
I’ll be looking for a score draw here but to be honest I’m genuinely optimistic that we’ll go one better and actually win the match.
My mantra with us away in Europe is usually always ‘hope for the best, expect the worst‘ which considering some our historical away day calamities is completely justified.
But with our impressive achievements thus far in continental competition – especially on the road – not to mention our imperious recent domestic form since returning from the winter break I think it’s not unreasonable to go over there with genuine confidence and belief.
I mean if we can conquer Rome then why not Copenhagen right?
Fingers crossed.
Oh and here are Sunday’s match highlights in case you missed them.
....Always A Tim! 