Back into Europe, we go and this evening it’s a familiar face in the form of FK Sarajevo.
Last season we dismissed them without much drama 5-2 on aggregate in the 1st Qualifying Round of the Champions League having swept them aside 3-1 on their own patch in the first leg.
Tomorrow night for this one-off Europa League Playoff encounter we are again the travelling side though the encounter won’t be taking place in Sarajevo’s home stadium due to safety concerns and instead will be played at their domestic league rivals NK Čelik Zenica’s Bilino Polje Stadium instead.
Of course with no fans in attendance home advantage isn’t quite what it was in any case but a neutral venue means that Sarajevo will be about as used to the surroundings as we are.
To the team themselves then and they are without a shadow of a doubt the current powerhouses of the Bosnian top flight – which is also known as Liga 12 – having secured back to back league titles.
Last season they were declared champions after 22 games of which they had only lost three and saw them finish on 45 points only three ahead of second-placed FK Željezničar Sarajevo.
Their current boss Vinko Marinović only took over last December after the sacking of Husref Musemić and led the team to three wins and a draw before the season’s early end due to reasons we’re all well aware of.
This term in league action they’ve won six and drawn two with 18 goals scored and 8 conceded so it appears they are playing far riskier football under Marinović than his predecessor under whom they only scored 27 and conceded 15 until his dismissal.
Marinović’s side have conceded two goals during a game in four of their competitive matches this term but as mentioned are scoring far more too.
Striker Benjamin Tatar has really hit the ground running this season with nine goals in eleven starts so far including three in Europe which belittles the total of seven he hit for the whole of the last term.
He actually scored one of those seven at Celtic Park against us in the second leg of the Champs League qualifier last summer and scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Welsh Champions Connah’s Quay Nomads F.C in the first round of the competition this year.
Their star man is generally regarded as being veteran 35-year-old striker Mersudin Ahmetović who has hit double figures in all four of his full seasons at the club and has three so far in this campaign though there are rumours he might not make it due to fitness issues.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
The other players to watch are towering frontman Haris Handžić and English flying machine Matthias Fanimo who has pace to burn.
Having come through the youth development set-up at West Ham Utd he plied his trade in non-league football for years before making the gutsy move to Slovenian second-tier side NK Drava Ptuj in 2017 and scored 19 goals in 29 league games which earned him a move to Bosnian top-flight team FK Mladost Doboj Kakanj in early 2019.
An impressive term there earned him a summer move to the countries premier club and he’s got off to a great start with three goals in ten appearances including the winner in the last round of the Europa League where Sarajevo dismissed Montenegrin Champions FK Budućnost Podgorica 2-1.
So that’s Sarajevo then and clearly they will look to pose a more formidable attacking threat than they did against us last year.
We did go a goal down in the home encounter of that tie but came back to score three and it should have been a lot more truth be told.
Both James Forrest and Albian Ajeti won’t make it through injury but apart from that we have a full complement and it’s safe to say that Odsonne Edouard will be back in the starting line-up with Ryan Christie likely in behind.
I’d like to see David Turnbull start after an impressive second-half showing against Hibs on Sunday but it’s more likely that Neil Lennon will go with tried and tested European players and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ntcham back in midfield with Brown and McGregor whilst Elynoussi is likely to start out left having scored two goals in the last two games including of course the vial winner versus Riga last Thursday.
Any win will do in a one-off game but I think we’d all like to see us keep the momentum going from an excellent performance versus Hibs at the weekend and to move the ball more quickly than we did in our last European encounter where we laboured.
Riga sat in even deeper than most Scottish Premiership sides do and I really hope based on the form they have produced this season that Sarajevo show more ambition which should give us space to play and hopefully win it with something to spare and secure group stage European football for the tenth consecutive season.
....Always A Tim! 