I don’t know about you but I’m struggling to contain my excitement about tonight’s game with Norwegian Champions Rosenborg.
It’s always nice to experience something a little different on the European front.
And could anything be more different and exotic than Rosenborg…..from Trondheim……..who we’ve already played four times over the past 13 months?
We could have been running out in the Amsterdam Arena last night as part of the Champions League instead but this is much better.
Though sarcasm aside I am actually pretty happy that we’re in the Europa League this year. Yes, there is a cash benefit to the Champions League group stages that dwarfs anything on offer in the Europa League but outside of that we are literally bringing a blunt knife to a gunfight every year and I take no satisfaction is seeing us slaughtered by near cricket scorelines by the likes of PSG and Barcelona.
Rosenborg themselves are actually going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment.
They have gone 11 games unbeaten since losing to us 3-1 at Celtic Park back on July 25th at Celtic Park.
Six of these have been in the league and five in Europe including one against us – the 0-0 game on their patch – with the other four in Europea league qualifying. It’s also included nine wins from the eleven games with five wins and a draw domestically and four out four in the qualifiers.
They swatted aside Irish Champions Cork City 5-0 on aggregate and then dispatched Macedonian title holders Shkëndija 5-1 over the two legs. So pretty plain sailing there.
In the league, they are currently top of the pile with a two-point advantage over Brann after playing 22 games thus far. If they do retain their domestic crown this year it will be their fourth on the spin. Safe to say they are back to being the all-conquering domestic powerhouse of Norwegian football after a relatively lean patch from 2005 to 2014 where they only won three titles. Previous to that they had claimed 13 in a row.
They are coached by, on an interim basis, for now, Dutchman Rini Coolen. He took over on the eve of our last home game against them after his predecessor KĂĄre Ingebrigtsen, to whom he’d been an assistant, was pretty surprisingly sacked. Ingebrigtsen had led the Rosenborg revival since his appointment in 2014 winning the aforementioned trio of back to back league titles and capturing seven domestic trophies in total. Though in fairness Rosneborg’s pretty imperious form since then would indicate it has been the right call, albeit harsh.
None of Rosenborg’s strikers’ are particularly prolific – indeed none of them are anywhere near the top goalscorers charts in the league so far – but there’s no doubt their star man is Danish internationalist and former Arsenal marksman Nicklas Bendtner. He has 109 career club goals with 30 of them coming in 72 games for his current employers. He was particularly profligate last year with 23 in 43 appearances, however, this season he’s only hit the net 9 times in 23 games. Three of those strikes have come in Europe.
Talk of Bendtner though in regards to tonight’s game could be academic as the word is he’s likely to miss the game through injury.
It should be a tough game what with the run they are on but considering we ran over the top of them the last time they came to Celtic Park with a 3-1 win that was going on 6-1 and now have more games and sharpness in our legs there really is no excuses. As he did in the last home encounter against them French Eddy really must shine and begin to justify his huge club record transfer fee which was just confirmed in the clubs latest accounts.
We’ve not been particularly great this season and indeed since we spanked Rosenborg have had a pretty patchy record from 11 games with only five wins, four draws and two defeats across all competitions. There’s no point in analysing our from though. We’re all acutely aware of it.
A win tonight is vital if we are to retain any genuine hopes of advancement to the last 32. For a start, it’s at home and secondly, it’s against opposition we know we can beat.
Last word on Rosenborg their last match was in the last this past Sunday. They won 3-2 away at Vålerenga who are coached by the one and only Ronny Deila.
Ronny was unlucky. Wasn’t he always?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zviC0upgXDs
....Always A Tim! 