Many Celtic fans have been talking about the latest comments that Neil Lennon has recently made ahead of the club’s Europa League qualifying game against Riga.
Lennon recently talked about Riga and he believes that they’ll be tough to break down for the Hoops and in Kule Mbombo, they have a physically strong centre-forward as well. The Hoops boss also said that their Europa League third qualifying round opponents have ‘good discipline’ in their shape.
A tweet involving these comments from Lennon caught the attention of some Celtic fans. They made their opinion very clear about the upcoming game.
this is a recipe for disaster
— ? (@Muzza88_) September 23, 2020
Will Celtic beat Riga?
Yes
No
I hate to say it but playing at home in Europe has brought its own difficulties for us ?
— David McGill (@DavidMcGill7) September 23, 2020
Absolute certainty that the bold Kule Mbombo will have the game of his life tomorrow https://t.co/rY84WBFKNy
— The Inverclyde Irwin (@InverclydeIrwin) September 23, 2020
Celtic had lost to Ferencvaros in the second qualifying round of the Champions League and it was their earliest Champions League exit in 15 years. As a result, they dropped to the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
Some other Celtic fans linked Mbombo’s involvement to the absence of Christopher Jullien, who will miss the club’s game against Riga because of a back problem. Some Celtic fans believe that Mbombo’s involvement is why Jullien won’t feature in the game.
Very strong physical centre forward, that’s all julien needed to hear before phoning in sick the day of the flight
— steven friel (@stevenfriel91) September 23, 2020
Strong centre forward? Good job Jullien is out then https://t.co/8xNAZ4rVrw
— Dalycfc (@Dalycfc1) September 23, 2020
Physical strong centre forward and Jullien can’t play https://t.co/h7LldLtprg pic.twitter.com/6UhfwfKZMN
— Cian? (@CJH_v2) September 23, 2020
Celtic can certainly draw some inspiration from their Europa League campaign last season. They had beaten Lazio twice in the group stages of the competition. They had also beaten Rennes and had also beaten Cluj, who had knocked them out of the UEFA Champions League qualifying stages last season (via Transfermarkt).
So while some Celtic fans aren’t too confident about beating Riga, their performances in the Europa League last season were not too bad at all. So they can only hope that the Hoops can replicate their performances from last season and beat Riga to progress further in the competition.