Celtic face Swedish side AIK Solna in the Europa League playoff round on Thursday. Their striker Tarik Elyounoussi says that his team will not be intimidated when they travel to Parkhead to play in the first leg.
The Norwegian has questioned the strength of Scottish football and believes the Hoops showed their weakness in their defeat to Cluj in the Champions League qualifying round:
“Of course, Celtic have a lot of experience in Europe, but they have not been so good in recent years. We will not be dazzled by Celtic. When you hear the name Celtic, you think they are a big team. But they lost four goals at home to Cluj and the Scottish league is not so good.”
Some fans on Twitter believe manager Neil Lennon should use Elyounouussi’s words as motivation for the encounter:
@CelticFC make him eat his words
— Joseph (@josephduffy81) 19 August 2019
He’s spot on but Lennon should get this up in the changing room ??
— Declan Quinn (@DeclanQ20054940) 19 August 2019
He may be right but if the team needed any motivation for Thursday then this is it.
— Broonie67 (@KevinBrown1888) 19 August 2019
Good lad,that’s the team talk done, get yirself ready for a humping ???
— Rubbernut (@Jinky58) 19 August 2019
He’s not wrong! Up to us to prove it ain’t so on Thursday!
— Multimodalitiez (@Multimodalitie1) 19 August 2019
Although a number of supporters did agree with the forward’s assessment of the club and the standard of the game in Scotland:
He is 100% correct
— Robert Bradley (@rbradley1971) 19 August 2019
Canny hate him for that he’s 100% correct
— Martin Boyle (@MartinBoyle88) 19 August 2019
Agreed. We need to wake up and smell the coffee. Our European record is very poor and needs to be addressed.
— The Shamrock Magazine☘️ (@TheShamrock1888) 19 August 2019
Fair enough, can’t disagree with the man. Probably rubbing their hands they got Celtic. We’re rubbish!
— Adrian Clarke (@AdrianClarke74) 19 August 2019
Can’t really argue with that
— Mark McVey (@MarkMcVey7) 19 August 2019
Celtic will want to restore some pride so they, at least, get into the group stages of the Europa League. AIK have not exactly been impressive in Europe this season either, having lost out to Maribor in the Champions League, and having only narrowly beaten Moldovan club Sheriff Tiraspol over two legs in the last round.