Scottish giants Celtic continue their quest for group stage football in the Champions League on Wednesday night as the Hoops host Estonian outfit Nomme Kalju in the second qualifying round first leg.
The reigning SPL champions have a good recent record in the early stages of the Champions League, having won five of their last eight matches in the competition, including comfortably dispatching Bosnian outfit Sarajevo 5-2 on aggregate in the last round.
The Hoops will be looking to progress to the group stage of the competition for the first time since 2017 when they were the whipping boys in a group containing Bayern Munich, PSG and Anderlecht.
Should #CelticFC progress to the #UCL 3rd Qualifying Round, the home match against either Maccabi Tel Aviv or CFR Cluj will be played at Celtic Park on Tuesday, 13 August. pic.twitter.com/hQaGFhuPV6— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 23, 2019
Should #CelticFC progress to the #UCL 3rd Qualifying Round, the home match against either Maccabi Tel Aviv or CFR Cluj will be played at Celtic Park on Tuesday, 13 August. pic.twitter.com/hQaGFhuPV6
The lack of qualification for the Champions League proper has caused unrest amongst the fans, who believe their team should be performing better on the big stage.
Celtic Park has become something on a fortress in recent seasons in the early stages of the competition anyway, as the Hoops are unbeaten in four home games, having recorded three wins while scoring at least twice in the victories.
Estonian outfit Nomme Kalju are one of the lesser experienced teams left in the Champions League at this stage, as this season is just the second time they have appeared in Europe’s elite competition. Their only other appearance in the Champions League was back in 2013 when they exited at this stage.
The visitors made it through to second qualifying round by beating Macedonian team Shkendija on away goals. The club from the Estonian capital suffered a 1-0 defeat on home soil, only to rescue the tie by recording a 2-1 win in the second leg.
The second leg was following a familiar high-scoring trend for the visitors in this competition, as four of their last five matches have produced over 2.5 goals.
Forebet predicts that Celtic will put one leg in the next round by recording a victory in a low-scoring encounter.