The Europa League has proved to be a barren place for Celtic this season but Tony Mowbray hopes that his team finally conjure up a victory tonight against Hapoel Tel Aviv to avoid being consigned to the European wilderness until next season.
The Celtic manager has yet to see his side win in the disappointing campaign but retains a belief that they can perform far better on a winter’s night in Glasgow than they did in the heat of Israel when the sides met on the opening night of group C, since which the expectations of both clubs have been turned upside down.
Back in September, Celtic harboured ambitions of the Europa League final itself and when Georgios Samaras put them ahead in Tel Aviv, the first part of the job appeared to have been done. However, a late defensive collapse allowed Hapoel to win 2-1 and the Israeli side have gone on to seize leadership of the group while Celtic have just two points from draws with Hamburg and Rapid Vienna.
Celtic’s only hope of qualification for the knockout rounds is to win their last two games but they also require Hamburg to lose both theirs. Mowbray does not expect the German side to betray their efficient roots. “We need Hamburg to lose two games and that is highly unlikely because they are a class team,” Mowbray said. “We want to give our fans a win in this competition and we will try our best.”
Mowbray expects to have Artur Boruc back for this occasion after the Poland goalkeeper’s recovery from a minor knee operation that has kept him out for six weeks. Celtic asked Uefa yesterday to reinstate Boruc’s registration for the competition but he is likely to take a place on the bench.
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It is scoring goals that is Mowbray’s priority. Celtic have found the net just twice in group C, and the manager still finds it hard to believe that things have gone downhill since that sultry night in Israel.
“Football is about taking your opportunities and we have missed some in this campaign,” he said. “We feel hard done by that we have only two points. All the games have been close and I am sure this will be no different. Hapoel have scored eight goals in their last two Europa League games and conceded none and that suggests they will be very confident.
“We were strangling them in Israel at half-time. They were technically very good but we set up to make ourselves difficult to break down. Samaras hit the bar and it could have been 2-0 to us. However, the heat was fierce and it was not an evening for expending energy. I think we will be able to be more energetic here, and hopefully the weather conditions will work in our favour rather than theirs.
“Hapoel are a gifted football team with some very good players Their part of the world is not a market that has been massively tapped into by teams in Britain, though Yossi Benayoun has done exceptionally well at Liverpool.
“I would suggest that there are one or two more players in Israel who could enhance the quality of most teams.”