Let's do a Braga on them

26 August 2010 12:19
You learn something from every game, even when you are beaten, and Neil Lennon wants to turn defeat into victory Neil Lennon has been boosted by the return to full fitness of Cha Du-Ri and Glenn Loovens ahead of tonight's Europa League tie against Utrecht. Both missed out on the 4-0 win over St Mirren in the SPL at the weekend (hamstring) but are fit for the second leg game in Utrecht. Jos Hooiveld is also available for the meeting with the Dutch side, after sitting out the first leg at Parkhead  through suspension. Lennon has urged his players to do to Utrecht in the Europa League what Braga did to them in the Champions League. Braga boasted a commanding 3-0 lead from the home leg before claiming the first goal in the return in Glasgow to effectively kill off the tie even though the Hoops went on to win the game 2-1. Lennon's men now find themselves in a similar position with a 2-0 advantage from Parkhead as they take on Utrecht for a place in the Europa League group stages tonight and the manager wants his team to emulate their conquerors. Lennon said: "If you want to use comparisons with the Braga game, when they scored at Celtic Park, the tie was more or less effectively over. We feel that could be the same. We've had three clean-sheets in a row so we want to take a lot from that as well. We'll just go into the game the way we go into every game. They are a good side. We are playing well at the minute but it will be different tomorrow night because of the circumstances, it will be a different quality of opposition. We are capable of scoring and we have lots of positives in the team. We've got goals in us from different areas of the pitch and we will go there in a positive frame of mind.''

Source: FOOTYMAD