Champions League Qualifying ,All Chat In Here.

HJK Helsinki are pish and if we apply ourselves we should win. Lets not kid ourselves. Finnish football is the poorest of all Nordic countries and is even worse than the SPL. No excuses.

 

Is there a chance we could play Molde in the next run? I'm intrigued, yet worried, at the prospect.

Anyway, first things first. A trip to Finland! One of the best draws we could've got in terms of distance. However, they'll be a good way ahead of us in terms of fitness.

Hope Lennon and Mjallby are running our bhoys into the ground!

 

yes if they qualify

 

And also a club with 3 League Cups to there name

 

I would agree that celtic should be better than a team from Finland, if not whats the point.

 

If we qualify, we will face Cluj, Helsingborg, Partizan, Dinamo Zagreb or Zilina if all seeds win.

 

Stuff about teams, who plays who and other info

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=1842546.html

 

Just watched first half of HJK Helsinki game against 9th place team. Couple of quick wingers but final ball woeful. Midfield getting plenty of time to pass (should be shut out by Kayal, Brown or Ledley). Hooper and Stokes would score a bag as defense has huge holes in it. If this is their standard of play we should kick their arses home and away.

 

HJK have that 17 year old who scored a perfect hat-trick in 3 minutes a few months back

 

Hello, and greetings from Finland.

Out main goal today was to win the game with as less effort as possible and we managed to do it. Ashraf - Pelvas duo in front were our 4th and 5th strikers and you won't see them against Celtic. There was also few other b-team players on field I think + one comeback after half year injury.

Our midfield is at the moment quite decent. Mika Väyrynen used to play f.ex. for PSV Eindhoven (playing for HJK for the rest of the season because of his kid) and Rasmus Schüller is one of the biggest talents we have in Veikkausliiga (some ppl might argue not but they are wrong).

Joel Pohjanpalo - who was mentioned in previous message - had rest today. He had played 2 games / week since he started few months ago. Agains KR (last week CL qualifier) he scored two, got one penalty kick for HJK and gave one assist. He got an contract offer from Liverpool but he said no at this stage. Prolly going there later this season.

 

Greetings from Finland! We played against Haka tonight (9th in the league) and we won 1-0 with Juho Mäkelä´s goal . But as we all now you lose 4-0 to Ajax . I bet the games against you are very tight and it can turn to anyside! Good luck to you too

 

Hei ja Tervetuloa!

I think you are right, the matches between our teams will be tight. I won't be underestimating your team, that's for sure.

Hopefully you will get the chance to meet some of our travelling fans when they head over to Finland and you can experience the special atmosphere that they generate.

 

Welcome to the new Finnish lads

I'm definitely looking forward to the games between our clubs. I'm not underestimating anybody in the HJK Helsinki squad, as everyone connected with Celtic knows what it's like to be on the wrong end of a giant killing. We lost 5-0 to Artmedia Bratislava in 2005 and although we won 4-0 in the reverse leg in Glasgow, it wasn't enough to stop us from going out on aggregate.

More recently, in 2010, we were defeated 2-0 by Ross County in a domestic cup semi final, so I'm sure nobody on here will be underestimating what Helsinki can do if we don't turn up and play the way we know we can. Thanks for signing up though.

 

how far we have fallen that we are worrying about finnish oposition, i was quite optimstic a few weeks ago when i thought lennon knew what he was doing but since then we have no new players which we badly need and by all acounts we wont be signing anybody till we get to group stages. Also we have no first team coach and last but not least we dont seem to have a set formation so close to these huge games.

 

In European terms, we are a mediocre team. It's really that simple.

 

Yep, greetings from Finland on my behalf too.

As someone stated earlier, HJK played Haka today and won 1-0 with Juho Mäkelä's goal. The game was complete *. HJK is capable of much better, but the truth is that winning the Finnish league isn't that hard for a team like HJK, and it can be done with the lowest amount of effort possible considering the material HJK has compared to the other teams in the Veikkausliiga.

HJK played todays game basically with a B-team. Ashraf and Pelvas are both reserve strikers. Tuomas Kansikas replaced Sebastian Sorsa as defender because Sorsa is one of the key elements in HJK's offensive game, and the tactic requires extreme stamina from him. We will need him for sure against Celtic. The starting 11 today proves that HJK are completely focusing on the CL qualifiers.

I'm not here to try to frighten you by saying that HJK is the better team and will win for sure. Everyone knows that Celtic is the favorite of this pair, but it isn't unusual that HJK plays over their capability in Eurogames. This you can see for example against Schalke last year. 2-0 win at home, 1-1 away after the first period but then a total collapse, which was caused by bad decisions by the managers + pure and simple tiredness. Also the referree played a minor part (2 penalties that came from situations that looked a bit too easy).

So, you can think yourself as the team with the advantage. Celtic is the bigger club, but don't under-estimate HJK. You can't stroll over them with a team in half shape, you need them at their best doing their best. If you draw or win slightly at home you can consider yourselves in trouble, because HJK are at their strongest at home. The stadium is always full against bigger European clubs, and the support of the home crowd is huge.

But anyways, I'll stop here before I write a novel. I really look forward to meeting Celtic (unless we manage to lose 8-0 in Iceland Lets hope that doesn't happen). Let the better team win, but most importantly lets enjoy the football. I assure you that HJK will be a worthy opponent.

Cheers!

 

not hat huge a crowd does your stadium not hold 10000

 

Haha yes, it's a small stadium but that doesn't mean the noise and support for HJK will be small.

E: and to clarify, I didn't actually say the crowd will be huge, I said the support=noise that the fans make will be huge.

 

ok cool i am sure you will make it hostile but just remember we are famed for our home crowd and if our players turn up on the night and the fans are at there usual best then your lot should be worrying first

 

Of course we should, never did I say we shouldn't. I'm totally familiar with British fanculture, and I envy it. We aren't near that in anyways in Finland (League games that is). But in Eurogames, especially against big clubs the stands are always full.

If celtic beat HJK at home with over 3 goals or over, I'm afraid it will be too much. But as I said, lets just enjoy the football and may the better team win. I'm sure we'll see an exciting two games.