Celtic v HJK Helsinki - Wed, 1 Aug K/O 19.45 - Live on Premier Sports.

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Setanta Ireland, Premier Sports and Celtic TV are all showing it.

 

Yes the match is being televised by Premier Sports and Celtic TV hope to show the match live to those outside the UK and Ireland.

Streams will be available and given closer to KO in this thread.

 

Glad to hear it.

Well, like I said. Last year was something you see every 15-20 years in Finland. A good team. HJK was superb, completely dominated the Veikkausliiga, even made some good progress in Europe.

But as always, after progress and success, the best players transfer to bigger clubs and leagues for more money etc. HJK is rich in Finnish standards but a small club comparing to european clubs, with a year budget of about 5 mil. eur. So we can't pay good enough salaries to the players.

So, 7 players out of our starting eleven moved to other teams which means we have to start building a new team from scratch. We have taken new, promising players from HJK's junior academy + bought a few players from other Veikkausliiga teams.

So about this season, we have done good considering we had to start from scratch. But our game has been horrible from time to time, with this material we really should've secured the Veikkausliiga victory already. But you can't expect too much, since the team is young and unexperienced. We're lucky to have Väyrynen with us.

 

Is steam pro good quality mate? Not jumping or that?


*edit. Just read the last couple of pages and see it's been answered. Cheers anyway.

 

So would it be fair to say that if we stop Vayrynen controlling the midfield area and keep tight defensively against Pohjanpalo, then we should win comfortably?

 

Horrible memories

 

Well I wouldn't say that. We have alot of potential players that can perform very well. Our wingers are technical and fast - Savage and Mannström. Pohjanpalo is dangerous whenever he has the ball, and Mäkelä is decent at scoring too, needs abit too many chances to score though. Our right back, Sorsa is very active offensively. He's on the same wing as Mannström, they are surely our best weapon. Two fast and technically good players + Sorsa's crosses can be superb.

Savage is a bit slower than Mannström, but he's good 1v1 and a good scorer when he gets the chance. Väyrynen is more in a defensive role in HJK.

Taking out Väyrynen is a hard task but when done it will disturb out game, but he's not our only good player that can make good passes. We're still a fairly strong side. But if you play good, like against Inter, HJK shouldn't be too hard to win.

 

Glad I'm off work tomorrow. Hope I'll be able to watch this. Come on you Bhoys in green! :icon_mrgreen:

 

Excellent cheers mate

 

Indeed. We were very good against Inter Milan which is promising. As for the game itself, hopefully there will be 50,000 or so attending. Are you travelling to Glasgow for the match and how many HJK fans would you say will attend?

 

Thank you!

 

Thanks for the info mate. I think normally, or on paper at least, Helsinki should be a walk in the park for us but as you know, football games aren't won on paper. Throw into that, it's the very first competitive game of our season and use are well into yours... anything can happen. I just hope the fitness levels of our players are up to scratch at this time and I know our strikers will be sharp enough if given half the chance.

 

Thanks for coming on to the forum mr ball. I think this will be a tough game especially at your place.

 

thats a good run down of your team there mate, our own team runs in the same pattern of play, not bad at home, but shocking away from home
our play is predictable and most team that play 2 banks of 5. 5 in attack and 5 in defence against us seem to get more from the game than we do.
hope you have a good time if you come here.

 

seen this on bbc website
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFYING - THIRD ROUND
Venue: Celtic Park Date: Wednesday, 1 August Kick-off: 19:45 BST
Coverage: BBC Sport website, BBC Radio 5 live and TV COVERAGE HERE

 

Can you post the link to this mate?

 

BBC Sport - Celtic v HJK Helsinki

 

No problem. Even though I support HJK, I wouldn't watch football unless I would like football. The sport itself is awesome, and seeing some satisfying, beautiful play is all I demand.

And sorry no, I won't be able to travel to Glasgow - unfortunately. Have been there before though, in your glory days watching a game. Can't get off work, so I'm stuck here Will hope to see the game online though.

Lets put things the way they really are: If you play like against Inter, you will win. If you don't, and you play like lets say against Ajax, we will have a decent shot at winning, even away.

How I see it, Celtic's strenght isn't possession play, you're more of a counter / fast attack club. So if HJK is able to gather their strenght and play like they usually do = keep the ball and pass alot, we have a chance. A few points of much importance for HJK:

1. Play our game, keep the ball.
2. We have to have a solid defence. Especially long range shots have to be prevented and blocked. That's our keepers weak spot.
3. We have to score from our chances. We might get only a few, or not. From what I understand, Celtic's defence is their weak spot.
4. Try to get a good result away, at worst a 1 goal defeat. At home we have a home crowd + artificial pitch, which help us.

But this is just speculation, it may as well happen that you win at home with 4-5 goals. Wouldn't surprise me.

But as I said, let's just enjoy the game itself! Can't wait til tomorrow. 21:45, Beers ready boys!

 

so its on BBC aswell?