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

I assume you are talking about when we had Larsson, Sutton, Moravcik, Petrov, Thompson etc?

Yes, a lot of our players just now do not have the individual quality of some of these guys. However, we have been building a team of talented youngsters who hopefully be as successful in the years ahead.

Guys like Izzy, Kayal, Wanyama, Hooper and Forrest to name a few have the potential to do well at the highest level.

 

what makes you say that?

 

43-0. We welcome the chase!!

Craig Whyte legend

 

Ofcourse there might be some "Schalke extra" or even "KR extra" in HJK fans expectations, but still I'd say we have a fair 20-25% chance to go through here. HJK fans mostly think Celtic is easier than the opponents in last few years Schalke, Dinamo or Partizan. Tbh I had a few shouts of joy of my own when Celtic was drawn against us. We aren't very good against eastern european teams, but have a few good memories against north, west and middle european teams.

Tho our team is weaker than the one in 2011, we just signed with propably the most talented player in our team, Mika Väyrynen, and he already made a huge difference to our game in KR match. I would have been really confident if we would have faced Celtic last year. At the moment, not so much... too much unfinished aspects in our team right now even tho the last few matches have been promising.

Intresting pick: Used-to-be head coach of Hibernian and Kilmarnock, Mixu Paatelainen (nowadays head of national team), good friend of our coach Antti Muurinen, will propably give some tips to these matches and surely knows how to strike on top class Scottish teams.

With my knowledge of Scottish teams and Celtic, i'd say HJK would finish maybe 3rd - 6th in SPL. Sadly I dont know much about scottish football, have heard only about Samaras and Lustig before today. Samaras is probably the kind of attacker we dont have problems with, but Hooper sounds a more difficult one.

Oh and forgot to mention in my first post: our goalie Ville Wallen is a weak spot too. Surely a club legend and a good goalie in finnish league level... but sadly he's a * midget and I personally don't trust him in euro games. Luckily we have some tall center defenders to clear the high balls...

There will likely be around 50 HJK fans in the first leg. So you'll surely win us in the amount of those. :icon_mrgreen:

Our next league match against Haka is televised and there will propably be some streams on the web showing it. It's played tomorrow.

 

His use of language

 

Everyone, even in Finland, would agree with you there.

But what the * has happened to scottish football in recent years? Looks to me like something quite dramatic has happened even in such short amount of time as the last five years or so. At least the success of scottish teams in Europe suggest that. And not many "big name players" in Scotland anymore. I assume it has a lot to do with the harsh financial times all over the western world?

Edit. Maybe the wrong topic for this, but...

Edit2. And what´s wrong with the language I use? I am finnish, born and raised in Helsinki.

 

i'll 2nd that

 

It's quite hard to explain to a foreigner mate but basically, there was this team called Rangers who everybody hated because of their cheating, racism, bigotry and foul stench, and the false bubble of economic prosperity they created finally burst last year.

Scottish football had a lot of money because that Rangers club spent money they didn't actually have on transfer fees, and payed players illegally and amorally to avoid tax, and then Celtic had to try and equal them with big fees, so 10 years ago there was almost as much money in Scotland as in Germany or France, but now Scotland has fallen back to the level of other small countries like Switzerland.

But every good Scottish person is happy, because we may be smaller and poorer nowadays, but at least we have a free and fair football system again, and we will never again be bothered by cheats or scumbags.

And that my friend is why, we done the conga when Rangers died!

Please feel free to join in with any conga-related activites, and grab yourself some jelly and ice cream, when you come to visit Parkhead.

 

HJK are about the standard of a good SPL team, so on paper we should expect to be winning this.

Two factors we have to be wary of though.

* They have an artificial pitch, and it's pretty rare for them to lose at home.
They beat Schalke 2-0 in the quals last season, so on their day they are very dangerous.
On their own "turf". (They got hammered 6-1 away)

* They are midway through their season already, so well into the swing.

In summary, we will be clear bookies favourites to win this, but we can't afford a slow start at Celtic Park, because we will be tested in the second leg.

Climate not a problem - similar to Glasgow this time of year.

 

Cheers

Well, the the team today is far more skillful, faster and more confident. I think some of the guys in the 2000 team were more looking forward to exchanging the shirts with Henke after the game than realistically going to the next round.

All credit to the lads who played in 2000, most if not all play are now part of the finnish football folklore and were great players at the time (I'm sure you agree with Celtic's players on that as well . Great characters in that line-up I must say). Rami Hakanpaa who played then, is still part of the team and will likely appear on the bench against you.

Comparing the odds between now and then, I'd say we didn't stand a chance then, but now I can see us going through if everything works out perfectly and you under perform, eventhough you guys are clear cut favourites for the tie.

Line-ups in 2000:

HJK Helsinki: Vieander; Turpeinen, Nylund, Yeremenko, Kallio, Roiha, Saarinen, Heikkinen, Hakanpaa, Kuivasto, Kopteff.
Celtic: Gould; Boyd, McNamara, Valgaeren, Larsson, Sutton, Berkovic, Lambert, Petta, Petrov, Mjallby.

 

How much does an artificial turf affect play?

 

If we don't win at home we could be in deep trouble.

I think we'll go through but it certainly won't be easy.

 

Less now than with the earlier-generation pitches, because they've simply got better at imitating grass.

But looking at HJK's league record this season, they've lost five out of their nine away games, but they are unbeaten at home, only two draws. That implies to me there's a clear advantage.

Same last season - unbeaten at home, averaging 3-4 goals a game. Only one game drawn.

Nearly all their dropped points come in away games.

 

Would be great if European teams thought Ki was our best player.

 

Bar the stupid haircut, that kid seems to be really good, at least from YouTube. Second goal from that hat trick video is nice.

Though I think there is big difference in individual quality, there are few players in current team like Stokes, Mulgrew and Commons who can make a difference on their own. You never know, game might be decided like that.

 

He clearly doesn't follow football much then. Partizan are * and we're knocekd out by Shamrock Rovers last year.

Our team is full of internationalists & a clutch of players with a market value of around 7-10million.

We showed we can compete in Europe last year with our only defeats in GS being against eventual winners Atletico in tight games. No excuses.

 

2 divisions better than deadco, then. :icon_mrgreen:

 

We should get through this round with not too much trouble. I don't want to overlook Helsinki (we all remember Artmedia all those years ago in Strachan's first season), but with Stokes and Hooper up front and hopefully finding match fitness again during pre season, we should take care of this.

 

Just because people can speak fluent English doesn't mean they're native speakers.

 

Won't be a cake walk but what game is for us in Europe, don't really remember us having an easy game in Europe since the 03/04 CL qualifiers or Teplice in the 03/04 Uefa Cup.

I still expect us to win but it really depends on our players being match fit.