Celtic With Work to Do in Greece

Champions League | Preview

14/08/18

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The 2018/19 UEFA Champions League qualifying continues this week with the second leg of the third round qualifiers. Every game will be played on Tuesday 14th August and arguably the pick of the fixtures is the meeting between AEK Athens and Celtic.

The match will be played at the Olympiako Stadio Spyros Louis in the Greek capital and there is sure to be a passionate crowd.

AEK Athens will be happy to come into the match having secured a 1-1 draw in Glasgow. They know a 0-0 draw or any sort of win will be good enough to see them progress while Celtic must get at least one goal to have any chance.

The first leg of this tie at Celtic Park was the first time we have seen AEK Athens in competitive action this season. Despite falling a goal behind after 17 minutes, AEK Athens did not allow their heads to drop and the found the equaliser through Viktor Klonaridis just before half-time.

There was a dramatic moment in the second half when AEK Athens were reduced to 10 men but they packed the midfield and defended well to see out the draw.

Trends show AEK Athens have a very good home record and are undefeated in their last seventeen competitive home matches. They have won thirteen of those games and kept a clean sheet in each of the last five. One more clean sheet in this match will be good enough to see them through to the playoff round.

Celtic were disappointed they did not make the extra man count in the fist leg of this tie. The Scottish champions played over 30 minutes with a one man advantage but could not force the breakthrough.

They suffered a similar problem on the weekend as they continued the defence of their title in Scotland. Celtic travelled to Edinburgh to play Hearts and failed to find the back of the net. Brendan Rodgers chose to rest some of his key players ahead of this game and remains frustrated by the lack of action in the transfer market.

That defeat means it is now two games without a win for Celtic. It would be considered a disaster were they not to make the group stages of the Champions league having done so in the past two seasons.

Looking ahead to the team news and AEK Athens will be without the suspended Konstantinis Galanopoulos who was sent off in the first leg. The hosts have no new injury concerns having rested on the weekend and should be at full strength.

Celtic are expected to bring back James Forrest, Odsonne Edouard and Tom Rogic for this match having started on the bench on Saturday. Moussa Dembele and Nir Bitton remain on the treatment table.

AEK Athens have a strong home record while Celtic have shown themselves capable of picking up away results in Champions league qualifying. This has the makings of a very close game but Celtic will need to push forward in search of a goal and that could see the game open up.

AEK Athens could just sneak the win, with both teams scoring and progress to the Champions league playoffs.