UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND, SECOND LEG: Dinamo Moscow (1) Celtic (0):TONY MOWBRAY has denied being under pressure as Celtic's manager despite his side facing an early Champions League exit today against Dinamo Moscow in the return leg of their third qualifying round tie.
Dinamo won the first leg 1–0 in Glasgow last week; Celtic have not won away in Europe for six years – their last 22 trips bringing 18 defeats and four draws – and have never recovered a European tie after losing the first game at home.
But Mowbray said: “Am I under more pressure? No, not really. I’m five weeks into the job and I’m here to build a team for today, yes, but also for tomorrow and I’m very confident that over the period we will build a team that will compete year in, year out in the Champions League in the latter stages hopefully and that has got to be the goal.”
However, with anything up to €14 million to be made from reaching the group stages, for which they would need to negotiate another qualifying round, Mowbray acknowledged the importance of the match.
“They have been there in the last few years,” he said of Dinamo. “But we are all fully aware of how important it is to the football club and the supporters. It doesn’t need reinforcing to the players. We had some relative success over the last few years, getting through to the last 16 twice. So it is something that we would like to emulate. We are here to overcome Dinamo in a difficult tie.
“It goes without saying that the Champions League, if you get to the group stages, brings finances with it which helps every team. Finance helps build a team quicker, because you could bring in good players.”
Mowbray, however, is hoping no snap judgments will be made in the event of Celtic going out.
“The easier way for us to get to the group stages is to win the SPL this season and not have to go through so many qualifying rounds,” he said. “But it is the bigger picture that you have to look at, you can’t expect to change everything within four or five weeks.
“There is a potential advantage for them because they are 16 games into their campaign, but there are no excuses. We have had a very tough pre-season but a decent one and we will hopefully give a good account of ourselves. The mind-set of the players is positive. We took enough encouragement from the first game to make me believe we can cause them problems.”
Gary Caldwell said the Celtic players are more interested in getting to the group stage than making history. The Celtic defender said: “We understand that it’s a big game. You have that feeling in your stomach. It would be big for us to get through but I don’t think it’s about making history, it’s about getting through this stage of the competition and trying to qualify for the Champions League.
“We have been there in previous seasons and we know how good a competition it is and we really want to be here again this season. Our attitude will be the same as it always is, we always try to win football matches.”
Scott Brown will not be risked in this evening’s game. The Celtic midfielder underwent ankle surgery at the end of last season and made his first appearance since against Sunderland last Saturday at Celtic Park, when he featured for the first hour in the 2-1 friendly defeat. However, it is understood Massimo Donati will be given the nod over Brown in Moscow.
CELTIC (probable, 4-4-2 ):Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Naylor; McGeady, Donati, N'Guemo, Maloney; Fortune, McDonald.
