Champions League Preview: Cliftonville vs Celtic

The European fixture that caught the eye of Dankse Bank Premiership and League of Ireland fans alike is nearly upon us. Northern Irish Champions, Cliftonville, will take on the champions of Scotland, Celtic, in the second qualifying round of the European Cup.

Cliftonville have had some extremely high profiled games over recent years, particularly during last season’s campaign, and this clash will certainly be among them, if not the biggest to be held at Solitude.

For the mouth-watering occasion, Cliftonville wasted no time from when the draw was made to temporarily increase the capacity at Solitude to 5,000. While it was a surprise to many that Celtic returned 500 tickets as the Parkhead club were unable to sell all of their away allocation, it is expected that the encounter will be a sell-out with Cliftonville supporters being offered the chance to purchase the returned tickets from Glasgow.

The European game will certainly have a unique feel to it. Even though both clubs are very familiar with one another; this will be the first time that Cliftonville and Celtic will meet in a competitive match. Both clubs have maintained a long-standing friendship with one another and have met each other twice in recent years. In 2009, Cliftonville ran out 3-0 winners in the Red’s 130^th anniversary exhibition match against an inexperienced Celtic side and only last summer, the two played out a draw in another friendly bout. However, much more lies at stake on Wednesday’s encounter and both sides will be looking to gain something from the clash at Solitude.

With the exception of James Knowles, the North Belfast side will go into the first leg of the tie having kept hold of their double-winning team that took last season’s Danske Bank Premiership by storm. This includes the likes of Joe Gormley and Liam Boyce, who last season notched over 60 goals between them, ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Conor Devlin and ex-Celtic forward Diarmuid O’Carroll. What’s more, Tommy Breslin’s side go into the encounter with no injuries or pre-season dilemmas.

On the other hand, the same cannot be said for Celtic. While the Glasgow giants will certainly miss the presence of Victor Wanyama who recently moved to Southampton, Celtic will also be without Welsh duo Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews. Additionally, Scott Brown, James Forrest, Charlie Mulgrew and Gary Hooper all look to have had injury problems in Celtic’s pre-season preparations and are not yet confirmed to start at Solitude.

Although Cliftonville are massive underdogs going into the occasion, you can expect the North Belfast side to give it their all to ensure that the tie is still undecided going into the return leg in Glasgow. Ireland’s oldest club can certainly benefit from having home advantage first, having only lost one league game last season on their artificial 3G pitch, and can also take strength from the fact that Celtic have returned from a difficult pre-season tour that did anything but boost morale.

While Celtic gained many plaudits for their giant killings in last season’s Champions League, which saw them reach the last 16, it is not impossible for them to be the victim of an upset themselves.

Cliftonville will play Celtic on Wednesday 17^th July (KO 7.45) in the second qualifying round of the Champions League at Solitude.