EXPECT THE unexpected. That was Liam Brady’s reaction to yesterday’s Champions League play-off draw that pits Arsenal against Celtic. Arsene Wenger’s team, who have criss-crossed Europe during 11 consecutive seasons in its leading competition, are about to receive a culture shock.
Brady, the former Celtic manager who is Arsenal’s head of youth development, said: “Our players have been all over the continent but they will never have experienced anything like it.
“The atmosphere at Celtic Park is unique. Arsenal have to go and cope with the environment and the pace Celtic will play at and the tremendous following they have. It is different to what you get in mainland Europe. Our players will have to be prepared for that.
“The Celtic Park leg is the unknown aspect of this tie. For intensity, it will be a bit like the Liverpool-Arsenal quarter-final from a couple of years ago.”
That, incidentally, was one of Wenger’s most brutal disappointments, when a high-tempo classic that Arsenal were edging at Anfield careered back towards Liverpool with two late goals.
This is Arsenal’s fourth successive appearance in the Champions League play-offs, but since Michel Platini tinkered with the seeding system to help the smaller teams along, it looks like their most delicate assignment yet.
In recent seasons Arsenal have beaten FC Twente by an aggregate of 6-0, Sparta Prague 5-0, and Dinamo Zagreb 5-1. Celtic’s higher standards, coupled with the temperature that steams up any Anglo-Scottish affair, makes this a far more intriguing proposition.
Arsenal could have done with something gentler. Wenger has stated how challenging the season’s opening fixtures are. Five games in the opening 14 days of the campaign now include trips to Goodison Park, Celtic Park and Old Trafford.
However, they at least hold the marginal advantage of being at home in the second leg, on August 26th, with the first game at Celtic Park on August 18th. For the winner, a lucrative prize awaits; for the loser the long and winding road of the inaugural Europa Cup.
Celtic, too, greeted the draw with a gulp. Arsenal, semi-finalists last season, are not exactly Celtic’s dream opponents.
“I think realistically, it’s the draw we probably wouldn’t have taken of the five teams,” Mark Venus, their first-team coach, said. “But we’ve got to look forward to it, enjoy it and relish it. I think it’s a great draw for Scottish football. It’s going to be a great game, a great European night.”
Of Arsenal, he added: “I think they’re a talented bunch of footballers. They’re a totally technical team, very patient in the build-up. I hope they’ll maybe underestimate us.”
Celtic’s dramatic away win at Dynamo Moscow, to set up this tie, suggests they are in the mood to upset the odds. Brady is conscious of how keenly Celtic respond to adversity. “If you match the two teams up player for player, there is no argument about who is the strongest. You have to fancy Arsenal big-time, but Celtic have proved they can raise their game when they are underdogs,” he said.
“They have started the season well under Tony Mowbray. He gets his teams to play football . . . But I think there will be plenty of aggression, too. You need to be on the inside to realise how big the expectation is . . . which I discovered during my two and a bit years there. It is like leading a community rather than just being a football manager.
The tie means a lot to both sides. Brady said: “Both teams are desperate to get into the group stages, and possibly beyond, for the financial rewards as well as sporting reasons. Arsenal are under pressure to get to where the team has been for several years. Celtic badly need it because they get very little domestic revenue in Scottish football.”
Guardian Service
