O'Neill paints a stark picture

Champions League Preview: Scores of green-and-white hooped Glaswegians basking in the September sun brightened up the piazzas but disturbed the self-consciously understated chic of Milanese cafe society yesterday.

Disrupting Milan's passing at the San Siro tonight may prove a considerably taller order for Martin O'Neill's team when Celtic continue their hitherto elusive quest for an inaugural away win in the Champions League.

Despite their outward optimism many of those fans suspect Celtic will leave Italy without a point. Such a scenario would leave them locked in a micro-struggle with Shakhtar Donetsk to avoid finishing bottom of Group F and achieve the consolation prize of a UEFA Cup place.

"The equation is simple - we've got to get something out of the game to keep us in the Champions League," was last night's rallying call from O'Neill, who will rely heavily on Chris Sutton's powers of ball retention at centre-forward. "But we've enough belief in ourselves to be able to come here and perform, and be able to take the game to Milan."

Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan coach, has spiced things up with slightly patronising pre-match comments. In Scottish tabloid-ese these were translated into: "Carlo says Bhoys will be San Zeros." In reality Ancelotti worded it less strongly, saying: "I realise Celtic have done very well in the UEFA Cup in the past two seasons but the Champions League is a different story. It is a far more difficult competition."

Moreover, he knew how to aggravate Celtic wounds recently inflamed by a certain striker's scoring performance when Barcelona prevailed at Parkhead in the first round of games. "Henrik Larsson was a very important player for Celtic," Ancelotti added. "But they have lost him now and that makes it harder for them to succeed at this level."

By now he sounded like a Premiership manager preparing for an FA Cup tie against lower-division scufflers. "I think Celtic will play a really physical game against us with a lot of hard tackling," cautioned the Milan coach.

Andrei Shevchenko, Milan's Ukrainian striker, appeared similarly dismissive when he insisted, "I am confident of scoring against Celtic." But against that the Italian champions have endured an unacceptably slow start to their Serie A campaign.

Indeed, when a draw with unfancied Livorno at the San Siro was followed by defeat by newly-promoted Messina, Ancelotti was summoned to "crisis" talks with Adriano Galliani, Milan's powerful vice-president, who subsequently subjected the players to an abrasive pep talk.

A weekend win at Lazio has eased the tension, but as the midfielder Clarence Seedorf - whose late goal in Ukraine earned Milan a valuable opening win at Donetsk earlier this month - put it: "Here at Milan it is very easy to talk about a crisis when you lose at home to Messina. We are not at our best yet but the situation is not as negative as it seems - and where we did not know about Messina, we know all about Celtic and what to expect from a Scottish football team."

Juninho - the subject of much debate among Celtic fans, some of whom are sniffy about the recruitment of a "Middlesbrough reject" - is not your typical Scottish League player and Seedorf conceded: "People say Celtic are not as good without Larsson but I have played against Juninho and he's a very good player, very creative."

It is likely Juninho will start on the bench as O'Neill, who has apparently identified another Brazilian, Milan's right-back Cafu, as a potential weak link, puzzles how to fit Juninho, Sutton, John Hartson and Henri Camara into the same side. Ancelotti is more concerned about Neil Lennon.

"The Celtic player I like the most is Lennon," said Ancelotti, who will be without the injured Jaap Stam and appears inclined to pair Hernan Crespo with Shevchenko in attack tonight. "Lennon is an important element as he controls the tempo."

Crespo is receiving his fair share of criticism from the Italian media. However, Ancelotti has said: "I like the way Crespo plays - unlike what certain papers write."

Any sort of Celtic goal would carry the distinction of being the first to be scored by a Scottish side against Milan at the San Siro. O'Neill, though, will be hoping to set a more dramatic, winning, precedent. Even so, he turned a little wistful when admitting: "You just wish you could be at a club where you had £100 million to spend. If that was the case I'd sit on the bench, light a cigarette and let my players get on with it."

AC MILAN: Dida; Cafu, Nesta, Maldini, Kaladze; Gattuso (or Pirlo), Ambrosini, Seedorf, Kaka; Crespo (or Tomasson), Shevchenko.

CELTIC: Marshall; Agathe, Varga, Balde, Valgaeren; Petrov, Lennon, Juninho, Thompson; Sutton, Hartson (or Camara).

Referee: G Veissiere (France).

Guardian Service