UEFA decision hands Europa League advantage to Celtic

UEFA’s decision ahead of the Europa League Play-Off game between Celtic and FK Sarajevo has handed an advantage to the Hoops.

Celtic will be desperate to come out with a win from their Europa League play-off game against FK Sarajevo when they take on the Bosnian side on Thursday. Failure to do so will mean that the Hoops will be out of Europe altogether, a huge blow after they failed to qualify for the Champions League for the third straight season.

At this point of time, Celtic will like even the smallest advantage that they can get and they have been handed a decent one as UEFA have declared that FK Sarajevo’s home stadium does not meet their criteria and as a result the game will be played instead at the Bilino Polje Satidum in Zenica, the home ground of NK Celik.

As reported by Radio Sarajevo, the Asim Ferhatovic Stadium doesn’t meet UEFA’s criteria, meaning they will now play the game away from home, taking away the advantage they held over Celtic. The new ground is also used by their national team so the ground should be of high quality.

Celtic have taken on FK Sarajevo last season in the first round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers and had managed to come out with a comfortable 3-1 win on the back of goals from Mikey Johnston, Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair. And they should not have many problems getting through this time around although they sit at the top of the table in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You never know though with this Celtic side as they have a penchant for turning off in European games and putting in disappointing performances. You would hope though that that does not happen on Thursday or the club will have to face the financial consequences of not making Europe.