The signs are good for the Hoops to progress further in the Europa League qualification phase. They have a two-goal lead ahead of a second leg in front of a full Celtic Park after a long time.
It wasn’t a perfect win away against FK Jablonec in the first leg, but encouragingly the team is starting to take shape and new players starting to settle in. And scoring four goals in an away win isn’t easy in Europe at any time. Thus, it is certainly progress.
The tie is far from over though, especially with no away goals rule. Thus, the Hoops will know that they will need to turn up in the second leg as well and make sure that they make it through to the next stage.
FK Jablonec manager, Petr Rada, appears to be worried about the prospect of his team playing in front of a full Celtic Park. As reported by the Daily Record, the manager said:
"“The tie is now all about our players not being too frightened next week.“If you don’t play European football every season and have played a season without any fans and suddenly 60,000 supporters come to your match, it’s not going to be easy.“The prospect is giving me even more wrinkles on my head.”"
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Celtic must turn up in the second leg against FK Jablonec
Of course this may be Rada playing down the chances of his own team before the game, which could possibly lead to complacency. It does feel like that won’t be the case this time around though, especially since the Hoops are not in great form themselves and could do with every win that they can get in order to build their confidence up.
Defence has remained a worry for the club this season as well. They conceded twice against FK Jablonec in the first leg, and will go into the second leg knowing that if they can only avoid doing that, they will go through to the next phase of Europa League qualification.
But the crowd, the new signings and the two-goal lead should hopefully be enough to see the Hoops get the result that they want. A Europa League play-off tie against AZ Alkmaar awaits for the winner.