Vidar Riseth has sent a Bodo/Glimt warning to Celtic

Celtic were drawn against Norwegian champions, Bodo/Glimt, in the UEFA Europa Conference League, and will need to be wary of a team who got a 6-1 win against Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma, during the inaugural tournament’s group stages. And ex-Hoops star, Vidar Riseth has fired a warning to his former club about their opponents for the upcoming knockout round play-off tie.

Bodo/Glimt have risen from being a midtable team to becoming one of the Norwegian league’s leading forces, and clinched a second successive title with victory over Mjondalen last Sunday, as Celtic themselves earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Motherwell.

Their coach, Kjetil Knutsen, has been commended across Europe for his attacking philosophy and offensive style of football.

That is something that Riseth alluded to while discussing Celtic’s upcoming Europa Conference League knockout round play-off tie against the back-to-back Norwegian champions. As reported by the Daily Record, the former Parkhead star said:

"“They are playing offensive 4-3-3 football and you might be better asking Mourinho what he thinks about them.“When they played against Mourinho’s team, they had no respect for them.“They just played brilliant football and they were also good in Italy.“In the 6-1 game, Mourinho said beforehand that he had watched Bodo/Glimt on the tapes and he knew they were going to meet a good team. But even then he was really surprised by everyone.“Bodo/Glimt is the new Rosenborg of Norwegian football. They have been playing so well in the past two years and have a coach who is terrific.”"

Bodo/Glimt promises to be a very difficult opposition for Celtic

That is certainly a fair warning for Celtic as they are set to face a team that notched up eight goals against Mourinho’s AS Roma over two games.

Celtic will go into the tie in a rich vein of European form, winning three of their last four matches in the Europa League group stage despite playing some very difficult opposition and narrowly missing qualification for the competition’s knockout stages.

This away trip will be a little more difficult in terms of the weather than the visits to Spain, Germany and Hungary however, with the picturesque Bodo’s temperatures expected to plummet to around -7°C in February.

But Celtic have reasons to be confident themselves though. Despite being drawn in a group with Bayer Leverkusen, Real Betis and Ferencvaros in the Europa League, they got nine points from a possible eighteen, as Ange Postecoglou’s side gave a great account of themselves.