Celtic’s Scott Brown has chance to atone in Cluj clash

Celtic have made no secret of their desire for revenge against Cluj in the Europa League this week and captain Scott Brown has more reason than most.

Celtic captain Scott Brown. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

The midfielder gave away a free-kick in the shock 4-3 defeat to the Romanians at Parkhead last month, which cost Neil Lennon’s men their place in the Champions League.

While trying not fixate on the blunder, Brown, pictured, relishes the opportunity to make amends so soon.

He said: “Every game is personal for me. I want to win every 
single game and I always think I can do better. I believe I can do better.

“In the last match I gave away a handball and that is not like me. It was just one of those freak things that happened.

“You don’t dwell on it too long. The good thing about football is that there is always another game where you can go out there and show everyone wrong.

“I thought we were playing well [prior to that defeat to the Romanians].

“It was just one sloppy game where we probably didn’t perform as well as we should have.”

He anticipates a better showing this time around as they look to make their visitors pay.

“It’s going to be a good game. We know how they play and they know how we play. I think we owe them one to be perfectly honest, and especially me.

“It was a disappointing performance, but we are in the Europa League, and now we’ve got Cluj yet again.”

They head into the match on the back of a draw away to Hibernian which brought their winning start to the domestic season to a halt

“Obviously we are hurting – we want to take three points week in and week out. But it’s not that easy.

“We’ve had a fantastic start to the season. We’ve come here and got a point, but this is a hard place to come. We’ll take it, move on, and we’ll look forward to Thursday now.”