Victory in Italy the toughest of tasks for Celtic

ASKED why Italian jobs have proved so difficult for Scottish clubs to perform successfully in European competition through the years, Neil Lennon offered one obvious reason as well as a slightly more contentious one.

“It’s possibly just because they are better than us,” said the Celtic manager as he analysed the size of the task facing his team against Udinese in Italy later this month when an historic victory will be required to reach the last 32 of the Europa League.

“But referees might have taken a few quid along the way, as well,” he quickly added. “That’s been proven, hasn’t it? I’m not saying it’s always the case, but it’s very difficult over there.”

The late Bill Shankly, whose Liverpool side lost a European Cup semi-final to Inter Milan in highly dubious circumstances in 1965, would certainly have nodded sagely in agreement with Lennon’s view. So too Dundee United supporters after the revelation earlier this year that French referee Michel Vautrot was indeed bribed before their 1984 European Cup semi-final defeat away to Roma.

Lennon’s own lingering sense of suspicion is fuelled by his bitter memories of playing in Celtic’s first ever Champions League group stage game in September 2001 against Juventus in Turin. After recovering from 2-0 down to level at 2-2, Martin O’Neill’s side were undone by a controversial 88th minute penalty kick awarded when Juventus striker Nicola Amoruso tumbled theatrically under a Jos Valgaeren challenge. “It was a shocking decision,” said Lennon. “It was never a penalty and it cost us qualification in the end. We ended up with nine points, so if we’d got a point in Turin we would have gone through. That’s the one decision which will always stick out for me in terms of dodgy decisions. It was a pretty poor call right at the end of a game when we had played brilliantly in the second half and clawed our way back into the game.

“Juventus were a brilliant side and were 2-0 up, looking comfortable. But we found something that night, a bit of belief. That’s what my players will need when they go to Udine in a couple of weeks.”

It was not until 2006, when Rangers defeated Livorno 3-2 in the Uefa Cup, that a Scottish team recorded what is still the country’s only European club competition victory away from home against Italian opposition.

Celtic have been unsuccessful in their previous eight attempts in the land of Catenaccio, leaving Lennon in no doubt as to how significant an achievement it would be if his team became the first to emerge with a famous win. “It would be wonderful, but it is a tall order,” he said. “I’m not saying we are not capable of doing it but it will be very, very tough. Udinese are a Champions League team really. But we got a draw in Rennes in our last away game, which we were well worth, and we’ll just have to try and go one better this time.

“Italian football is tough because tactically they are superb, defensively well organised, although Udinese have a bit of flair. I don’t know what sort of team they will put out against us but I would say they will want to qualify from the group.

“Udinese are a top team this season, right up there in the top two or three in Serie A, and our record isn’t great away from home in Europe as everyone knows. But at least we know what we have to do going into this game. It’s not as if we have the question of whether we set up for a draw. We have to go for the win. If you had offered me going into the last group game still having a chance to qualify, I would have taken that.”

Despite managing just one victory from their first five games in Group I, the 3-1 home success against Rennes, Lennon is content with the performances of his players in the Europa League so far and found no shortage of positives in the 1-0 home defeat to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night which left Celtic facing their all-or-nothing trip to Italy.

“I think they’ve disproved the theory that it might be somehow detrimental to our domestic campaign,” he added. “They have grown as the competition has gone on. Winning the home game against Rennes was probably the catalyst for the domestic run we’ve been on. So, if anything, Europe has enhanced our season rather than hindered it.

“We got into the group through the back door after losing to Sion, so people were maybe looking at us as the whipping boys of the group. But that hasn’t been the case. We haven’t been outclassed in any of the games. We have competed in all of them and, what has pleased me more than anything, created chances and played good football. So it has been worthwhile.

“When we lost 2-0 to Atletico in Madrid at the start of this group, I felt our players lacked a wee bit of belief in themselves. That’s understandable, because for a lot of them it was the first time playing in Europe. But as the campaign has gone on, they have grown more and more confident.”