Mario Camora, the captain of CFR Cluj has claimed (with quotes sourced via The Daily Record) that his side fully “expects” to beat Celtic when the two sides meet again on Thursday in the Europa League.
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The 33-year-old Portuguese defender said of his side’s chances: “We are expecting Celtic to give everything. They were criticised when they lost to us and it would have hurt them so we expect a reaction. We know it will be tough.”
“We are aiming for three points. If we don’t play for that then there is no point turning up.”
He then talked about the side’s impressive opening group game against Lazio where they won 2-1 and claimed: “In Scotland it will be difficult, but we have won before and we expect to do it again”.
Camora is forgetting a few minor details. With 15 minutes left of the Champions League qualifier, Celtic were through to the play-off round, and with 10 minutes to go they were again winning on aggregate. Only for the Parkhead’s side’s implosion, Cluj would’ve been knocked out.
Indeed, the BBC’s report of the game seemed to allude to Celtic throwing the game away amid ‘chaos’ and ‘anxiety’ rather than being outplayed.
There is also the small issue that Christopher Jullien did not play against Cluj. The £7m defender has helped to shore up the Bhoys’ defence with Herald Scotland describing his performance against Rennes in the last round of fixtures as ‘superb’ and Chris Sutton labelling him (via the Daily Record) as a ‘leader’.
Despite drawing at the weekend against Hibs, Celtic should feel unlucky in the fact that two penalty calls were dismissed and have otherwise been in rampant form domestically. The managed a decent draw against Rennes last time out and appear to have a much better central defensive option than the last meeting between the two sides, making Camora’s statement look a little too bold.
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