Following yesterday's tough Europa League draw Celtic manager Tony Mowbray vowed to seriously compete in a tournament that, in his opinion, many of the bigger European teams refused to take seriously last year. "These are exciting games." said the boss. "We're looking forward to it and there appears to be decent competition in all the groups drawn. The UEFA Cup was almost treated with disdain last season by some of the biggest sides and that was reflected in attendances. But there are some huge teams in this competition this year who will not be taking it lightly and you can certainly fit us into that category."
"Of course this club wants to be in the Champions League." he said. "But this is not an anti-climax. If we emerge from the group stages into the knockout rounds there are likely to be some very big names there, like Villarreal and Roma. If we were to face them it would be a measure of how good we are and how far we still have to go."
"There are a dozen clubs in the competition who have competed regularly in the Champions League, including Celtic." said Mogga. "I will not be so bullish as to say we can win the Europa League but we at least hope to be competitive and see where it takes us. You're always mindful of saying too much when these draws are made. If you're secretly happy you can never tell the world as it instantly motivates your opponents. If the draw is too tough you can't say because it sends out the wrong message to your players."
"The draw is okay." said the manager. "I saw Hamburg play at Man City last season and they gave them a very, very tough night. Their manager may have changed since then as Martin Jol moved to Ajax, but they have terrific players like Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric, who scored a hat-trick in the qualifying round. They also spent £12 million to sign Marcus Berg after he lit up the European Under-21 championships earlier this summer and he can't even get a place in the team at this stage. It promises to be two great games against them. I don't know enough about the Israelis at this stage but we'll work hard to find out as much as we can in the forthcoming weeks.
Of course the very name of Rapid Vienna is enough to induce apoplexy amongst some of the older Tims who remember the events of 1984 when the Austrians cheated their way past Celtic in the European Cup Winners Cup tournament. This club rank alongside Atletico Madrid as the most reviled opponents ever to set foot on the Celtic Park turf and Tony Mowbray was given a history lesson at yesterday's press conference. No doubt Peter Grant, who played in the matches against Rapid, will have filled in some of the gaps regarding the disgusting behaviour of that side.
"Peter was playing in 1984? I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to speak to him about this game before we play Rapid." said Mowbray. "I watched Rapid beat Aston Villa the other night and it spoke volumes for them as we know how strong the Premiership is and Villa finished sixth in the league last season. The fact they have been knocked out of the competition by an Austrian team shows you just how competitive Rapid Vienna are going to be."
Read about the 1984 meeting between the teams here:
http://www.kerrydalestreet.com/page/A+Rapid+Exit