Celtic vs HJK Helsinki preview - Lennon responds to Green claims

Posted Wednesday, August 01, 2012 by PA

Neil Lennon could have not been more disdainful when he described Charles Green's controversial assertion that the demise of Rangers was down to "bigotry" within Scottish football as "funny."

Before Sunday's Ramsdens Cup extra-time win over Brechin at Glebe Park, the Rangers chief executive suggested that the reason the Ibrox club were denied entry into the Scottish Premier League was due to bigotry and jealousy.

The Scottish Football Association's compliance officer, Vincent Lunny, has written to Green asking him to explain his comments.

The Celtic boss, speaking at the club's Lennoxtown training ground ahead of Wednesday's Champions League qualifier against HJK Helsinki at Parkhead, was withering in his response to the former Sheffield United chief executive's remarks.

Lennon said: "The club have said that it is not worthy of response, so...

"I was golfing, I only read about it yesterday and I found it quite funny. He has only been here five minutes and he is calling us all bigots already."

Lennon is aware of the importance of making it into the group stages of European football's elite club competition but knows his side will have their work cut out against a team well into their domestic season and who beat KR Reykjavik 9-1 on aggregate in the last round.

"It is not the be all and end all but it is important," he said. "It is important for the players, the club, financially, obviously, and it is important for our supporters to get a feel for the European nights again.

"It is difficult, I am very wary of these games and I have been for quite while.

"But they enhance the players' reputation, the club's reputation and it is imperative that we make the next step into the Champions League group but we have four very tough ties coming up.

"It always is (a concern), when these qualifiers come around. We haven't had a competitive game yet so we have tried to condition the players as best we can.

"We have had Helsinki watched three times. They lost a league game at the weekend but they are in good form.

"They are defensively well-organised, have good players in wide areas, two good full-backs who are comfortable on the ball and get forward well.

"So it is a tough task for us and we will have to play very well to get through the tie."

Kris Commons and Anthony Stokes will have fitness tests ahead of the match after both players suffered ankle injuries in the 1-1 friendly draw with Inter Milan on Saturday.

Scott Brown, Kelvin Wilson, Thomas Rogne, James Forrest and Beram Kayal are back in contention after being left out at the weekend.

HJK Helsinki coach Antti Muurinen insists his players will not be at Celtic Park to make up the numbers.

The Finnish side arrived in Glasgow buoyed by their 9-1 aggregate win over KR Reykjavik in the last round and with 19 league games under their belt but finding themselves as underdogs despite the Hoops looking forward to their first competitive game of the season.

Before his squad trained at Celtic Park, Muurinen was respectful of the Scottish champions but bullish in his attitude.

Speaking through an interpreter he said: "I told the players that we didn't come all the way here to be afraid, 95% our time should be spent talking about how we play and five per cent about the way they play.

"There is no point in being in sport if you don't believe in victory.

"Of course we recognise that Celtic are a very strong, powerful team but we have to believe that we have a chance to win, even if there is a great imbalance between the teams.

"It will be an exciting experience for us.

"We are not expecting any surprises from Celtic, their tactics will be to crush us which the fans expect.

"So I can expect the first 15 to 20 minutes to be the most important part of the game."

Muurinen, who admitted he would be happy if Georgios Samaras was left out of Lennon's starting XI, believes his side's superior match fitness "could be a factor" over the two games.

He added: "What could be an advantage is that we are well into our season, we have been playing games for months and Celtic are still in pre-season.

"As I understand Celtic Park can take 60,000 and that will obviously bring a lot of heat on my players but I want to believe in my players.

"And we don't have the same have-to-win pressure on us as the home team, although people back home are waiting on lots of things from this game."