Inter were cruising after 15 minutes of their first leg tie against Celtic in Glasgow. Two goals up and looking in complete control, few would have imagined the drama that was to come. The Italian side were hit with a double sucker punch before regaining the lead only to lose a goal in stoppage time that levelled the scores once again. It was symptomatic of their season in many ways; occasionally very good but more often than not, infuriatingly frustrating. Domestically they gave started to improve and have put together three successive wins for the first time since November 2012 – a quite incredible statistic when you think about the size of the club.
I’ve previewed Celtic many times over the years in this column and have seen a lot of good and bad during that time. Last week’s match with the Serie A giants basically crammed all that into 94 minutes. The defensive mistakes that led to all three of Inter’s goals were horrendous, most notably from ‘keeper Craig Gordon. However, the resolve they showed, particularly from such a young team, and the quality of their football at times, was great to see. They have come a long way in a few months under Ronny Delia and no matter what the outcome of this tie is, there’s plenty of room for optimism in the east end of Glasgow just now.
Xherdan Shaqiri was the big signing for Robero Mancini in the January transfer window, as the Swiss attacker moved from Bayern Munich. He scored the first of the six goals last week and had a hand in the second. There’s no doubting his quality and he seems to have freshened things up for Inter going forward as they have scored 12 goals in their last four games. He will be hugely important for them once again as they look to progress to the next round.
Celtic’s away form in Europe has been a long-standing joke at times, particularly in the Champions League. It has improved somewhat recently but a heavy defeat in Warsaw against Legia, and losing eight goals in three games during qualifying, indicate that they still have a lot to learn away from home at this level. I expect a similar team to the one that started the first leg but they have to cut out the individual errors otherwise it could be a very long night.
I’m not sure we’ll see six goals again but I can certainly see at least three goals. Neither side’s defence was convincing in any way last week and an early goal should open the game up once again. Inter are favourites and rightly so but Celtic showed enough last week to suggest they can cause the home defence more than a few problems. It promises to be another entertaining one so back goals and sick back and enjoy.
Over 2.5 goals 5/6 @ Betfair
