In the north of Portugal tonight Celtic take their first steps in trying to reach the lucrative UEFA Champions league when they take on Portuguese Liga 1 runners up Sporting Braga. Neil Lennon's new side travel to Portugal with 6 new signings the latest being Gary Hooper who finalised his deal to join the hoops from Scunthorpe Utd in a deal worth £2.4m.
So what do we know about Sporting Braga??? , well their stadium that only has 2 stands , holds 30,112 and was used for the EURO 2004 finals , Domingos Paciencia (the manager) is also a Braga hero because he guided his side to their best ever finish as runners up to eventual champions Benfica last season , Braga has only 1 other major triumph in their history , a 1966 Portuguese cup win was as good as it got until Paciencia took over at the beginning of last season.
With Celtic desperate to join arch rivals Rangers in Champions League group stages , manager Neil Lennon will look to some of his new signings to provide the firepower as they try to break down what was a very organised Braga team last season , players like Joe Ledley and Efrian Juarez will be asked to create the chances for either Georgios Samaras or Mark-Antoine Fortune as Celtic will probably go with 1 up front with added support from midfield. There is also a possibility of Aiden Mcgeady starting as Lennon will be looking to get the vital away goal , although with Mcgeadys lack of match fitness it would possibly be unwise to start the Irishman.
Braga will be looking for more European success , they recently won the minor UEFA inter toto competition in 2008 but in recent seasons have respectively reached the last 16 and 32 of the old UEFA Cup. Brazilian captain Vandinho along with winger Alan are Bragas danger men , the fact that there are 15 Brazilian players in this Braga squad show why the "Arsenal of Portugal" like to play very nice football but have also a solid defence with only 20 goals conceded in Liga 1 last season.
The game is a genuine 50-50 , it will be both teams 1st game of the season also so expect some nerves , the fact that Braga don't score many goals , 1-0 being a favorite result means Celtic will probably not need to score many goals in the 2 ties to progress.
Prediction.... a close game with both teams looking to find match fitness , all depends on Celtics defence keeping the talented Braga forwards out , if they can do that i expect Celtic to score and bring back a positive 1-1 result , this is based on Braga playing nice football but rarely scoring 2 at home last season , Celtic are always dangerous so against a side that doesn't score many , Celtic then will always have a chance.
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