Ferencvaros boss recalls famous Celtic Park night ahead of Europa League showdown
Ferencvaros boss Balazs Borbely knows exactly what awaits his side at Celtic Park on Thursday night – having experienced the famous Parkhead atmosphere more than two decades ago.
Borbely will lead Ferencvaros into their Europa League opener against Celtic, but it will not be his first visit to Glasgow’s East End.
The 45-year-old was part of the Artmedia Bratislava side which famously thrashed Celtic 5-0 in Slovakia in 2005, leaving Gordon Strachan’s side requiring a remarkable comeback in the return leg.
Celtic came agonisingly close, winning 4-0 on an electric night at Parkhead but ultimately exiting the Champions League 5-4 on aggregate.
Now returning as Ferencvaros manager, Borbely believes that experience has given him an understanding of the environment his players will encounter.
Speaking to club media, Borbely said via 67HH: “I was lucky enough to play at Celtic’s stadium, I know what kind of atmosphere awaits us.
“We are talking about a big team, but our team has already shown that it is capable of performing very well against big teams and achieving a fair result.”
The atmosphere that evening in 2005 also left a lasting impression on then-Artmedia boss Vladimir Weiss, who said he had “never experienced an atmosphere like this in all my life” after Celtic’s ultimately unsuccessful comeback attempt.
Those ties were Strachan’s first competitive matches after replacing Martin O’Neill, while UEFA’s rules at the time meant Celtic’s elimination left them without European football for the remainder of the season.
Borbely returns to Parkhead having taken charge of Ferencvaros this summer after guiding ETO FC Gyori to the Hungarian title ahead of his current employers.
His Ferencvaros side overcame Paulo Bernardo’s Gornik Zabrze and Mohamed Salah’s Trabzonspor on their way to reaching the Europa League.
Borbely believes his team are now beginning to find stability after significant rotation earlier in the campaign.
He continued: “Obviously, we had an idea, a goal that we set at the beginning of the season, not only for the European Cup appearance, but for the entire season.
“We are more or less as we planned, so for now it’s fine. We started separately for the European Cup appearance and the Hungarian championship.
“We rotated a lot, we changed a lot, and that left its mark on our performance. Now I feel that we have pretty much found everyone’s position, we have learned from the fact that if we rotate ten people, it may not work the way we imagined.
“We have stabilised our performance both in Europe and in the league. Obviously, there are many things that we can still develop, that we still need to improve, but I think we are on the right track.”
