Celtic must tread carefully in trying ride Hearts wave against Celta Vigo
Callum Osmand is hoping Celtic can ride the wave of Sunday's 7-1 Hearts win into Thursday night's Europa League clash with Celta Vigo. The Bhoys were excellent on Sunday, delivering a complete performance, albeit their Edinburgh visitors were rather awful defensively.
There were some real bright sparks during the Hearts win, and youngster Callum Osmand was one of them. The former Wales youth international scored twice on the left side, providing a much-needed spark on the left after returning from injury.
Sebastian Tounekti has struggled on that side, and Martin O'Neill has also been without Jota and Yang Hyun-jun, although the former is getting closer to full fitness, and the latter should be back in a week or two.
For now, Osmand will surely keep his place having been brought off at half-time to make sure he is eased back into games following his setback. But Thursday night will be a very different test.
Celta are a quality side, currently eighth in LaLiga, and they will arrive in Glasgow in need of a win having also lost their first two Europa League clashes. Neither of these two teams wants to go into their final five games needing to pick up the nine to ten points likely needed to progress to the next stage of the competition.
“I think Sunday really lifted us. Obviously scoring seven goals is huge for us and everyone played their own part," said Osmand in the pre-match press conference.
"Hopefully we can bring that in to tomorrow and score some more goals. It was a really good performance, I thought we were strong. When you come off the back of a win and you’re straight in to another game, everyone’s spirits are high. You can tell everyone is smiling and hopefully we can do it again tomorrow.”
Celtic must seize upon confidence boost
Celtic need to take advantage of the big Hearts win heading into this game. They need to understand that the two opponents are on a different level and not get overconfident, but they should be confident enough to execute.
The Bhoys keep making a mess of their European games, and something has to spark them into a different mindset to be able to change that pattern. The Hearts win could be that spark, but not without the right mindset and performance on Thursday night.
Celta are not to be underestimated, and if they are, it's going to be another crushing blow for the Bhoys in Europe.
