Young Boys turn to Rangers flop on how to down Celtic but ex Ibrox star is clueless over key factor
Young Boys skipper Loris Benito will look to Cedric Itten for advice on how to win at Celtic Park.
But the Swiss star joked there might be not much point asking his pal how to deal with the atmosphere. Itten was part for the title winning Rangers side who won 2-0 in Glasgow’s East End in 2020 – but fans were locked out due to COVID. Benito tapped up former Celt Saidy Janko – who is currently crocked – instead for the inside track on what to expect.
The midfielder said: “I did speak to Saidy and Cedric. I got very different answers because one played for the Rangers and the other one for Celtic! No, I mean what they were able to tell me is that the atmosphere is going to be incredible. Obviously we prepare the game as we would prepare any other game. We look at the team well, we look at the strengths and weaknesses.
“But what they were able to tell me was more about everything surrounding the clubs. Other than that, Saidy said it has been 10 years since he had been here, so the team changed quite a lot. I can't really go with what Cedric said! He did mention the fact there were no fans here back then.
“The first question I asked was how is the atmosphere and he said the only downside was that there were no fans in the stadium at that time. It's going to be a first for him tomorrow as well. We are very much looking forward to the game.”
Young Boys new boss Georgio Contini is still finding his feet after becoming the Swiss side’s THIRD manager in less than a year. The former boss took charge of the side for the first time in Saturday’s goalless draw with his former side Winterthur and is looking to get up and running in Scotland.
Young Boys are bottom of the Champions League group and out of the hunt to reach the knockout stages. But Contini insisted his men have pride at stake as well as coefficient points – and they know they will need to battle at Parkhead as he singled out Hoops captain Callum McGregor as the main danger man.
He said: “We know the Celtic haven’t been beaten here for a long time, so we know exactly that this is a good team. They have many qualities all around the team. McGregor is a very good player, he has the stability in the game, he can control the timing, when they go faster or slower.
“Then we know the strikers are very fast, so they have a quality over the team. For us it's important that we focus on our own abilities in the team so then we can go forward. For us it will be important that we arrive in a good mindset in this game. We need to get ready to fight against a very strong opponent.
“It’s an important 90 minutes for the future. We have to be brave and play with courage. We need to fight for every ball and for the 90 minutes. Is pride a motivation? Yes, absolutely. We need to take points as we have zero so far.
“That’s why it's important to be very brave. This will be important for now but also for our evaluation in the future. So it's a really important game for us.”
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