Van Wolfswinkel stands in Celtic’s way of Europa League progress
Published:Celtic manager Neil Lennon will be hoping that lightning does not strike twice as his team head to Holland for the second leg of their Europa League qualifier with FC Utrecht.
Lennon’s only European away game in charge of the Bhoys so far was the 3-0 reverse in Braga, which was pivotal to them failing to qualify for the Champions League.
The same scoreline in Utrecht will knock them out of European competition altogether as they only hold a two-goal advantage from the first leg thanks to goals from Efrain Juarez and Georgios Samaras.
Utrecht prepared for the game with a 3-0 domestic victory over Willem II and in striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel they have a player bang in form.
He has scored five goals in the opening three Eredivisie games and is 5/1 to break the deadlock against Celtic.
Celtic are 9/4 to win in Holland and 12/5 to draw, with the home side 100/30 just to qualify.
Meanwhile, Motherwell have a more than reasonable chance of making the group stages having picked up a valuable away goal in their first leg against Odense.
Tom Hateley’s injury-time free-kick ensured Motherwell only lost 2-1 in Denmark and they are 7/4 to reach the group stages for the first time.
A 1-0 win at Fir Park will be enough for Craig Brown’s side and this is 11/2.
Dundee United are the other Scottish team in Europa League action, but they face an uphill task to reach the group stages against AEK Athens.
They are 1-0 down from the home leg and head to Greece as massive underdogs.
The 1987 UEFA Cup runners-up are 7/1 to win the away leg, with captain Jon Daly 10/1 to grab the game’s opening goal.
Celtic are 66/1 to win the Europa League, see the whole market.
