Celtic or Cluj in the UCL Play-off
5.8.2019, Klub
Slavia know their opponents for Champions League Play-off. The red-whites will play either Celtic FC or Romanian champions CFR Cluj.
The red-whites start away on Tuesday, 20 August. The 2nd leg will be played on Sinobo Stadium in Prague on Wednesday, 28 August. Both games will kick-off at 9 pm CET.The favourites of 3rd qualification round are Celtic FC, clear leaders of recent Scottish Premiership seasons. In 2018/19 Celtic won the league 11 points ahead of Rangers and seized their 8th consecutive title. “The Bhoys” also won the Scottish FA Cup and the League Cup this year, but the 2018/19 Champions League remained forbidden for them losing the Play-off to AEK. This year Celtic managed to eliminate Sarajevo in 1st and Nomme Kalju in 2nd qualifying round.
Their opponents in the 3rd qualifying round will be CFR Cluj, traditional Romanian club and fivefold winners of Romanian top division. In 2018/19 Cluj finished on top of the league 5 points ahead of FCSB, in Romanian Cup they lost to Astra in semi-finals. Last year CFR lost to Malmö in UCL 2nd qualifying round and later was surprisingly eliminated by Dudelange in Europa League Play-off. This season the Romanians seem to be much more successful eliminating Astana and Maccabi Tel Aviv on their path to 3rd qualifying round.
“I dare to say the tie between Celtic and Cluj will be equal, because the Romanians have very strong team. I saw their friendly against Sparta, they won 1-0 and played pretty well,” Slavia manager Jindřich Trpišovský says.
“But we will all keep our fingers crossed for Celtic. If they qualify, I will be fully satisfied. From all four teams who will probably qualify I wished for Celtic, even though I think Copenhagen would be more suitable opponents for us. Celtic has been on top of the list for me, because it is Scotland and it is the great atmosphere,” Trpišovský added.
