Former Barcelona and Valencia Star Gaizka Mendieta has told Celtic fans he believes Valencia can be beaten and they must strive to put the Spaniards under pressure when they turn up to a red hot atmosphere in Glasgow this Thursday.

Mendieta does believe on their day that Valencia could hurt the best of clubs but right now they’re having so many off days and Celtic must add to their misery.

Mendieta told SunSport “Valencia will give Celtic full respect, I’ve no doubts about that. If they were to not do this that would be a big, big mistake.

“You can’t take teams like Celtic lightly. Their strength is more the team than individuals. You have to take them seriously.”

“Valencia have a really good team, with some excellent players, but I expect Celtic to fight hard, particularly in Glasgow.

“For me, there’s no favourite in this tie — so home advantage is going to be even more important.

“It’s for Celtic to put pressure on Valencia in Glasgow and play with great intensity.”

Celtic host Valencia on Thursday with the return leg a week later. The clubs have not faced each other since 2001 when the Spaniards put Celtic out on penalties at Celtic Park on a night of high drama.

It will be up to Celtic to try and vanquish those memories and make their own history in the Europa league.

It’s going to be a tall order for Brendan Rodgers and his team but they must show they can live with La Liga side and as we have seen many times before, when the fans get on top of the opposing team, anything can happen!

1 COMMENT

Leave a Reply to Jackie Gillies Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.