Lights on and party over, but Lennon determined to make most of last dance

Chief football writer

Wednesday 6 March 2013

NEIL Lennon would doubtless react scornfully to the thought of anyone having pity for him, yet it was hard not to feel sorry for the Celtic manager yesterday as he discussed what lies in store for him and his team in Turin tonight.

Neil Lennon and his squad familiarise themselves with the Juventus Stadium

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Michael Grant

The Champions League has been a soaring experience for Celtic this season but now it feels as though they are hanging around when everyone knows they have outstayed their welcome.

Lennon will lead his men into the Juventus Stadium tonight without the ingredient which always nourishes and energises him: a fighting chance. He knows it, too, even if managerial etiquette dictated that he went through the motions of talking up how his team might claw its way back into the tie. An early Celtic goal, a wobbly Juventus, maybe a second and then who knows?

It was the best he could realistically offer but neither the questions nor the answers were loaded with expectation when he faced the media at Celtic's city centre hotel. Taking on Juventus in Italy when they're defending a three-goal lead? That can be filed as a lost cause. Getting through them even once can feel like an achievement deserving of a ticker-tape parade, let alone doing so three unanswered times to force extra time. Unless the Old Lady suffers the sort of collapse so unthinkable it would bring down the Italian government, Celtic are already dead and buried in this tie with 90 minutes to spare.Sympathy for Lennon derives from the possibility that a Champions League campaign which has delivered such rich fulfilment for him could yet end with an aggregate result that suggests his team is now out of its depth. Celtic peaked with the performances in their home and away games against Barcelona – going down to a desperately late winner at Camp Nou and then gloriously beating them at Parkhead – and the ascension to second place of a team seeded fourth in the group deserved enormous praise. Celtic, so long synonymous with only a dreadful record in European away games, redrew their reputation and made the wider football community sit up and take notice.But Juventus are top of Serie A and unbeaten in their last 17 European ties so the idea of them shipping three goals to Celtic need not occupy anyone's thoughts for long. Celtic's objective tonight will be to permit their 2200 travelling supporters a respectable retreat, with a commendable Champions League campaign being given an appropriate send-off. Avoiding a second-leg defeat, a goal, a competitive and intelligent performance; all of those are realistic objectives. Celtic did create a handful of chances in the first leg and scoring tonight is perfectly possible, although they will have to test Gianluigi Buffon far more than they did in Glasgow.Lennon's evoked the imagery of beaten warriors, leaving a battlefield by being carried out on their shields. "We've had such a brilliant campaign, we don't want to go out on a flat note. If we're going to go out, go out on our shield. Just give everything. It's an old saying my da' used to talk about. If you're going to go out, go out having given every last drop you've got. We can't go gung-ho. Juventus are brilliantly well-organised defensively so we need to think our way through the game if we can. I'm not expecting to win three or four nil but I'd like to win it one-nil, 2-1, if we could do that it would be a fantastic achievement again. "Is the tie beyond us? I'm a realist. It will take a minor miracle but miracles do happen sometimes. Juventus won't be complacent but there will be a wee bit of nerves there. I'm saying we won't come out all guns blazing but the players might come out and have a right good go at it. We can't be naive, we have to play with our brains as well as our hearts and try to work our way into the game. I would imagine being at home Juventus will have the lion's share of possession."If we could even go in at half-time a goal up, you just never know. Obviously we'd have to defend a bit better than we did in the first game. I thought we created plenty of chances but they are a very difficult team to break down because they go back into a five and a three and if you see the majority of goals that they do concede they are either crosses or long-range shots, they are very difficult to play through. Even the goal Napoli scored the other night was a 25-yarder that got a deflection and went in."The leniency shown towards Juventus's defenders by Spanish referee Alberto Mallenco – or at least Celtic's reaction to it – overshadowed the first leg but it was not the reason for the Italians' crushing victory. Efe Ambrose's defending was inadequate at the first and third goals and the rapier quality of the one in between, from Claudio Marchisio, was a chilling confirmation of the talent Juventus have at their disposal.Their outstanding defender, Italian internationalist Giorgio Chiellini, missed the first leg and may also be spared tonight because of a bruised ankle. Marchisio, Stephan Lichsteiner and Arturo Vidal may also be excused lest they pick up another booking and earn a suspension for the first leg of the quarter-finals. Scott Brown and Mikael Lustig will be absent from Celtic's first leg team, with Georgios Samaras coming back and Adam Matthews probably being preferred to Joe Ledley.Celtic have never managed any victory in Italy in their 51 years as European participants. As Juventus complete the formality of qualifying tonight they will probably deny them again. Celtic will bow out with millions of pounds from Uefa, but this campaign has enriched them in more ways than one.

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Lights on and party over, but Lennon determined to make most of last dance

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