CELTIC have reached the day of the unsellable game.
When the Europa League group draw was made on August 29 the reality of being participants at all felt dispiriting enough for the Scottish champions.
They did not want to be in UEFA's secondary tournament in the first place, they did not want to be in what turned out to be a drab Group D and they certainly did not want to be associating with the likes of Astra Giurgiu.
All pleasantries will be extended tonight and the Romanians will be afforded due respect, but the unspoken fact remains: they are not the sort of club Celtic want to be playing so soon after rubbing shoulders with the likes of Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan.
On the one hand Astra have looked the weak link of the group, thrashed 5-1 away to Dinamo Zagreb and then beaten 2-1 at home by Red Bull Salzburg. They are bottom of the section and pointless. On the other hand, an unknown and struggling team brings the pressure of an assumed easy victory.
Those Celtic supporters who turn up tonight - the attendance is not likely to go much above 25,000 - will do so in the expectation of seeing three points harvested against the team sitting fourth in the Romanian league.
Ronny Deila was quick to dampen expectations of a straightforward procession, of course. The Celtic manager said Astra would be in the top two or three teams if they competed in Scotland (a claim not without irony given that Celtic themselves are currently fifth in the SPFL Premiership). "I think Astra if they played in the Scottish league they would win, if we didn't of course. They are not a bad team."
The club is owned by Ioan Niculae, the businessman and entrepreneur whose personal wealth of £750m has him listed as the richest man in Romania. That alone suggests some substance behind Celtic's third opponents in the group campaign, and Deila has first-hand evidence after his former club, Stromsgodset, played a friendly against them in January.
"They have some quality players there. Of course if you look at the group you see that they didn't have any points yet and that is a sign that they may be a little bit weaker than Salzburg and Zagreb, but those two teams are very good.
"I think it will be a tough game. We have to prepare well. But in the last month things are happening, I think we are going in the right way and I think the players are starting to get confidence. I can see in training that we are starting to get some relations and patterns in the attacking play, we are better in the transition defensively, we haven't conceded many chances or goals. So I think confidence is coming into the boys."
Celtic may not want to be in it, yet the Europa League has the potential to be rewarding for them. Arguably their most impressive results under Deila have been the 2-2 draw in Salzburg and the 1-0 home win over Zagreb. That elevated Celtic to four points after two games going into the double-header against the Romanians.
Home and away will be hard-earned but if six points were to be claimed Celtic would virtually have qualified for the last 32 with two games to spare.
"We have a new team and a new style of play and I think the European matches have been very important for us," said Deila. "If we get to the Champions League next season we have to be even better again so I think the Europa League is very important to get experience and to play together as a team, to get the new players used to European football."
Kris Commons remains a doubt. The intrigue will emerge only if he is fit and does not play. Stefan Johansen was a highly capable deputy in the weekend's 5-0 rout of Ross County and may be used behind the striker again, with Commons omitted. John Guidetti's ineligibility means either Anthony Stokes will be moved from wide left to centre forward in the 4-2-3-1 system, or else he will stay where he is and Stefan Scepovic will be up front.
Scepovic appeared for the last 23 minutes in Dingwall but that meant another appearance was clocked up - his sixth - without his first Celtic goal. The £2.3m signing has still to take off. "I think he is very hungry," said Deila. "He is very hungry to play. You can see in his eyes that he wants to improve."
When he was asked if Scepovic had managed to improve his physique, an intention stated by the player and manager a few weeks ago, Deila joked that the Serb had been working hard in the gym but it could take six months to fully show because "we don't do any drugs". A home fixture against a team few had heard of a few months ago will never be intoxicating, but another European win tonight would give Celtic a wee natural high.
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