Sheepish Lennon sticks to Celtic’s traditions
Hours before the Scottish champions arrived at the Astana Arena for a training session on the plastic pitch, the Kazakhstan side had again killed a sheep in order to bring them good luck.
The sacrifice took place at a tunnel in the corner of the stadium before the Shakhter players were put through their paces by coach Viktor Kumykov, who was later coy about the “tradition”.
The Celtic boss was asked about the home side’s unusual pre-match ritual at his press conference and said: “You have to respect that.
“It is a different culture. Players have their own superstitions. We have a very diverse group of players from different parts of the world, different religions and you respect that. The only thing we do collectively is obviously the very famous huddle before every game.”
Lennon had a joke when he was told that Kumykov had promised to give up smoking after 35 years if his side beat Celtic.
Asked if there was anything he would consider giving up for a victory, the former Celtic skipper laughed as he replied: “Well, I don’t smoke.”
The Irishman was less happy, however, when one local journalist claimed he has been quoted as saying he thought it would be an easy game in Astana.
“I don’t think that is correct,” he said. “I never said that. It will be a very difficult tie, particularly the game away from home. The tie is over two games and hopefully we will take some sort of result back to Glasgow.
“We are relaxed, we had a great result at the weekend against Aberdeen and the players are in good form and looking forward to the game.”
Lennon was asked about his interest in Schalke striker Teemu Pukki whose potential move to the Glasgow club appears to be in doubt after an injury to team-mate Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
He said: “I don’t think it will have any bearing on him coming here or not.
“We did make the offer before the Huntelaar injury so I imagine that wouldn’t have helped things.”
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