Scotland star Lewis Ferguson is looking for his first win over Celtic as his Bologna side host the Scottish champions tomorrow night in the Europa League.
The former Aberdeen man failed to get the better of the green and whites in fifteen tries when he was in the North-East, as well as one failed attempt when he was an 18-year-old at Hamilton Academical.
Despite managing seven goals against Celtic, more than he has scored against any other club by a fair distance, the Bologna captain is hoping to taste victory over the Glasgow giants at long last tomorrow.
He told the media: “Every time I’ve faced Celtic, they’ve been strong, they’ve been really good.
“I faced them a lot of times when I was at Aberdeen when we had a good team. They were always just better than us on the day.
“But I’m obviously looking to go and change that stat. Maybe it doesn’t look too good, 16 times but never won so I’ll definitely be looking to change that.
“It was probably the first game I looked at when the draw came out. Obviously it’s nice to play against a Scottish team. We’re looking forward to it, we’re ready. If we want to get in the top eight then we need to win this game.”
Bologna currently sit 13th in the league phase, just two points off the top eight. Despite being eleven places higher in the table, Ferguson is well aware of the threat that Celtic can carry under Martin O’Neill.
“He [O’Neill] is such an experienced manager, he has been there and done it all.
“He is one of Celtic’s most experienced managers and as such, he knows the club so well. Winning seven out of eight games in that [interim] period is impressive.
“Martin is a safe pair of hands. He knows how to get the best out of the players, so we will be expecting a really tough game.”
Ferguson, son of Rangers hero Derek and nephew to former ‘Gers captain Barry, says that his family opted against making the journey to Italy amongst the Celtic following.
“Everybody’s at home. I don’t think my dad wanted to take a flight out and be surrounded by Celtic fans. My family will be at home and watching from Scotland.
“I’ve not had a chance to speak to him [Barry Ferguson] recently to talk about this game, but I think I know his thoughts on it! I know who he wants to win, that’s pretty clear.
“I’ve obviously spoken to my dad a lot over the last couple of weeks, just about things in general, not too much about the game.
“But yeah, I could probably tell you Barry’s thoughts before he said them.”
The sides face off at the earlier kickoff time of 17:45 GMT tomorrow afternoon. A win for Celtic would further boost their chances of a playoff round spot going into the final league phase match, whilst Bologna need to win if they want any chance of sneaking into the top eight places.
Celtic are yet to concede since O’Neill’s return but have looked less than convincing in their last two outings against Falkirk and Auchinleck Talbot.
As for the Italian hosts, they have suffered a poor run of recent form of one win in their last seven, yet have only lost to Aston Villa in European action this season on match day one.
