Miguel Freckleton piled the misery on Celtic last season in the League Cup final - and he is looking to do the same with LASK tonight. Freckleton and his St Mirren teammates stunned beleaguered boss Wilfried Nancy to lift the Premier Sports Cup at Hampden last December. Off the back of an impressive campaign with the Buddies, the 23-year-old earned a move to the Austrian champions this summer.
Champions League dream
He is now looking to put more misery on Celtic in Glasgow and take a step towards the Champions League with a positive result at Celtic Park. He told Record Sport: "Progressing in this tie would mean everything to me, to be honest. My dream has always been to play in the Champions League. It’s the best competition in Europe and, for me, the best competition in the world. I remember saying it when I was 17. Whenever people asked me what my goals were, I always said that I wanted to play in the Champions League. So hopefully that dream can become a reality. I’ll do everything I can to help make it happen."
A different Celtic side
The Englishman concedes that the Celtic side he faces under the lights in Glasgow's East End will be a different animal to Nancy's rudderless Hoops. He said: "Yeah, it feels like a while ago now since that final. When we played them, they were going through a difficult spell, with a new manager coming in and everything being in transition. I think St Mirren were really on our game that day, and, simply put, we wanted it more than they did. But I don’t think we can say the same thing going into this game. Both teams are going to want it just as badly. I know they’ll be desperate to get back into the Champions League, and we want to experience Champions League football ourselves. So it’s going to be a really good tie, and I’m really excited to be a part of it."
O’Neill led Celtic to a 6-2 victory over the Buddies in the Scottish Cup semi final last campaign in his second spell of interim charge. They have since bolstered their firepower with the big money additions of Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran as part of a £30million summer spending spree.
Tactical expectations
Freckleton is anticipating a similar tactical approach from the 74-year-old’s team this time around. He continued: "Yeah, they have a different manager now, when we played them in the semi-final, they had the same manager as before, so I don’t expect things to be too different tactically from when I played against them. Obviously, they’ve brought in some new players and they’ve had a good start to the season, so we know they’ll be confident and expect to win themselves. It’s going to be a really good game. I think it’s a great tie for both teams, and we’re looking forward to it."
