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Liam Buckley applauds the St Pat's fans in Poland. fot. Tomasz Jastrzebowski/Foto Olimpik
Champions League

St Pat's boss Liam Buckley raises prospect of Celtic match at Aviva Stadium

The Saints supremo is eager to outfox opposite number Henning Berg and see off Legia Warsaw first.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC boss Liam Buckley says senior officials at the Dublin club are looking into the possibility of playing Celtic at the Aviva Stadium if both sides win their Champions League qualifiers.

The Irish and Scottish sides, both champions of their respective leagues last season, will face each other in the final qualifier stage ahead of the Champions League group stages if they can follow up on positive first legs. St Pat’s drew 1-1 away to Legia Warsaw while Celtic won 1-0 against KR Reykjavík.

Speaking today on 98FM’s Now That’s What I Call Sport, Buckley revealed a home leg against Celtic at the 51,700-seater stadium on Lansdowne Road would be the ideal scenario.

Buckley said, “As we’re all fully aware, it would be a fantastic draw for our club and the soccer public in Ireland, and Dublin. Celtic have a massive fanbase here and I’m sure they would bring a lot of the locals over.

“Everybody, from a Pat’s perspective, would be delighted to play in a Champions League third round qualifier against Celtic.

We’re obviously going to check out all of the options in relation to where we can and cannot play it. Obviously, we’re in Tallaght Stadium on Wednesday but if the Aviva was available [for a prospective Celtic match] that would be fantastic as well.”

Buckley added, “That being said, we’ve got 90 minutes to make sure we stay in the tie or else we’ll be out of this competition. We can’t afford to give ourselves too much time to think about Celtic.

“We’ve got to make sure we properly address this game on Wednesday. We can do it. we have enough good talent in our group; collectively we know what we’re about. If we’re at it on Wednesday we’ll win.”

The Saints boss also revealed that midfielder Killian Brennan, who went off with a leg injury, in the 1-1 draw with Legia Warsaw should be fit for the second leg. It means the Dubliners should have a full deck to choose from.

For more about the Buckley interview, check out Now That’s What I Call Sport here.

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