Celtic Neil Lennon has urged fans to avoid display of offensive banners when they visit their Italian counterparts Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday.

The Hoops were charged by UEFA for unlawful banners with abusive chants during their 2-1 win over Lazio at Celtic Park back in October. And this has prompted an action from the footballing body; UEFA to deal with the case on the 21st of November.

The two sides will come up against each other at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, where a particular part of the stadium will be closed as a sanction from UEFA after some Lazio fans sang some racists chants during the game against Rennes.

Lennon is optimistic that the fans will leave that behind them and show Lazio how faithful and conducted they are and not give the Lazio faithful a wrong impression about them. Lennon said; I won’t go out there and criticise our supporters. The Club has an excellent reputation worldwide, and we want to maintain that”.

The Hoops manager also revealed that there is no feud between both clubs and there is something different [ Racism] from football which they are looking forward to eliminating as quickly as possible before they make the Thursday’s trip.

Christopher Julien who scored the winning goal for Celtic against Lazio said he is not bothered about racist chants from fans. He revealed that he isn’t scared and he’s only focused on the match ahead. When quizzed on the racism issue from fans he added and said: ” I have no idea if it makes me a better player, when you play in a hostile environment, and you make the crowd silent, it is enjoyable.”.

Celtic next action will be in the Europa League on Thursday against Lazio in Italy. The ran out 2-1 winners over Lazio in the previous European fixture.

Celtic are backed at 4.81 to emerge victorious against Lazio, while Lazio are backed at 1.70 to win.

 
 
Written by: Olumide Akinnifesi