Celtic: Pep Guardiola understudy Carlos Vicens has much to prove with Braga

Vicens’ rise owes much to the apprenticeship served at Manchester City, where the Mallorcan worked his way from a work experience role to a first full-time position assisting with the under-12s and 13s, eventually impressing sufficiently as under-18 coach to earn the call from Guardiola in 2021.

After four years working under arguably the best coach in the modern game, Vicens was keen to strike out on his own and Braga, having parted company with Carlos Carvalhal, came calling.

It was a tentative start under the new boss, a 0-0 draw away to Levski Sofia in his opening game in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, followed by a narrow extra-time victory over the Bulgarians at home.

But a 4-1 aggregate win over Cluj and two 3-0 league victories to start the season seemed to augur well for Braga under Vicens.

The play-off round was as comfortable as it could possibly have been against Celtic’s former adversaries, Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar, but sandwiched in between two emphatic results came the first signs of a stumble as they drew at home to AVS (which remains the bottom club’s only point of the season).

Braga have not won in the four league games since, losing both at home, and that has drawn the ire of supporters.

Such is the context in which they come to Celtic Park, where they lost on their only previous visit in August 2010 on Champions League qualifying duty, though Celtic’s 2-1 second-leg win was not enough to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit.

A third-placed finish in that season’s Champions League group stage paved the way for their best European campaign as they dropped into the Europa League and marched all the way to the final, only to be beaten by Celtic’s 2003 conquerors, Porto.

Their best performance since then was halted by Rangers at the quarter-final stage in 2022 en route to the final themselves.

Last season, wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hoffenheim and Lazio were not enough to take them through to the knockout phase as they finished 25th, agonisingly just a goal behind Fenerbahce, who went on to lose to Rangers.

Interestingly, they picked up just a point on their travels (at Elfsborg), losing away to Olympiacos, Roma and Union St Gilloise as well as at home to Bodo/Glimt.