Riga star Antons Kurakins reckons having no manager won’t wreck his team’s chances of stunning Celtic.
The former Parkhead youngster and his colleagues believe they can spring a major Europa League shock on Thursday night and send the Hoops crashing out of Europe.
Riga’s preparations have been disrupted by manager Oleg Kononov returning back to his homeland in Russia for family reasons.
Assistant Mihals Konevs has been in charge in recent days, but Kurakins said: “Our coach has some family issues, so I don’t know who will play and how we will play.
“It’s been a bit of a strange week. The coach will not be back from Russia. It’s not such a good period.
“It can be confusing, but we are just players. It is not our business, it is the business of the directors. Our job is to play and we just need to go and enioy the game.
“It won’t be an excuse. When the game starts, it will just be us and we’ll do our best.”
Celtic are big favourites, but the ex-Hamilton, Brechin and Stranraer defender added: “It is a one-off game. We believe. There are many examples in the game when the underdog wins and we are in our stadium.
“I feel all of the pressure is also on Celtic for this game.
“We want to win and give our all and it helps that everyone expects Celtic to win because we can play with freedom. If you don’t feel that much pressure, you can enjoy the game more.
“If we play compact, we’ll get more belief the longer the game goes and they don’t score a quick goal. If you play such a strong team, of course, we can’t play so open.”
