Mjallby Rooting for Helsinki

'Better the devil you know.'

This was Johan Mjallby¡¦s immediate reaction on hearing the news that Celtic will have to negotiate a safe passage past either HJK Helsinki or MTK Budapest if they are to reach the Champions League group stages.

Lithuanian minnows Kaunas will require to be seen off first, of course, but the Hoops¡¦ Swedish centre-half is confident that he and his team-mates will soon be weighing up the respective benefits and pitfalls of travelling to the Finnish and Hungarian capitals.

Indeed, even at this stage ¡V and without knowing anything of note about the team from Budapest - Mjallby was prepared to voice a preference for a return trip to Helsinki over a trip into the unknown.

He said: ¡§The problem for me is that I don¡¦t know much about the Hungarian team, so at this moment I would say that I would prefer to play Helsinki. It¡¦s only a couple of seasons since we played them, after all, and it always helps when you know something about the team you¡¦re going to play.

¡¨That¡¦s usually the way anyway, and I think most of the boys would probably agree with me. We have to get through against Kaunas first, though, and then we will have to see which of the teams are the strongest.¡¨

Should the Finns triumph, it¡¦s certainly highly unlikely that they will find themselves underestimated by anyone within the Celtic dressing room given they came within a veritable whisker of shocking the Hoops during Martin O¡¦Neill¡¦s first season in charge.

Then, following a Henrik Larsson-inspired 2-0 first leg victory at Celtic Park, two horrific errors by Vidar Riseth and Jonathan Gould in Helsinki might well have proved catastrophic, but for a late Chris Sutton goal deep into extra time.

¡§It was a tough game for us,¡¨ Mjallby recalled. ¡§I remember that, having won 2-0 at home, we slipped up a wee bit when we played them away and needed Chris to score late on to put us through. It was a hard night for us, no doubt about that.

¡§But we are so much more experienced now in Europe than we were then, and we have gained a lot from the matches we have played in the Champions League and UEFA Cup over the last two seasons. Because of that, I would fancy our chances.¡¨