Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Keep believing says Dembele
MOUSSA Dembele insisted Celtic still believe they can remain i n Europe after Christmas following the 1-1 draw with Borussia Monchengladbach.
The Bundesliga side had won 2-0 at Celtic Park a fortnight ago and it looked ominous just after the halfhour mark when home captain Lars Stindl, who had opened the scoring in Glasgow, volleyed past Craig Gordon.
However, Dembele — who had a penalty saved in the 7-0 defeat by Barcelona — levelled from the spot in the 76th minute after defender Julian Korb was shown a straight red card for pulling t he French striker down in the box.
Celtic, who will play in the Europa League if they can finish third i n Group C, remain bottom, two points behind the German outfit, and face leaders Barcelona and Manchester City i n their final two Champions League fixtures.
“We’ll keep believing we can c o n t i n u e ,” s a i d Dembele. “We’ll t ake it game by game and, hopefully, we can still be in Europe.
“I think we played much better football (in Germany), we believed in ourselves and we had a lot of chances.
“We deserved better in the game. We keep learning and, hopefully, in the next one we can get a result.”
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers complimented Dembele on his composure from the spot.
He said: “It was a big moment for him and I am sure the miss in Barcelona went through his head but he showed great composure.”
However, Rodgers was left ruing substitute Callum McGregor’s late miss which would have put a different complexion on the group.
“We should have scored. He has either got to score or square it to finish,” the manager said.
“He has arrived into the box and had his shot but, unfortunately f or us, it didn’t go in.”