TALKING CELTIC
Financial gap to continental elite in England, Spain and France is growing but Celtic have proved anything can happen...
Was tonight’s match in the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium of even greater importance than the Old Firm to the Scottish champions? How far did he think a draw or even a win in Belgium would go towards securing third place in Group B? Could Brendan Rodgers’s side do well in the Europa League knockouts? The Australian attempted to downplay the signifi
cance of the fixture with some fairly bland soundbites. Every Champions League group game was massive. They would try to win each outing they had in the competition. This meeting with Anderlecht would be no different to their encounters with Paris SaintGermain or Bayern Munich.
Nobody was, in stark contrast to the opposition defenders Rogic had weaved his way past during the hour or so he had spent on the park on Saturday, fooled.
Celtic’s showdown with the Belgian champions this evening is their biggest game of the season after their play-off matches with Astana. The ramifications of success will be massive for the Parkhead club and the players know it.
It is, too, one of their manager’s most important games since taking charge last year. Being involved in Europe beyond Christmas this season will be definite progress for Rodgers’s side. The Northern Irishman’s stock will rise even further as a result.
DOMESTIC success is always welcomed by Celtic supporters. Landing a treble and going undefeated last term was rightly celebrated. But they are also a club with a proud European heritage. Being involved at this stage is a great achievement. Going even further, however, would be widely hailed.
Celtic have defied all expectations and progressed to the knockout rounds of Europe’s elite club competition on three memorable occasions in the past – in the 2006/7 and 2007/08 campaigns under Gordon Strachan and in 2012/13 when Neil Lennon was at the helm.
Yet the gulf between the continent’s richest clubs in the five largest leagues – England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – has widened since t h e i r last success five years ago and their prospects of emulating those feats and finishing first or second in the months ahead are minimal, some would say