Tierney calls for Celtic to sing in tune as Europa League kicks off
KIERAN Tierney eschewed the pull of the Champions League to spent an “emotional” night at the theatre taking in the Celtic Musical.
And the Celtic full-back is confident that Brendan Rodgers’ side will be on song tonight as they kick off their European campaign against Rosenborg.
“It was class, to be fair,” smiled Tierney. “I would recommend it to everybody. Somebody asked me if I had been watching the Champions League but I said: ‘no chance! I was at the musical!’
“Nobody had to twist my arm to go along. I was dying to go. I had to beg Celtic for tickets for me and my mates. I will probably try and go again.”
Tierney spent as much of the evening posing for photographs and signing autographs as he did watching the stage, not that he had any complaints – “if people ask you for pictures you should be grateful and I am grateful” – but the foundations for where he finds himself now were sown in the competition that Celtic will head back into tonight.
It was a Europa League game against Fenerbahce when Tierney came of age in Ronny Deila’s side and his performance that night went some way to establishing him in the Parkhead senior team.
“If someone had told me that night that three years later all this would have happened, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said the Scotland internationalist. “That I would have been given the chance to captain Celtic, lead them out and do the talk in the huddle. That I was part of the History Makers season and it’s just a huge honour.
“It was my fourth or fifth game [against Fenerbahce] and I never thought I’d be starting. I did pretty well and from there I got my chance. It was Ronny Deila who gave me the opportunity and I thank him for that.
“I would say that was the night it really started for me as a first-team player for Celtic. I didn’t play every game after that but he [Deila] trusted me in big games after it.
“Emilio [Izaguirre] got a red card in one game soon afterwards, so I played in more European games. That was the one that kick-started it for me.
“I remember the build-up when I was being shown video clips of Nani and Robin van Persie – I was thinking ‘you’re joking!’ No chance!
“But I remember we went 2-0 up then conceded right before and after half-time which kind of killed it. I would have loved to have got the win in my first European game.
“I was up against Nani in the first half, then he switched wings. It was some game to come into and after that my confidence grew. It gave me belief that I could play in Europe and I just