BROONY: LET’S RAISE ROOF FOR VALENCIA
Broony backs Parkhead crowd to roar Bhoys to Europa glory over Valencia
CELTIC 5 ST JOHNSTONE 0
CELTIC captain Scott Brown has insisted that the Parkhead side will look to capitalise on full home advantage on Thursday night as they host Valencia in the Europa League.
The midfielder, who netted a rare goal in the 5-0 dismantling of St Johnstone yesterday afternoon in the William Hill Scottish Cup, has maintained that there is complete belief
on the part of Brendan Rodgers’ as they prepare to go up against the La Liga side.
“It will always be jumping here at home on a European night,” said Brown.
“The atmosphere is incredible and over the years that is something that has been huge for us.
“But we always fancy ourselves at home, no matter who it is against. We are playing well, results have been good and we are keeping clean sheets so the confidence in the squad is high. We have belief in one another and hopefully we can go and give a solid account of ourselves.”
Scott Bain looks certain to keep the gloves after staying in the team since the Scottish Cup win over Airdrie last month.
And Brown has revealed that he doesn’t need to give the keeper any kind of pep talk ahead of the Europa League game, something that will be an entirely new experience for the stopper.
“He is very chilled,” said Brown. “He keeps the ball and he has kept a clean sheet in every game since we came back from Dubai. We are lucky that we have two top-class goalkeepers here competing for the jersey.
“But Scott is more focussed than anyone. He is really relaxed on and off the park. He knows how we set up and why we set up that way.”
Brown, meanwhile, enjoyed his own goal celebration yesterday. His long range effort was his first goal since February 2017 and he admitted that he wasn’t the only one surprised to see it hit the back of the net.
“Oli Burke got a shock,” he said. “I don’t think he has even seen me score in training.
“I watched the video back after the game and you can see by Jonny Hayes’ reaction that he was taken aback as well!”