I’LL JUST CLOSE MY EYES AND THINK OF ENGLAND!
Leigh Griffiths on his set-piece plans for Astana
“I’m hoping to replicate one of the free-kicks against Astana”
REPLACE Aleksandr Mokin with Joe Hart. Visualise Gary Cahill in place of Igor Shitov. Recall the two perfect arcs that spread delirium around Hampden Park.
For Leigh Griffiths, that will be the mental process against Astana if a free-kick presents a chance to fire Celtic closer to the Champions League group stage. It lends a very different meaning to closing your eyes and thinking of England.
The Parkhead striker — feeling ‘really good’ after a troublesome calf saw him rested against Partick Thistle — admits knowledge of delivering on the most scrutinised of stages could prove invaluable this evening. When the pressure gauge hits ‘intense’, Griffiths often thrives.
Never more so than when his pair of sublime set-pieces earned Scotland a 2-2 draw against England in June. To score twice in the space of three minutes, with a nation’s hopes of reaching Russia 2018 on the line, was simply extraordinary.
That level of expertise was also witnessed when the 26-year-old dispatched a free-kick into the Hapoel Be’er Sheva net during last season’s Champions League play-off. Should a similar opportunity arise against Astana this time around, Griffiths will draw belief from past glories.
‘Standing over a free-kick, when the ref is lining up their wall, I’ll close my eyes and think about Hampden and last year against Hapoel,’ said Griffiths.
‘And near enough every other free-kick that I have scored.
‘I’m just hoping I can replicate one of them again.
‘Do those experiences give me something? Yeah, especially the Scotland v England game. There was massive expectation on me to get the goals to keep our World Cup dream alive.
‘I thought my all-round game that day was good. It could still have been a little bit better, but I scored two goals and helped the team get a massive point. I was gutted it wasn’t all three.
‘Going into this is a different ball game altogether. This is your bread and butter. Celtic belong in the Champions League and, hopefully, I am the man to fire them in there.’ Asked how many times he had reviewed his Hart-breaking moments at Hampden, Griffiths grinned: ‘I’ve got my Sky programmed straight to the minute I put it in the back of the net. One hundred and sixty eight minutes on Sky — perfect!’
Those goals stand apart in his free-kick portfolio. During yesterday’s media conference, a suggestion from the floor that his strike against Hapoel might be superior was dismissed out of hand.
‘Are you mad?’ he laughed. ‘It was decent, but it’s not going to top those against England, no way.
‘Last year against Hapoel, there was a different angle and there was only one place I could put it. The boys still give me a bit of stick about it, saying they should have put a goalie in to try and save it!’
Regardless of its precise merits, that goal was one of five Griffiths scored during last season’s successful qualification process. The tally included home and away goals against Astana, whom Brendan Rodgers’ side had encountered in the penultimate round.
The Kazakh champions have talked of ‘revenge’ since arriving in Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon. Griffiths warned they will have to overcome a far more formidable Celtic to achieve that aim.
‘If you look at the team last year and compare it to the one that will play tomorrow, it is night and day,’ insisted the Scot, who will carry the striking burden with Moussa Dembele still sidelined.
‘Last year, the gaffer had not long come in. He was still trying to stamp his authority on the team and how he wanted to go about it.
‘Now we have a real aggression about us, especially at home. Teams are frightened to come to Celtic Park now with the dominance we have and, hopefully, we can take that into tomorrow night.
‘On a personal level, obviously when you score against familiar opposition it’s a boost for you. But I know this is going to be a difficult game, as is (the second leg) next week as well. But it’s not just about me. It’s about the whole team and if we get a positive result we will be happy.’
Astana obviously don’t need any introduction to the threat Griffiths can pose. They launched a bid to have him banned by UEFA for the second leg of last season’s tie after posting footage of a clash with defender Shitov on their website.
The fact Griffiths had already
been booked for his part in the incident ruled out any retrospective punishment.
‘It was just handbags, I think,’ he reflected. ‘We had a bit of an altercation in the first leg. Then in the second leg, I think he gave away the penalty and got sent off.
‘Listen, that was last year and this is this year. When we line up, we will shake hands and wish each other all the best for 180 minutes.’
That’s where the niceties will end. A £30million group-stage bounty demands ruthlessness.
To that end, having Griffiths available should significantly sharpen Celtic.
The ex-Hibernian man has been dogged by calf problems over the past 12 months, leading Rodgers to deliver a public rebuke about his approach to physical conditioning. It was a message taken on board.
‘I think, last season, I probably wasn’t doing my rehab as long as I should have done,’ admitted Griffiths.
‘As the gaffer said, they probably tried to rush me back too quickly. But every day, I am working behind the scenes with the physio to make sure that nothing happens and my calves are getting stronger each day as they go.
‘Obviously, when you are injured, you are working with the physios, but, when you come back, you tend to drift away from all that.
‘Now I am in early in the morning to work with the physios to make sure my legs are nice and warm, the blood is circulating through my calves.
‘The calves are good. They were feeling good on Friday as well, but the gaffer has to look at the next two Champions League games and he wants his best players available, so he took a precaution.
‘I’m raring to go. I’ve not felt any problem over the weekend or over the last two days in training.’