Brown: ‘It was a special night… but don’t take anything away from Kenny. I could not lace his boots’
By his own admission, Scott Brown’s introduction to Champions League group stage football proved inauspicious. A 2-0 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk ten years ago is included in a record-breaking run of 69 appearances in European football’s premier competition.
That means Brown has surpassed Kenny Dalglish’s total of 68 games racked up with Celtic and then Liverpool. But the Celtic midfielder feared his Champions League career was over not long after it started following an abject display in Ukraine during Gordon Strachan’s tenure as manager.
“I didn’t think I’d still be here the next week after Gordon went through me,” he said. “But it’s been fantastic. It’s an honour and a privilege to play in front of these fans.”
Brown and his team-mates, who qualified after a penalty shootout win over Spartak Moscow, recovered to defeat AC Milan in their next group game. Celtic went on to reach the knockout stage for the second season in a row, losing out narrowly to Barcelona. Brown has since made another appearance at the knockout stage against Juventus four years ago.
While this is perhaps as good as a Scottish player at a Scottish side can hope for these days, it is obviously eclipsed by Dalglish’s success in the competition. The legendary striker won the trophy three times, scoring the winning goal in the final on one occasion. Brown, who has scored just once in total in the competition, against Hapoel Beersheva last season, is proud but somewhat embarrassed to have exceeded Dalglish’s tally of appearances. He employs humour to deflect what he clearly agrees is a nonsensical comparison. “I’ve probably more skill and flair than him! More goal scoring threat as well!” he laughed. “No, Kenny is fantastic. It’s just different generations. We played a lot of games he probably didn’t play back then. “It was a special night but don’t take anything away from Kenny,” he added. “He was a fantastic player and I could not lace his boots if I tried. But it’s me just being around for a long time, that’s what that shows. And hopefully there is a long time to come for me.” Brown is right to note such a factor as he reflects on superseding Dalglish in one department at least. But such durability at this top level is still worthy of praise. Dalglish made his debut in the competition for Celtic in the Finnish town of Kokkola in 1972 and featured for the last time in terrible circumstances at the Heysel stadium in 1985.
While Brown might not go on to boast a European Cup career spanning 15 years, he feels confident he can last a few more seasons.
“I am enjoying my football,” he said. “I feel as fit as I ever have been. I am still going there on 90 minutes, no cramp, no muscle pain. As long as I keep on top of my fitness and keep training well and look after myself off the park I don’t see why I can’t go on for three or four seasons.”
Given Celtic’s domestic dominance, it’s not unrealistic to expect he will have plenty more opportunities to play Champions League football – in order to arrive at Brown’s tally of 69 games, qualifiers have also been included. But it might be a struggle to reach the group stage again with the champions of Scotland now obligated to play four qualifying ties as opposed to three. Dalglish, when lifting the European Cup with Liverpool in 1978, played only seven times, with the Anfield club given a bye in the opening round as holders.
“I’d take that,” said Brown. “We play six to get into it. It’s just different generations.”
Brown won’t play another Champions League match this season but can amass more European appearances in the Europa League. No other Scot has played as many games in European competition. Tuesday night was his 93 rd appearance. The next nearest Scot is Barry Ferguson, who played 82 times for Rangers in the Uefa Cup/champions League.
Brown is only interested in what progressing means for the club, even if it involves being demoted to the Europa League. But he knows the team needs to be better in order to reach the last-16 stage of the competition after being beaten at their own game by Anderlecht at Celtic Park two days ago.
“We got what we wanted at the start of the group – we got Europa League,” he said. “But it’s not the performance we wanted and it’s not the way we like to dominate games. We are a team that lik es to press high up the park and out teams under pressure and they played us at our own game – I think it was like 600 passes to 200 and that is not like us, especially at home in front of our own fans. I think we got a little bit scared.”
“We got what we wanted at the start of the group – we got Europa League. But it’s not the performance we wanted”
SCOTT BROWN