Forrest has found that the Europa League is not to be taken lightly
FROM experience, James Forrest knows the Europa League is just as likely to provide gloom as glamour.
Barely out of his teens, the winger started all six fixtures in Celtic’s inaugural Europa League group campaign and was spellbound by an adventure that saw the Parkhead team miss out on the knockout stages by an inch.
From opening night in Madrid at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium through jousts with French outfit Rennes and a draw with Udinese at the Stadio Friuli, the young winger lapped up every moment of a campaign which his manager Neil Lennon described as the equivalent of a Champions League section.
Celtic’s subsequent brushes with UEFA’s second tier have been distinctly less inspiring.
Ronny Deila’s team made heavy weather of games against Astra Giurgiu and Dinamo Zagreb in 2014 yet, despite finishing six points behind group winners RB Salzburg, qualified for the last 32 where they met Inter Milan.
A year later Deila’s team lost home and away to Molde and finished bottom of a tougher group including Ajax and Fenerbahce.
It all comes down to the luck of the draw, of course, and to even get there this year Celtic must first defeat Lithuania’s Suduva, the first leg taking place in the city of Marijampole on Thursday.
‘European ties are tough, especially when you go to random places and stadiums you’ve never been before,’ says Forrest. ‘We can’t take it lightly and we won’t.
‘There’s no hiding the fact that everybody is gutted we are not in the Champions League. It’s an amazing tournament and now it’s gone we need to make sure we get in the Europa League.’
Forrest does not pretend that a shot at this year’s competition would represent anything other than a consolation prize after defeat to AEK Athens in the preliminaries last week.
Having experienced the Champions League for the last two years — and using it to both improve and prove his worth as a player — Forrest would like to at least sustain a diet of continental fare until Christmas.
The winger showed up particularly well in Celtic’s home tie against Bayern Munich last term and would love a crack at another of Europe’s big guns.
‘There are good teams in the Europa League and the big clubs all want to win it to secure automatic qualification for the Champions League,’ continues Forrest.
‘First and foremost, we need to make sure we get in but I have some good memories of the Europa League. ‘That first year was a tough group but we got a few good results and it was great to play against the likes of Atletico Madrid.’ The holders of the tournament, Atletico, are Champions League participants this term but there are still plenty of big clubs in the mix for this year’s group stage. Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen and Lazio will feature among the top seeds, with Celtic likely to reside in Pot Two should they qualify. ‘In the Champions League we are normally in Pot Four, so we tend to get drawn against the biggest teams,’ adds Forrest. ‘You don’t always get those big names in the Europa League but although you might not have heard of them all, the standard is still of high quality. ‘It would be nice to get an English team. We played Manchester City in the Champions League and that was a great night at Celtic Park. ‘The Europa League is looked on in a different way — you are expected to win games and that’s a different type of pressure. ‘But playing for Celtic you have to cope with that domestically and the same will apply to the play-off.’ There has been much focus on Brendan Rodgers over the past fortnight, much of it owing to the manager’s public utterances regarding a lack of transfer activity over the summer. Clearly frustrated at his lot, Rodgers met with his squad to reassure the players that his discontent did not necessarily mean he was bound for the exit. ‘It was a really good, positive chat,’ says Forrest. ‘He just wanted to clear the air. It made us realise that we need to pull together. ‘He wants to turn this round to a positive. We still have the three domestic competitions to go and can still do something in Europe. ‘He’s said it was never always going to be as good as it has been for the last two years. We need to show character and get back to doing what we’ve done before.’