BOYATA ANXIOUS TO AVOID ANOTHER EURO NIGHTMARE
SAYS DEDRYCK BOYATA
THERE’S only the guts of £20million riding on the outcome not to mention the prestige of again pulling up a chair at the top table and the reputation of the newly appointed management team on the line.
The expression ‘vice-like pressure’ simply does not cover these Champions League play-offs.
Neil Lennon, the former Celtic manager, once admitted the burden of such a season-defining tie at this stage in the season was virtually intolerable — and he spoke as someone who twice came out smiling on the other side.
For Ronny Deila, a failure to beat Legia Warsaw then Maribor in his first season was at least understandable.
Yet when his side capitulated to Malmo over two legs this time last year, the Norwegian already had one foot out of the exit door.
Harsh as it may seem, such highstakes affairs are the acid test for Celtic managers and their charges these days.
Even 12 months on, the lingering memory of somehow losing 4-3 on aggregate, having at one point been 3-1 up at home, is deeply troubling.
‘The game on Wednesday is huge for us because the Champions League is a big goal for us,’ said defender Dedryck Boyata.
‘We are at the same stage as we reached last year when we were eliminated and that was painful.
‘I don’t want this to happen. No one wants it.
‘I think what happened to us last year can become a big strength for us this year. The pain we had, the feeling we had was so painful.
‘It was the first time I had been in that position to qualify and I can tell you that I did not sleep for four or five days after the game against Malmo when we went out.
‘I definitely do not want to have that feeling again. None of us do.’
If Boyata believed that things could only get better after that dark night in Scandinavia, he was sorely mistaken.
With the Champions League gone, the Belgian banked on domestic success to ease the pain and bolster his chances of making his country’s Euro 2016 squad.
One afternoon at Hampden put paid to that.
Twenty-five minutes into Celtic’s Scottish Cup semi-final with Rangers, Boyata hit the Hampden turf and signalled that his day was over. ‘By the close of play, Rangers’ victory on penalties ensured the same applied to Deila’s tenure at the club. Boyata did still manage to scrape into Marc Wilmots’ initial squad for France, but he had to then withdraw altogether with a hamstring issue. Had it not been for bad luck, his first season with Celtic would have had no luck at all. ‘The lowest point for me last season was the day I got injured because I was guaranteed to be in the 23 for the Euros,’ Boyata recalled. ‘As a footballer, that is something you can only dream of and getting injured made me really low. ‘It was a really down time in my life. ‘But you can only learn from these things. If you don’t get up stronger, you’ll never get back up. ‘We know football. There are always ups and downs. ‘The Champions League was a big goal, so was the Euros. ‘But we won the league and that was a big goal, so now it’s about a new season and getting back to the fitness that I feel I should have to help the team. ‘Has what happened made me stronger as a man? Yes, of course. What’s the expression? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. ‘In life, there is more than football, but that is what we do and it’s our life right now.
‘Going through these times and periods is always difficult, but you can only think about coming back, the future and going forward.’
It’s not just the advent of a new season and the joy of running freely again that has lifted the former Manchester City defender’s mood.
While a run-out in the defeat to Inter Milan on Saturday rather confirmed his status as a fringe player under Brendan Rodgers (left), the 25-year-old sees the door to the first-team as being ajar as opposed to closed.
‘It feels good to be playing,’ added Boyata.
‘Playing last week against Inter was great in terms of getting minutes.
‘This is a new season, a new time for me with a new manager. It is always a concern when you are out when a new manager first comes into the club and the biggest thing for me was to get fit. ‘But I spoke to the manager when I was doing my rehabilitation and he told me what he was thinking about me and it was a big boost. ‘As a player, you always want to know what a manager thinks of you and the things he told me could only help me to get back quickly. ‘I can only say that I am really happy to have a manager such as Brendan Rodgers with his experience. ‘Hopefully, he can make the team better with that. ‘I believe I can do well for the new manager. I don’t doubt my qualities.’ Boyata insists he is also feeling more comfortable with life in Scotland as he approaches his second campaign. ‘It is true the Scottish league is a difficult one to get used to, but I still feel as though I did all right last season,’ he said. ‘But you can only think about making yourself better and I can only think of being better in this season to come.’ ‘That is my goal.’