ERIK KEEPS IT IN THE FAMILY

Sviatchenko feels right at home at Celtic with his twin sister landing a job at the club and his partner playing for the women’s team

THE annals of history are littered with tales of footballers whose inability to adjust to a new environment nullified whatever talent they had.

From harsh climates to language barriers, unappealing local cuisine to homesickness, time and again those attempting to extricate themselves from lucrative contracts in foreign climes have cited the most banal excuses imaginable.

A man of culture, Erik Sviatchenko was never likely to have taken cold feet upon arriving in the Dear Green Place. A purveyor of Glasgow’s many art galleries, boredom is simply not something the Dane is familiar with.

As for the small matter of being apart from his nearest and dearest — a matter gazing at all the Monets in the world just cannot replace — the 25-year-old has arrived at a rather novel solution.

‘My twin sister Alexandra just moved here with her boyfriend Emil,’ he explained. ‘She wanted to try something and my girlfriend and I said: “Why don’t you come to Glasgow?”

‘We know a lot of places in the city and it will be easy for them. They’ve been staying with us for the last two weeks and now they have found an apartment.

‘Alexandra will join the Celtic Foundation and Emil will work at Kember and Jones Bakery. So my partner and I play for Celtic and Alexandra works there, too. So we have a real family connection.

‘I am really comfortable here. I think Celtic employ more Danes than anyone else!’

Who’s to argue with the reasons lying behind the Dane’s current contentment? One of the few men to emerge from the Ronny Deila experiment with their reputations enhanced, the 25-year-old, whose partner Anne plays for the Celtic women’s team, has already kicked on under the tutelage of Brendan Rodgers.

A happy home life may be essential for any player to succeed on the field of play, but, without the right learning blocks being in place in the place of work, it counts for little.

‘It’s a combination of people who have been helping me,’ explained Sviatchenko. ‘The manager has been really good at telling us how to do it and my team-mates are taking this really well.

‘The guys around us — John Kennedy and Chris Davies — are really close with us. It’s a combination of people really wanting to improve. That’s the first phase of being better than just good — you want to be great. Then, there’s the phase when you are really looking at the details. That’s what this team is about.’

Five weeks ago in Barcelona, it was hard to look at Celtic as a side aspiring to reach the next level. Seven goals had flown past them and it was difficult to dispute that the scoreline was in anyway harsh.

In the days that followed, the debate was whether the champions of Scotland were no longer competitors in the Champions League, but mere participants.

By the time the final whistle sounded at the end of an epic sixgoal encounter with Manchester City, we had our answer.

‘We learned from that,’ reflected Sviatchenko. ‘If you took those two games, against two teams with huge players, there was a huge difference. The most important thing is that we don’t have the mindset that we are just happy to be in the competition. We are not tourists in the tournament.

‘Some people can be star-struck when you come up against opponents that you play FIFA with. You have to forget about that and play. We are here for a reason. We qualified and we beat some good teams to get here.

‘We are getting better domestically and all these things combined gives a sense that we can do something here. We may be up against bigger teams and better players, but, sometimes, it’s about the preparation and belief.

‘If you believe you can take the ball off Luis Suarez, you will take it. If you are afraid of him, he will probably go past you.’

It would be wrong to state City did not have their moments last time out. Unlike in the Nou Camp, though, Celtic had almost as many.

You would expect Rodgers’ side to create a number of openings tonight — although anyone believing that Borussia Monchengladbach are a significant step down in class stands accused of wishful thinking.

For Rodgers’ men to prevail, the complete performance is required.

‘It is important that we maintain the intensity for 90 minutes, but as a footballer, that is hard,’ added Sviatchenko. ‘You have to pick and choose when the right time is to do that. At the beginning of the match, you have energy and you need to put that it in.

‘Towards the end of the game, when you don’t have the same freshness, it’s important that you are calm in your mind and stay compact. You have to work closer together and ensure you don’t make any irrational decisions.’

As if 60,000 prying eyes are not enough, tonight’s encounter will attract added interest in Sviatchenko’s homeland.

Andreas Christensen, one international team-mate, seems set to miss out through injury but as chance would have it Jannik Vestergaard — the other man currently keeping Sviatchenko out of the Denmark side — is set to play in his place. Monchengladbach’s connections with Denmark, stretching back to Allan Simonsen’s day, remain strong.

‘He was European Player of the Year,’ recalled Sviatchenko. ‘I think the Bundesliga, in general, is popular in Denmark and when Danish players move abroad, it’s a big step if they can move to the Bundesliga.

‘So Jannik and Andreas have done well. We all spoke the last time we were with the national team. I tried to get something out of them but it didn’t work.’

Whether plying their trade at the Allianz Arena or the Westfalenstadion can adequately prepare them for what lies in wait tonight, we shall know soon enough. Sviatchenko believes he already knows the answer. ‘The atmosphere was very big for me in the City game so just imagine what it feels like to be on the other side,’ he mused. ‘In those last few minutes, the fans helped us when we really needed. ‘If we can have that again then I am sure they will be really frightened. We need Celtic Park to be our fort. In the City game, you could see they were struggling — even though they are big stars. ‘We’ll do our best to create that intensity again. ‘Borussia may have looked at the City game, but they will know this is a difficult place to come to anyway. If they think it will be easy, they will be in for a surprise.’