The atmosphere was crazy... the fans gave us the wings to play
SAYS FILIP BENKOVIC
IT was a night when Celtic Park took temporary ownership of the marketing slogan synonymous with the very corporation whose largesse has made Leipzig such a name to be feared in European football.
‘Coming out on to the pitch, I felt like the stadium was on fire,’ said Filip Benkovic. ‘The atmosphere was crazy and the fans gave us the wings to play.
‘When I played for Dinamo Zagreb it was a different situation because there were some political problems and so many fans stayed away. But the experience at Parkhead on Thursday, every player would want to have been part of this.
‘The memory of it will live with me forever and I want to enjoy as many of them as I can.’
From the light show that preceded the game to the fireworks Brendan Rodgers’ side produced on the park, enough energy was expended to power a small country for a week.
It was a Champions League night in all but name. A night when the old sporting citadel went a long way to reclaiming its reputation as a fortress. At times, even a seasoned outfit like RB Leipzig looked spooked by what was unfolding all around them.
It was a seismic occasion for Celtic but for Rodgers in particular. Last season, his record in group-stage matches at home in the premier tournament read played three, lost three.
Thursday felt like a form of redemption. A throwback to the night when Manchester City came to Glasgow at the outset of his tenure and split six-goals in an all-time classic. The difference this time was the victory.
‘That was the pleasing aspect,’ noted Rodgers.
‘It wasn’t a hard-luck story at the end. It wasn’t 1-1. We deserved to win. We earned the victory. We had to show a resilience.’
That was evident all night long but no more so than when JeanKevin Augustin took advantage of Celtic’s tiring legs to cancel out Kieran Tierney’s opener with just 12 minutes remaining.
From restarting the game, it took precisely 13.88 seconds for a one-goal lead to be restored. It was a truly sumptuous, incisive move culminating in Scott Sinclair feeding Ryan Christie and Christie in turn feeding Odsonne Edouard.
Arguably, though, the iron-cast mentality required to bounce off the ropes and score in that moment was every bit as impressive as the skill it took to find a way through the German defence.
‘My experience of working with the very best players in the world — and this was the message I gave to the players — was that whenever things go against them they have the belief,’ added Rodgers.
‘A lesser player just falls away. I said to our players: “You are topclass players, if anything does go against you in the game it is okay, you have the fight and quality to get back”.
‘We showed that once we conceded. Straight away, we went forward again, we had the belief and scored a wonderful goal which ended up being the winning goal.’
To defeat the fourth best side in Germany under any circumstances is quite a feat. To do so while out-pressing and out-playing them at times, even more so.
‘That is what we spoke about before the game,’ said Rodgers.
‘In fairness to the players, because of the number of injuries we have had going in to some games, we have always had to shuffle the pack around.
‘What we said to the players before this game was: “Let’s show our identity and if it doesn’t work out and we lose the game it’s okay because we’ve at least tried to do it the best way that we can which is our way”.
‘I was really proud of the players for taking that on board. I said yesterday that at this level you cannot be timid and there was certainly no sign of that in terms of their performance. But that is how we have been playing. It was great to take that from domestic level into a game against a topclass team.’
Six weeks ago, the questions surrounding Rodgers’ side were becoming increasingly awkward.
Out of the Champions League after a woeful summer off the field, the side which had swept the boards in Scotland in the past two years were looking for their mojo down the back of the sofa.
Now, all the issues are of a different nature. Given the way Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Tom Rogic combined on Thursday, it is legitimate to ask how and when Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham will come back into the side.
Defensively, there is no such dubiety. In Benkovic and Dedryck Boyata, Rodgers has happened upon a partnership that finally looks watertight.
‘It is down to the coach who plays,’ added Benkovic.
‘We all train hard and everyone wants to play. But I do think that Dedryck and I understand each other very well on the pitch.
‘That can get better if we play some more together but it is the coach who picks the team.
‘I feel like I have already learned a lot from Dedryck and he is a very important player for the team because he has so much experience. But there are lots of players who want to play.
‘I just have to keep working hard and give everything to be in the team. For now, everything is going very well.’
Livingston’s plastic pitch may put paid to Benkovic’s hopes of retaining his place tomorrow.
Regardless of who is selected, though, the psychological challenge of coping with such a dramatic change in environment in the space of three days is likely to be as taxing as anything Livingston will throw at them.
‘It’s fine,’ insisted Rodgers. ‘We play enough games. The players over the last couple of years have been absolutely magnificent in coping with that. ‘Thursday night was a great demonstration of that against a top-class side. It is three points for us which is great. Now it is gone. We will go away, recover and get ready for Sunday. We will have the same attitude.’