Glory run can get us Sudover the pain
Now Forrest would dearly love to pay back the Hoops supporters for their Champions League exit by embarking on a similar glory run in the Europa League.
Two years of unprecedented success under Brendan Rodgers came to a grinding halt after Celtic missed out on the Champions League with a loss to AEK Athens last week.
The winger insists the current players can lift themselves off the canvas just as O’Neill’s class of 2003 did after losing in the Champions League qualifiers to Basel.
Forrest said: “There’s no hiding the fact everybody is gutted we’re not in the Champions League.
“It’s an amazing tournament and now we need to make sure we get in the Europa League.
“We were disappointed with the way AEK Athens scored in the home leg and we didn’t do enough when they went down to 10 men.
“We still fancied our chances away from home but over the two legs we didn’t do enough.
“It’s up to us to make the fans want to turn up for these Europa League games.
“The last two years we have been in the Champions League but you can never take that for granted.
“All the boys will be hungry to try to have a good campaign in Europe.
‘The fans will turn up for the Europa League games so it’s up to us to give them something to shout about.
“I remember the run to the UEFA Cup Final in Seville was unbelievable. That was one of the best teams Celtic have ever had.
“The teams they were beating, it was so difficult and now you realise how big an achievement it was.
“Beating Blackburn and Liverpool really stuck out, especially with the performances and the goals that we scored.
“We can’t compare ourselves to that team and we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves but everyone still talks about that UEFA Cup run.”
The Hoops face a play- of f against Lithuanians Suduva to reach the Europa League group stage.
Suduva crashed 10-1 on aggregate the last time they faced Celts — at the start of that run to the final in 2003.
Forrest said: “Hopefully that’s a good sign but we can’t and won’t take it lightly.”
The winger admits the major difference between the Champions League and the Europa League is that Celtic are seen a big fish in the latter competition which can bring its own pressures.
He said: “You go into Champions League games and nobody expects much of you so you can pick up points here and there.
“In the Europa League you are expected to win games although playing for Celtic you have to cope with that domestically week in, week out anyway.
“I remember in the past we had a tough Europa League group but it was enjoyable to play against the likes of Atletico Madrid and run out in those big stadiums.”
Forrest insists Rodgers gave the players a huge boost when he told them he was staying before the AEK Athens match.
He said: “The manager has said that in football it was never always going to be as good as it has been for the last two years.
“We need to make sure we pull together as a team and show a bit of character and get back to doing what we’ve done before.
“It was a positive chat from the manager. He just wanted to clear the air and he wants to turn this round to a positive.
“We st i ll have the three domestic competitions to go for and we can still do something in Europe too.”