Benzema or not, CCV vows Celtic will play Real Madrid their way
Cameron Carter-Vickers is relishing the prospect of going head-to-head with UEFA’s newly-crowned Player of the Year, Karim Benzema, at Celtic Park on Tuesday night.
Benzema scooped the award ahead of English-based stars such as Kevin de Bruyne and Mo Salah in recognition of his contribution to Real Madrid’s Champions League triumph last season.
However, having already lined up against Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud in the international arena for the United States against France,and lived to tell the tale, the 34-year-old is eager to add another experience to his memory bank.
“I’m definitely excited to be going up against someone like Benzema,” said Carter-Vickers. “You want to play against the very best, and he is someone who is at the very top of the game.
“I have not started watching footage too much yet, but I have watched him a lot down the years.
“I have a pretty good idea of what he is good at – which is a lot of things, to be fair!
“Even before I started playing professionally, I watched him playing for Real Madrid in the Champions League,
and winning it. He has been doing it for so long, which tells you the level he is at. It shows not only how good he is, but how consistent he is too.
“But go through that Madrid team, and every one of them plays at a very high level, most of them for a number of years.
“We are just looking forward to it. For the majority of us, this will be our first experience of the Champions League and these are the games we all want to play in.”
Carter-Vickers expects Celtic to play their usual game of pressing high up the pitch, a strategy that would potentially leave him vulnerable to quick darts from Real in behind the defence.
“We will go out there and try to play the way we always do,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much point in trying to change it because we are not used to playing a different way.
“If we suddenly changed, we wouldn’t play as well.
“The tactics are obviously led by the manager, who wants us to get up the pitch as quickly as possible, and squeeze the space.
“That is designed to give the opposition less space to play in, but also to prevent us dealing with long balls closer to our own goal.
“It keeps the danger away when you play so high up the pitch.
“Of course there is risk. To use that squeezing of the pitch as an example, we need to be wary of the fact they have such good players at the top of the pitch.
“So there has to be a balance. You need to push up at the right times, but also be ready to drop back when required.
“But if we can be brave and do that, then it will definitely benefit us.
“It’s important for us not just to be in the group stages, but to compete now we are in there.”
Ideally, the Celtic stopper admits, with a little more savvy than they showed when hosting Bayer Leverkusen in the first of their Europa League group games this time last year.
He said: “Against Real, we probably need to be a little bit cleverer in our defending, our press and our team shape.”