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Callum McGregor's majestic Celtic display has Leipzig boss Marco Rose make beeline for skipper in classy unseen moment
Callum McGregor echoed Brendan Rodgers’ best-ever statement.
It is exactly the type of shimmering display at the highest level that the ambitious pair had visioned during that now-famous Spanish summer meeting 17 months ago. McGregor was simply majestic at the heart of the win over RB Leipzig. Such was his impact that visiting coach Marco Rose interrupted the skipper’s post-match trackside interview to give him a personal congratulations as he made his way back to the Germans’ team bus.
McGregor's excellence was mirrored across the pitch as Celtic took apart the Bundesliga big guns. Such was the level of the performance, it’s been marked as the finest since wins against the likes of Juventus and Barcelona in the reigns of Martin O’Neill and Neil Lennon. Rodgers was clear it was the best Euro win of his Celtic managerial career.
Assessing his time as a Parkhead player, McGregor felt just the same as he said: “I would think so, I can’t remember too many more actually, to be honest. But the last two games, especially here, have been excellent and that’s the type of team that we want to be.
“We want to be on the front foot and play good football, but you have also got to be resolute and defend properly and I think again even that was probably better than the Atalanta performance because I think it was more controlled.
“So, again, we’re just learning and building all the time and at this level we’re more and more comfortable, so like I said, it should give us brilliant confidence now for the remaining games.”
When the pair discussed Celtic’s situation in June last year as Rodgers eyed making his return to succeed Ange Postecoglou, it’s just where they wanted the club to be. Rodgers made no secret of the fact that progression in Europe has been a huge target within his second spell.
McGregor has been central to those workings as the dressing-room leader, training-ground standard setter and on-field lieutenant. Asked about that Spain meeting earmarking nights like Tuesday, the skipper said: “Well, we’re ambitious people and we want to strive for the best and push this club as much as we can and push the club as far as we can.
“And, yeah, like you said, that was the type of conversation, that’s where we want the club to be and it makes it all worth it when you have nights like this and you can go home and you can be proud of yourself.”
Celtic had every right to be beaming with the show and their status in the standings. It’s what they are all striving for as McGregor continued: “Yeah, well that’s it. I think we have spoken, talking about the process and trying to build and build and build. Games against Atletico Madrid where you play well and don’t quite get there.
“But that was the performance of a team who look comfortable at this level, look like they believe they belong at this level, played with brilliant courage and quality on the ball. And then against the ball, we had all the attributes of the Atalanta performance. We sort of married the Bratislava with the Atalanta performance and gave a complete performance, so it was excellent.”
Just five weeks after being battered by Borussia in Dortmund, it was clear evidence that Celtic’s new-group are learning and fast. McGregor reflected: “Well I think firstly, like you said with the Dortmund game, you are 5-1 down before you know it and the game has totally gone.
“Two penalties, two smashed in the top corner, so at this level, if you’re not on it, then you can get done like that. You can lose five goals in a half, Dortmund did it against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago. But I think the thing for us is the last two performances have been where we want to be.
“That’s the type of team that we want to be in terms of controlling the game without the ball, not being crazy pressure and trying to jump at the wrong times. It’s a much more mature performance in terms of when to go, when not to go and then, when the ball comes inside your organisation, you be aggressive and try and win it.
“And, especially when you play at home, then you need to bring even more of the control with the ball and that gives you a chance in these games where, if you control the ball, you can control the tempo of the game.”
Celtic did all of that against Leipzig. Barring a short spell after the loss of the opening goal, they were hungry and incessant without the ball. On it, they had quality, craft and cunning to engineer opportunities to score three goals and could have had more.
Subs entered the game to replace brilliant starters and had an impact. It was just about the perfect performance and McGregor said: “Yeah excellent, we speak about it before, we’ve got so many good options in there and whoever comes into the game, technically really high level and you have to be at Champions League level.
“But, like I said, I think it’s probably as good as we’ve been in terms of controlling the ball against a top-quality opposition. The whole team played their part, everyone was outstanding.
"Especially in the two build-up phases of the game, I thought we were excellent and that really gave us a platform to go and be aggressive in the game. So we can be proud of ourselves and, hopefully, the punters enjoyed it, but we just keep working and see what we can get out of this league phase.”
