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Celtic centurion on Champions League progress amid 'ridiculous' financial gulf
There are some, like his goalscoring debut against KR Reykjavik, that he will always remember. Then there are some, of course, that he and the Celtic support would rather forget.
But as he brought up his century of European appearances with a typically tidy display and a creditable draw against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night, the overriding emotion for Callum McGregor was one of pride. Even if, typically, he wasn’t really satisfied with either the performance or the result.
That feeling of accomplishment though would only be heightened if the Celtic captain can keep his side on course for the play-off rounds of the Champions League, a position they would have been more than happy with at the outset of the competition, and that they would have bitten your hand off for after the 7-1 humbling in Dortmund on matchday two.
As much as his eyes are fixed firmly ahead at accomplishing that team goal though, McGregor allowed himself a moment to reflect this week on his personal achievement on the European stage with Celtic.
“It’s obviously a huge milestone and to play this many games for this club, especially in Europe, it is tough to do,” McGregor said.
“It’s an amazing achievement with such an iconic club. I’m proud.
“It’s a big ask to play for this club and you have to have the temperament to do it. You also have to have the quality to do it too.
“To get a hundred games in Europe for this club is obviously special. I just want to keep doing it and try to get as many appearances as I can.
“The only thing was, could we match it with a performance and a result? Maybe that was the only disappointing aspect. But we still took another point from the game and it keeps us moving in the right direction.
“The game model’s still there; controlling the ball, controlling the game and it was just maybe needing a bit more quality in the final third [that was needed].
“The demand of this club is to be playing European football. But not only that, they want to try and be successful too. So, there’s a big expectation that comes with playing with this club and you have to manage it. You have to play into it, lean into it.
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“If you don’t and you don’t enjoy it then you probably don’t get to where you have done.
“It’s a big challenge, but it’s something I love doing.”
Being successful in Europe is a goal that has often eluded Celtic in recent years, and as McGregor acknowledges, the gap between the haves and the have nots in a relative sense on the continent is only widening, and making things even tougher.
With that in mind, it is little wonder that he would rank the achievement of getting beyond this league phase as on a par with anything he has done before in European competition.
“It would be right up there,” he said.
“The last few years have not been great. But it’s a big competition and there are a lot of teams spending a lot of money. This is where the club wants to be and you’ve seen over the last couple of years we’ve made strides, which is good.
“To the point where you’re going to Zagreb and you’re a bit disappointed when you come off with a point. It shows the growth of the team and the squad and where the club wants to be.
“It’s a big challenge but it’s something the players really do enjoy and want to keep getting better.
“We’ve obviously had some good spells [in Europe]. Gordon’s team and then Lenny’s team got through to the last 16. It’s probably been a bit up and down in the time I’ve been here. We’ve had some good results, we’ve had some not good results.
“But probably the gulf in finances has become just ridiculous, especially in this competition. It is a big challenge and we know where we sit in that kind of bracket of teams.
“The one thing we can do is try and play the right way and try to learn and develop to become a top team again. It takes time. We’ve had some good nights, we’ve had some not so good nights.
“But, we seem to have a group now that’s relatively comfortable at this level…can we push and try and maximise what we’ve got and the opportunity we’ve got?”
Thinking way back to the opportunity he was handed by Ronny Deila in the summer of 2014, thrown in for his debut in that Champions League qualifier in Reykjavik, McGregor can be satisfied that he grasped that one with both hands.
(Image: SNS Group - Sammy Turner) “I still remember the game and, of course, it was a memorable one,” he said.
“There’s maybe a few in-between that are not so clear.
“The day that I made my debut and scored, that’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
As tends to be the case with serial winners though, it is the ones that get away that linger longest, and as McGregor looked ahead to Sunday’s League Cup final showdown against Rangers, he admitted that the memory of the one domestic trophy of the three on offer that slipped from his grasp last season still burns.
“Yes, of course it does,” he said.
“The ones that slip away from you are the ones that you remember.
“Every tournament that we play in we want to win it, we want to do the best we can. And this is the first one up for grabs.
“Our approach doesn’t really change, although maybe a little bit because we didn’t win it last year. The expectation is to win and the players know that.
“We have to recover well from the game against Dinamo and when we go to the final, we have to give everything we can to make sure it’s a positive afternoon.”
