Celtic enter attack mode vs Aston Villa as playoff seeding on the brain of dressing room VIP
Callum McGregor insists Celtic will have no fears going to Villa Park and beyond – because the Hoops have proved they are Champions League class.
The skipper was beaming with pride as the Parkhead men sealed their main objective of a spot in the knockout stages among Europe’s big guns. Wednesday night’s 1-0 win against Young Boys might have left a few fingernails chewed to the bone, but it was a deserved victory and a merited award from a campaign where the Celts have finally come of age on the main stage.
Fans would have been worried after the drubbing by Borussia Dortmund. Shipping seven to the Germans could easily have shaken the squad to the core and emptied any sense of belief. But Brendan Rodgers’ men refused to roll over. The recovery against Atalanta was admirable, the performance in the win against RB Leipzig was off the charts and the maturity shown in the clashes with Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb and Young Boys was a textbook example of getting the job done.
And now it’s Aston Villa – with progress already in the bag. The stakes could be higher for the English Premier League big hitters. Unai Emery’s side have already booked their place in the next round but have an opportunity to bypass this stage and go straight to the last 16 with a top eight finish in this new fangled 36-team group set up.
It’s more of a free punch for Celtic, but McGregor doesn’t see it that way. He’s going all out to finish with a flourish – and perhaps even sneak into the top section as well.
It will need about eight other results to fall their way, but you can’t win the raffle if you don’t buy a ticket. And McGregor is convinced Celtic will be heading to Birmingham bursting with belief.
The skipper said: “There's been a real progression since that first game. We've got nothing to fear. We're a team with a good side at this level. The profile of the team is brilliant. We've got goals we can defend.
“Let's go next week in full confidence and see what we can do. Obviously, that being the next game, we want to finish strong.
“Even that will give us more belief as well. It's been fantastic so far – let's go and finish strong and see what we can do. We're looking up the table. There's an outside chance of maybe qualifying in the top eight.
“That's got to be a big incentive for us as well, if we can miss those two games out. The team feel good about it and we're looking forward to the game.
“There was a learning from that Dortmund game as well. We've been really good in games. We've actually been probably the dominant team in most of the games, especially here at Celtic Park.”
There’s a lot that can change next week but right now Celts are on a collision course with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. A result at Villa could change the picture but McGregor won’t shy away from any challenge.
He said: “It will be a glamour game, with any one of those. They are big teams. But I was looking at the table there and it's full of big teams.
“There's so many, like six or seven big teams on 12 points, so it's really, really tight. With the game that we've got next week, can we attack it? Can we get more points? Then see if that helps us with the draw a little bit.”
The main thing is being in the hat for next Friday’s draw. Celtic made hard work of it against Young Boys with a whack of spurned chances – including a penalty miss – but they kept their heads and got their rewards.
McGregor said: “Yes, that was the objective. We knew we wanted to come and win the game and that would relieve a little bit of pressure off us.
“We've managed to do that. It was a fantastic performance all round. The first half was outstanding again, really.
“We probably should have been a couple ahead, but in the second half, the game changes a little bit and you've got to stay in the game and wait on the momentum changing. That's what this team has got really good at, especially in European football, being really mature against the ball.
“You can't be 100mph all the time. I'm really delighted with the team and the way that they showed to get back into the game and go and finish strong and get the winner. It's such small margins, especially in European football. It's talking millimetres, being onside, offside.
“The penalty can maybe deflate the team or the stadium. The response to that was actually really good. Like I said, the team is playing with really good maturity again at this level. “I thought we got exactly what we deserved with the winner. We're hanging in there a little bit in the second half, but that's what this team has got good at, especially in European football.”
It helped having McGregor on board. The captain led by example with an immense performance. It was pointed out he’d managed to complete 97 percent of his passes but the stats only told part of the story. McGregor ran the show – even if he prefers to share the credit.
He said: “I felt good in the game. Games like this, you need to look after the ball and you could actually see in the second half, where we start giving the ball away a little bit more, the game becomes more stretched. But the players were fantastic and these games are really challenging. To come out with another win – just brilliant.”
