“Celtic Park is going to be rocking. Now it’s up to us,” Alistair Johnston

Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston spoke to the media today ahead of Celtic’s Champions League knockout playoff first leg encounter against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night…

Q: How much are you looking forward to this big Champions League tie on Wednesday?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, as soon as we got through the league phase and we knew we had qualified, it was funny, as we got into the Villa changing room and realised that we were going to get Real Madrid or Bayern and that was pretty exciting.  Then to see our name get pulled against Bayern Munich, it was going to be a special, special match. Again, it is one of those ones where you are excited just to be a part of and say that you’re going to have a chance to be out there because I think that we all can agree that Celtic Park is going to be rocking. Now it’s up to us to go out there and, you know, give those fans something to cheer for. We’re all super excited about it. It’s a massive tie and a great chance for us to go and show not only the rest of Europe but the rest of the world what we’re all about as a team. It’s an exciting opportunity for us.”

Q: I was going to say you could be coming up against an international teammate, but I think Alphonso Davies might be injured. Have you spoken to him in the lead-up to this at all?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, we talked a little bit. Yeah, I’m not expecting him, especially for the first leg. We’ll see for the second leg. But, no, it is probably a positive for us. At the same time, again, their squad’s so deep. Raphael Guerreiro’s been playing at left back in the meantime and he’s been a top, top player again for them and has been for the past decade or so.

“So, it’s one of those, you look at their squad and just look at players of Phonzy’s quality. I’ve trained against him and played with him for our national team plenty of times and it’s a different level. He’s truly a world-class player. I think he was in the world’s best 11 when he was 19 years old and he’s a Champions League winner and Bundesliga winner multiple times. You just see his level in training, and you realise they have 18 more guys like that. It’s going to be difficult. It’s something that, again, we’re mentally preparing for.

“We know it’s not going to be an easy task, but it’s something that, yeah, we’re excited about. For me, it is a chance to play against a fellow Canadian at this level which is pretty rare for us. I’m hoping that he’s going to be fit, then, for the second leg so that we can go at it against each other.”

Q: Is it quite obvious in international training when you talk about him being that, stepping up that level when you see him up close, playing with him, playing against him in training? Is it just quite clear as to how good he is and how good that level is?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, I think, instantly, just the eye test right away, you go up and you stand beside these guys. It’s been similar when you play against the top Premier League teams. When we played against Borussia Dortmund and things like that. You’re in the tunnel and just the size of these guys, the presence they have. They are some of the best athletes in the world. You go up against that and can see the level, okay, that’s different.

“Phonzy instantly is like that just in terms of his physicality, just his physical traits are unbelievable. Then you match in how quick his feet are and, you know, how he sees the game. He’s been at Bayern now for kind of to get close to maybe six or seven years. He’s been in that kind of environment for that long and turning against the top, top players in the world. You know, just his footballing IQ and everything.

“I’ve always been impressed by training with him and just seeing the game through, you know, his eyes. And again, as a fellow fullback, you know, I like to lean on him and see kind of what he’s doing. I’ve experienced it. I mean, I see teams will double-team him nearly. He’s a left-back for our national team. It’s unheard of. When we play games in CONCACAF, they’ll do that. Often times, they’ll send their best winger onto my side. So I get that.

“It’s just like it’s a mis-match against Phonzy, so they try and pick on me instead. It’s something that comes with the territory. He’s a super-talented player and that’s what Bayern Munich is all about. They’re going to have a lot of those players. So, we’re ready for that.”

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Q: Would it be nice to get your own back then for teams having to target you because of him would be nice to try and get your own back and get one over on him?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, it would be nice. Trust me. There would be some bragging rights going into the March window if we could pull this one off. We’ll take it game by game here. It’s 180 minutes. So yeah, we just got to get through this first 90 and use Celtic Park to our advantage. Hopefully, we can make it a memorable night.”

Q: How much have this Celtic squad grown since the first game? You played eight games and are now in the playoffs. What have you learned and how much do you feel the group’s improved in this campaign?

Alistair Johnston: “I think for me being in the Champions League last year, that group stage, six matches, there’s a reason why they call it a league phase now. It genuinely feels like a league. You played that many matches, obviously, eight individual opponents that are different, unique opponents. It truly feels like a league, and you are going to learn. It’s just like how we’re in the domestic league, how we’ve grown and figured things out as time goes on. I think that we’ve also noticed that within the Champions League.

“Okay, this is what the minimum standards are and away from home versus home, how it’s going to be different, how you need to impose yourself when you’re the home team versus the way that you need to be comfortable defending and understand that it’s not always going to be a comfortable score line.

“Sometimes we have, domestically, where we are dominating the ball. It’s not always going to be that. You need to have the bravery and the understanding that we’re going to have to have periods and spells where we are going to have to defend our box and defend our final third, and you need to enjoy that as well.

“I think that that’s something that our back four always enjoys in terms of the defending part of it. You could see how much the guys like Daizen Maeda do and when you have that kind of buy-in from the front of the pitch, I think it filters through the whole group and I think that that’s where the learning’s been in that we are more comfortable in a defensive shape than going toe-to-toe with the big teams.

“There’s a reason why we made it this far, why we’re into the knockouts, but now you get the titans of European football, so it’s a great opportunity, but at the same time, it’s not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination.”

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Q: How much of a miss will Daizen Maeda be for this match?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, I mean, for crying out loud, I mean, he scored, I’m not sure what his stats are but he’s got to be one of the most in-form players in all of Europe right now, and he can’t seem to miss right now. So yeah, again, when he’s scoring and creating, he adds just another dimension, but also everyone knows his work rate is unbelievable. He’s a nightmare as a fullback to go up against and I get the joy of having him running after me throughout the week most of the time.

“It’s a bummer for us, but at the same time, that’s why we brought in guys like Jota. You know, it’s to have that quality that between all of our wingers, that entire group. So that here is enough quality and depth that when something like that does happen, the suspension, that other guys can step up. So yeah, I think right now between Jota, Yang, and Nicolas Kuhn, like, we’re still really happy with where we are at in terms of our depth and our talent there. It’s a great opportunity for one of those guys to step up, and I’m expecting that someone will in the coming days.”

Q: You are well known for your fitness in this league, how big a jump is it to the top level of football?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, it’s funny. I look at the GPS data all the time after matches, and domestically, often it’s different when you’re pinned into another team’s half. It’s not as much long-distance running for me. It’s a lot of overlaps and stuff, but when you look at the GPS data, compare that with, you know, an Aston Villa or something like that, it is a different type of fitness because there’s so many more accelerations and decelerations in terms of you’re defending, you’re constantly in a low block, but you’re constantly stepping out, in and out of things, and for me, the biggest difference I’ve found is the mental concentration, being fully concentrated for 90 minutes.

“I mean, I paid the highest price for it against Villa. I went to sleep for half a second, and boom, give and go right behind me, three minutes in the game, that’s one nil. Like, these teams are ruthless with that, and if you take one wrong step as a defender if you’re just, your weight is on your wrong foot, these guys are too athletic, and they’re too good, they’re going to punish you.

“So I think that’s one of the biggest and most difficult steps up which is what we talked about at the beginning, it’s just the physicality of the actual players, but the mental concentration that’s required then is that you can’t slip up because they will punish you, it’s something that, you know, you can maybe get away with it a little bit domestically, sometimes you can be off it a little bit, and a team won’t necessarily punish you for taking a shortcut. At this level though, especially against teams like this where we’re at now, you can’t, and that’s one of those where you walk off that pitch and you’re physically and mentally exhausted. I mean, you can sleep for 24 hours straight after those games, but again, that’s the kind of football that you want to be in.”

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Q: How difficult was it to kind of get yourself together after that mistake after three minutes?

Alistair Johnston: “Well, we conceded another one, so apparently not too well, but no, I think that that’s where that growth that we touched on has come in over this league phase, is that we’ve understood, okay, you know what? Yeah, it was similar to Dortmund, we conceded two early ones, that one we kind of let it snowball and get out of, you know, get out of control.

“Instead there, we decided, okay, let’s stiffen it up a little bit at the back, you know, just keep our heads, make some passes, get our crowd back into it, and all of a sudden you can find your footing, and I think that that’s something that Adam Idah either brings to us as well as the ability to, yeah, okay, you know what, there’s space in behind, let’s use him, let’s use his frame, his running ability to go hold the ball up and, you know, create some difficulties for them defensively, you know, give them something to think about, and I think that that’s something, again, that we’ve learned.

We’re giving the game what it needs a bit more than maybe we had been previously, and I think that’s a really strong side of the growth that we’ve had as a group there, mentally as well.”

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