Q: Can you take us to the Villa Park match when, you know, two goals in five minutes, fair enough. What does an away support do to you guys on the field? What does it give you?
Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, they’re just something to lean on. And I think, honestly, we learned a lot from that Dortmund game, and it was similar to that. You know, the second goal being a deflected one that goes in over Kasper and it kind of had a feeling like, oh no, is it going to be one of these again? But the Dortmund match, our fans were kind of stuck all the way up there and it was really tough to feel, you know, that they were there.
“We could hear them, but you couldn’t really see them. At Villa Park, they were right there. They had that whole corner, and you could feel them urging us on like, come on, we’re in this. Because we actually, you know, we started the game, we had a bit of possession a little bit and like, okay, we can go toe to toe with these guys. And obviously they scored too quick on pretty much their first attacks. It’s like, all right, we need something to latch onto.
“And our fans gave us that. Again, that’s something that’s so important when you’re at these places, you know, having something you can lean back on and have that support to realize, okay, let’s just steady the ship here. Let’s get through these next couple minutes. And obviously, yeah, when you get the first one, our crowd livens up to another degree altogether. And then you get the equalizer and all of a sudden, you’re in a proper European match here. And our fans felt it, their fans felt it.
“And I think that that was something that, you know, we really grew into the match with, is having their support there and we could feel their energy. Yeah, it’s something that really does help. I’ve experienced now big matches being played without away support, and I know how difficult that is compared to having them there. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully in Munich we’ll be able to bring over a solid chunk of fans. But again, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Q: Going back to the football itself, obviously you’ve played probably your best performance in the tournament so far was against the German opposition. Does that give you genuine confidence going into the home leg that you can make your mark?
Alistair Johnston: “Yeah. Again, we’ve played a couple of German teams now. We have a pretty good sense of what they’re about. They’re unbelievably big and physical, but that’s what the level is. These top, top leagues, these top teams. But I agree with you. “It does give us something to look at and understand that, look, that’s one of the top teams in Germany. They have to come to our place. They have to come to Celtic Park and look how difficult we can make it. So that’s something that we need to lean on and build on. But at the same time, this Bayern Munich team, you can make an argument, is another beast altogether. And yeah, we got great admiration for their team.
“This is a team that came into this competition with expectations to be hopefully lifting it at the end of the year. But we’re in the way. So, we’ve got to cherish that opportunity and look at it as a great chance, especially I think having the home leg at first. I know it’s obviously an advantage in the long run having the home leg second, but I think for us, I think it was really important to have it first to give us a real chance here to go out there, impose ourselves and show that we can compete. And again, when you have Celtic Park rocking, it can be intimidating to whoever the team is.”
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