IT was a remarkable incident, thinking back on it and it caused so much trauma within and around our club. Scott Bain needlessly conceded a corner kick, Scott Brown showed him how to use his hands properly and the penalty decision – correctly awarded incidentally – played a huge part in Celtic’s 4-3 defeat to Cluj. They scored the winner deep into stoppage time and by that time it didn’t really matter, at 3-3 we were going out to Cluj on the away goals. But it was that penalty that has caused the Celtic captain to fret over his crazy moment when he so needlessly flung an arm at the ball that was going nowhere threatening.
He gets his chance to right his own personal wrong on Thursday night and the captain, his teammates and every Celtic supporter who was there or watched on Celtic TV will be after the same thing this Thursday. I don’t need to spell it out for you but I will, R-E-V-E-N-G-E.
“I think we owe them one to be perfectly honest — and especially me,” Broony said to the media, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“In the last match I gave away a hand ball, and that is not like me. It was just one of those freak moments.
“Is it still in the back of my mind? There’s a LOT in the back of my mind! There’s a big book there! But you don’t dwell on it too long.
“The good thing about football is that there is another game three or four days later where you can go out there and prove everyone wrong.
“We’re in a good place just now — but we were in a good place before the Champions League game as well. It was just one sloppy game where we probably didn’t perform as well as we should have.
“It was a disappointing performance but we are in the Europa League now, and we’ve got Cluj yet again. We know how they play and they know how we play. It’s going to be a good game.”
The Celtic captain knows that Celtic need to make the most of the three homes games in this wide open group. Cluj’s win over the initial group favourites Lazio and Celtic’s draw away to French cup winners Rennes has certainly made the second round of matches very interesting.
A win for Celtic will take us top on 4 points while Cluj know that if they can repeat that trick from August – surely lightning won’t strike twice – then they will be in a brilliant position with 6 points.
In the other match, Lazio v Rennes a draw doesn’t really suit either side.
“I think the Europa League — as well as the Champions League — is getting harder and harder. The teams we’ve faced haven’t exactly been the easiest.
“But that is football — you want to compete against these teams and try to get the three points, especially at home,” Broony added.
“They will come here confident, they played really well the last time. But we need to make sure we start to make Celtic Park into a fortress yet again.
“It is the fans, the fantastic support, that helps us out. You can ask a lot of players about it — they feel it as well.
“Players can still get spooked by it, especially on European nights,” Broony continued. “The crowd get behind us with every single tackle, every forward pass, and every chance we create. There is always that little bit of a fear factor at play.”
ALSO ON THE CELTIC STAR…
Born on this day in 1944, Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone – The Greatest Ever Celt…see HERE.
Rangers 0-6 Celtic – Beautiful Sunday! Celtic Women Academy side runs riot in Glasgow Derby…see HERE.
