Stephen Welsh looked back on his first experience of a big Champions League success for Celtic back in 2007 when the then European Champions AC Milan were beaten 2-1 with the Celtic goals coming from Stephen McManus and Scott McDonald. And the 22 year old Celtic defender, who was outstanding in Leipzig last Wednesday night, would settle for a similar scoreline for the Hoops this time around. Coincidentally it was also the same score-line at the weekend up in Perth and Welsh was still buzzing about how that match ended, as indeed we are are. Have you watched the Unique Angle yet?
Tomoorw night’s Celtic v RB Leipzig is actually a game that both sides need to win while a draw will be a good result only for Shakhtar Donetsk as all three teams have a realistic hope or reaching the Champions League knock-out rounds or at least securing a place in the Europa League with one going to end up empty handed and out of European football at the start of November.
Welsh has been speaking to the media about the challenges that Celtic face and looked back at that very special night against AC Milan 15 years ago for inspiration as the young Celtic Academy graduate eyes his first Champions League start at Celtic Park.
“Probably the first one I went to, the AC Milan game, the 2-1 game. They were the best team in the world at the time and Celtic went out and won the game,” Welsh recalled, as reported by Daily Record. “Hopefully we can do the same on Tuesday night. I was seven or eight. It was a long time ago now. But I am here now to go and play and challenge at the top stage. They had Kaka, Pirlo. They were a good team, but that night Celtic came out on top.
“At that time it is a dream, but you never actually think of it. To go and do that would be a special occasion. That is the dream – to go there and play in the Champions League. I have played away from home now obviously, but it is a different kettle of fish playing at home on a Champions League night.
“Hopefully we can use that to our advantage. It will be my first Champions League start at Celtic Park if I am picked. It is obviously good playing away from home, but a Champions League night at Celtic Park will be a different occasion. We need to think of it as a game that we need to go and perform in. We need to play our football and go and win the game.”
Welsh was reminded that Celtic’s Champions league fate is very much still in our own hands and indeed two home wins over the next few weeks would certainly give Celtic an outstanding chance especially if Real Madrid keep winning.
“Exactly, it is,” Welsh agreed. “But we are not looking at it like that. We are wanting to go and put a good performance in, play our football against Leipzig, which we did in parts on Wednesday. We have got to do that for the full 90 minutes instead of just wee bits and pieces,” the former Scotland Under 21 captain said.
“We know it is going to be tough, but we are going to go into it the same way and try to play our football, attack and press high. That is probably what you would expect from us now. It is about recovering and preparing. We will be ready to go again on Tuesday night.
“That is the level of the Champions League – every team we are going to play are going to have dangerous players. Leipzig showed that the other night, but we showed as well that we can go there and create chances. At Celtic Park with the home crowd behind us we showed we can go and do the same.”
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More on Stephen Welsh and his reaction to Saturday’s win at St Johnstone to follow…
And here are the details on The Celtic Rising…
