“It’s absolutely vital for them to be in the Champions League,” Martin O’Neill said as he looked ahead to Celtic’s two home games in the Champions League against RB Leipzig this evening and then against Shathtar Donetsk on Tuesday 25 October. Anything other than a victory tonight will seriously diminish Celtic’s chances of reaching the knock-out rounds. But the former Celtic manager reckons that the incredible atmosphere created by the Celtic support will push the Bhoys onto a famous victory under the lights at Paradise.
“This is really a must win game for Celtic because if Leipzig get too far in front of them now then that’s going to be very, very difficult to overcome. This is the must win, so there’s no point in talking about any other fixture other than this one,” Martin O’Neill said yesterday, as reported in Daily Record.
“We have to win this game and they’re capable of doing it. They showed in Leipzig, where they had a lot of the ball, created some really good chances as well, that if they could convert some of those chances into goals then they are definitely capable of winning the game.
“The atmosphere will be phenomenal. You think about Real Madrid who play at the Bernabeu Stadium and they’re talking about the atmosphere, it’s really really special. The atmosphere on European nights and the games against (the)Rangers – it’s incredible, it’s very very hard to describe, it’s so up-lifting.
“The performances have been good, the results haven’t matched I must admit, but now they have a chance against Leipzig to try and put that right.
“In their opening game against Real Madrid for an hour I thought they played splendidly and could easily have taken the lead in that match, and you never know even though it’s Real Madrid – they’re a very assured team obviously from winning the Champions League – that result might have been different.
“In their other two performances they could easily have won those games, they’re sitting there with one point on the board at the moment – and these next two matches are absolutely vital for them – they’re capable of winning the games and that would be fantastic.”
Celtic are capable and with Cameron Carter-Vickers back in defence all we need to hope for is that the forwards start to find the back of the net in the way they did against that other Champions League side from across the city at the start of last month. If that happens it could be a very special night at Paradise. Can’t wait.
COYBIG
