Being confined to Scottish football can be a very frustrating existence, the escape to European football can be liberating in comparison.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m appreciative of what playing in the Scottish Premiership gives us, what we lack in a professional governance and genuine competition we gain from regular qualification for nights like this evening, when Celtic return to the knockout stages of the Europa League.
When league titles start adding up we get to the stage where domestic records can be broken. To strive for nine and ten titles is something I’d have struggled to comprehend growing up and now we are experiencing it I make a mental note to enjoy every single game and not to look too far ahead. Savour every goal, every win, and every incremental step on the way to the domestic holy grail of the Ten. I’m genuinely enthralled at the possibility of being the most successful side Scottish football has produced and I’m convinced we’ll achieve that.
After each of those title wins when the celebrations have died down I’m already looking forward to the prize the trophies bring. Not the shiny silver baubles filling the trophy-as wonderful as they are- but instead the opportunity to pit our wits against what the continent has to offer. To break free from those confines of domestic bliss and see how we match up to others. Different cultures, styles of play, formations, tactics, coaches and of course the players themselves. Where do we rank amongst all of that?
When we don’t have European football or we exit early and meekly, the comparison for Celtic tends to be our nearest challengers in our league. I dislike that comparison, it constrains us, keeps us far too inward thinking and too much navel gazing. European football brings the challenge we need, a sight of what we can and should be aspiring to. Domestic football for me in the main is a means to an end and that end is knockout European football.
Celtic is a European football club, we have a reputation abroad but in recent years that reputation has been upheld by our supporters not by our team on the park.
When people talk about Celtic they no longer name our players, instead it’s the travelling support or the atmosphere generated on a European night at Celtic. Not since Martin O’Neill took Celtic to the final of the UEFA Cup in Seville has anyone really afforded our side the same level of respect the fans get. We’ve had one-off games, we’ve qualified for the last 16 on occasion, but it’s been fleeting momentary glimpses of what might be soon petering out.
We had great domestic dominance and an invincible season under Brendan Rodgers but he never quite got European football. Rodgers believed he could play virtually the same way against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park as he could against PSG in the Parc de princes. At first that approach was endearing, the idea we’d just get better the more we stuck to our gameplan, but when five, six and seven goals are flying past your goalkeeper you crave some pragmatism to our approach.
When Celtic appointed Neil Lennon there was some doubts shall we say but not for me or indeed any of us at The Celtic Star. Lennon was proven in the domestic game and for me he had unfinished business when it came to European football. That’s not revisionism. Back on 20 April I wrote this when all and sundry were debating Lenny’s appointment and I stand by it now.
“And this is why it’s Lenny’s gig. He started this off, the 10. He’s now the man to bookend it. Not just domestically though.
He brought this Club back from the Mowbray abyss. Lenny not only steadied the ship he progressed this club to the point we were back to at the very least, having Celtic Park a challenging place to visit.
Long before the disco lights, the team and fans together built an atmosphere without the need for Big Kev’s mobile disco.
Barcelona. The Barcelona. Not the current lot who are still magic by the way. The greatest football team of my lifetime at least, you know, death by 1000 passes?
Turn up, pass you to death and Messi scores a hat-trick. We all fell into line. Hope to stay competitive and doth your cap to Xavi and Iniesta (if you got near enough to doth your cap that is).
Not Lenny. We’d done Barca before. Thommo volley. But as much as they were brilliant, they weren’t this Barca.
Nakamura had scored a belter to beat Man Utd, Fergie’s Man Utd, and England’s standard bearers. Sutton had felled Juventus. Skippy nailed AC Milan at the death. Brilliant and amazing nights but still a bit short to beating this Barcelona team. Quite a bit.
Celtic did that. Lenny did that. His team, built in his image. We know he can do Europe, we know he’s tactically astute enough, despite his detractors, he’s at least got more than one tactic in comparison to his predecessor. And a last 16.
I guarantee you this and save this if you want. There will be defeats on the road, but I assure you they won’t be by 5, 6 and 7 away from home. Be it PSG or Barca. They won’t be even close. On home soil, we’ll be competitive again. We’ll win again. Celtic Park will be a fortress again.
We’ll play on the front foot play to our support, and the crowd will carry us. There will be famous wins and Celtic Park will be a place where the opposition fear to tread”.
Victories over Lazio home and away and whose league position contradicts the underwhelming media praise Lennon and the players received for doing the Europa League double over them, allied to a win and a draw against the French Cup holders who had defeated no less that PSG just a few months previous, has shown signs of progression.
Our European reputation is building and growing under Neil Lennon but is still a work in progress. We won’t go toe to toe when the practical approach is to get men behind the ball, it will be a horses for courses approach to European football and this pragmatism will bring success.
Tonight Celtic play Copenhagen. A fine opponent but with all due respect to our Danish hosts not a team of the quality we have faced in previous years. Lenny’s reward for winning his Europa League group is that the opposition tonight is not Zenit St Petersburg nor is it Valencia, it is an opponent against who we have a real chance of qualifying against. A last 16 place is a manageable and conceivable outcome.
This stage of knockout football for me is the minimum requirement for Celtic. Had we made the Champions League group stages our aim as it was, would have been a third place group finish and we’d drop via the Europa League parachute to this stage. We’ve taken another route but we are here nonetheless. We’ve reached expectations and now we work to exceed them.
This is where we really start to compare not with domestic opponents and traditional rivals nor qualifiers from Bosnia or Estonia.
I’m realistic, I’m not a dreamer. I don’t expect us for now at least, to be competing with the big hitters the Barcelona’s, Liverpool’s or Bayern Munich’s but this trophy will do for now. I’m happy to see us compared to some, not all of the teams in this stage.
As things stand Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, Sevilla and Roma could all be in the next round. If we get there we’ll get a real comparator and a real sense of European progression. A measure as to where we stand and what we need to progress. An opportunity to compare upwards, not below or around us.
For me that is what European football is all about. It’s why we win leagues and cups. To pit our wits against our European peers and always look to progress. To have our team afforded the same respect, to earn the same reputation our supporters carry abroad.
Tonight Neil Lennon can return Celtic to a European standing. It’s what we’re all about and it’s where we should draw our comparison.
Niall J
Copenhagen v #Celtic – 'It will be a difficult game. They're tactically very smart,' Lenny @CelticStarMag https://t.co/LOn9WofTdq
— Celtic news now (@Celticnewsnow) February 19, 2020
Celtic’s potential Ten-in-a-Row Euro-Roadblocks | The Celtic Star https://t.co/iATXaxzxdb
— The Celtic Star Editor (@CelticStarMag) February 20, 2020
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