There was an interesting piece by Stephen McGowan this weekend. He wrote about how important it was for Ange Postecoglou’s side to make an impression on the European scene if they want to be held in the same esteem as Jock Stein’s Lisbon lions and Martin O’Neill’s Seville side. Stephen is one hundred percent correct. His article in the Scottish Daily Mail was spot on.
As good as the present side are they are not a patch on the Lisbon Lions or Martin’s side. That’s a given and not a soul would argue anything otherwise.
So far Ange Postecoglou has not been particularly successful on the European front. It’s not been that bad either to be fair. In his first campaign we were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Midtjylland although we then beat a decent AZ Alkmaar side to progress to the Europa league group stages. We performed reasonably well in the groups and just fell short but qualified for the Conference League where we got put out by Bodo Glimt, so it was a fairly mixed campaign.
This season saw us into the Champions League group stages automatically and up against big names in Real Madrid, RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk. We of course finished bottom and gained only two points and despite decent showings we were given a reality check in the gulf in class between us and the likes of Real Madrid and even RB Leipzig.
Hopefully the players and manager have picked up some valuable experience in those games as it’s looking likely we will be going straight into the Champions league group stages again next season.
No-one is saying we should be winning the Champions League but we should be looking to compete and not be cannon-fodder. We should be able to challenge for a place in the last 16, and after that who knows? Or at the very least finishing third place and dropping into the Europa. A favourable draw could give us a decent run in that competition. It’s not out of our reach. It’s realistic.
Ange has now got his players set up to play the European way. We have the players to compete, that is not in question. Next season we have to prove we can walk the talk and do it on the European stage. If this Celtic side want to be compared to great teams of the past, making their mark in Europe is a massive step in achieving just that.
Ange Postecoglou has a burning desire to prove himself at the highest level. He’s already proved himself domestically after being written off at the start of his time at Celtic.
Europe is Ange’s next step and he has the fire in him to succeed. I’m sure he will.
JustAnOrdinaryBhoy – follow on Twitter @ordinarybhoy
