CALLUM McGREGOR was the only Celtic player to score for the club in every competition we competed in last season. That’s the the three domestic competitions that we won – the Scottish Premiership, the Scottish Cup and the Betfred Cup – plus the two European competitions – the Group stages of the Champions League (plus the qualifiers) and also the Europa League knock-out round.
His goal against Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final, and his strikes against Bayern Much and Zenit St Petersburg in European competitions are up there among the real highlight moments of last season.
Tonight in Norway, again on the big stage, McGregor will be looking for similar glory. He seems to enjoy it.
“The big games bring the best out of me. I got some big goals as well and that just gives you confidence you can go and stamp your mark on the game,” McGregor said yesterday.
“That’s been a massive highlight for me over the last 12 months — that I’ve been able to impact on the big games.
“I just want to keep doing that and help the team win.
“Maybe it’s just a bit of experience for me now, a bit more confidence. You start to realise you can do it.
“You back yourself in the big games and it just rolls on from there. It’s a snowball effect.”
After setting Celtic on the way to completing the Double Treble with that wonderful strike at Hampden, McGregor isn’t the first Celtic player in recent days – Odsonne Edouard was the first – who has openly stated an intention to sweep all before them domestically in the new season.
“I think you’ve just got to do it again!” McGregor stated.
“I put pressure on myself. You have to try and emulate it as much as possible. Play well, help the team.
“I want my standards to be high every single day, in training and in games.”
Rosenborg have been mouthy in recent days – some saying they have nothing to lose so will throw the kitchen sink at Celtic this evening, others that Celtic are big favourites and are the better team etc – neither approach has had much impact though.
“We try not to listen to what other teams are saying,” McGregor said.
“They’ll quietly be confident that they can come and press and get after us and get an early goal.
“That’s the way they’ve got to try and play.
“We know what we’ve got to do. We don’t need to take any risks and put any risk into the game.”
