Chris Sutton is predicting that Celtic will give as good as they get in European competition this time around. The Hoops – by virtue of winning last year’s Scottish Premiership – will be competing at Europe’s top table this forthcoming campaign and will be looking to get their first win since they defeated Anderlecht in Belgium under Brendan Rodgers back in the 2017-18 season.
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Despite being top of the pile for a long time domestically, the Bhoys have struggled badly on the continent, as time after time the Hoops have tasted the bitterness of defeat. Last year it was Bodø/Glimt that put us out on our ear in the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League. Despite showing good promise in the group stages of the Europa League, we were defeated home and away by Bayer Leverkusen, but managed to win at home versus Betis.
Now Sutton has backed Ange Postecoglou and his team to throw their weight around in the grandest stage of them all this time. Speaking to Daily Record Podcast, the former Celtic striker said: “Performances are important. I think what Ange Postecoglou will be looking for is to give one or two teams a bloody nose this season. All he talks about is the process and performance and watching Celtic at the weekend dominate the ball, I think Postecoglou will want to do that.
“You mention last season, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to judge Celtic as a team in Europe last season because it was all about the league. It was disappointing in Europe, you can’t get away from that fact, and this season there will be people scrutinising saying ‘can they compete?’. You saw what happened under Brendan Rodgers and his philosophy and going into Europe and getting absolutely smashed and walloped. I suspect there’ll be games in Europe where Celtic will play with a bit more balance and maybe not so gung-ho as they are in domestic competitions.
“Postecoglou isn’t daft and he’ll realise the standard of teams they’re up against but I think he’ll have the same sort of principles of dominating the ball, being brave on the ball, and giving one or two a bloody nose. And I do think Celtic are capable of that but I still worry about Celtic defensively and their brand of football being exposed because when you go up a level the spaces you find are too big against the big teams and you get exploited, but I’m sure Postecoglou has a plan for that.
“Giving some teams a bloody nose is what Celtic will be looking to do and the first games in the Champions League are absolutely crucial. If they can get something from the opening couple of games, it’ll offer some hope, whereas it was thoroughly depressing last time out in the Champions League.”
Hopefully with the core of the team having already been over the course and experienced European football together, we will be better prepared this time. For the first time in what feels like an eternity we had a relaxed and well thought out pre-season. For years the qualifiers have been the bane of our lives and have hampered our season before it has even began. With Ange getting that extra bit of time on the training pitch it could be vital in terms of our European showing this year in the Champions League.
It was all very hash-bash last summer and for really as far back as we care to remember. This is a unique and ultimately fresh opportunity to go and show the world what we are capable of. The team looks all set, the manager is happy and the support are itching to get started. As Sutton says, regardless of who we get, we should be looking at playing our game and sticking to our principles.
Angeball is ready to go big.
Paul Gillespie
