Ahead of the match against Bodø/Glimt in the freezing temperatures of the Artic Circle, Celtic Captain, Callum McGregor was speaking to mixed media previewing the game tomorrow night in the city of Bodø. After an underwhelming display and result in the first leg at home, McGregor says the team are looking to go out and put on a performance, insisting we can turn the game around.
Speaking at the media conference, the skipper said: “We know the size of the task, we have to go and turn it around, and obviously win by three goals. So, we understand it will be a difficult task, but I think that this group have shown throughout the season already that we relish the big tasks, and that’s all we can do is go there, give everything, try to put in a perfect performance, and try to turn it around, so everybody is fully focused on that.”
McGregor maintains that the mantra of the players ahead of tomorrow night is: “Just don’t concede goals. And when we get into the areas that we want to get into then have that little bit of quality to finish the move off. Football is pretty simple in that sense where you have to defend your own box then when you’re attacking you have to score, so, to bring it right back to basics, that’s what we have to do tomorrow.”
He said: “We’ve watched the game back, we understand the errors that we made for the goals, but, by and large, I thought it was a good performance. We’ve spoken about that internally, the way the manager wants to analyse the games, what he’s looking for from the team. And I think that if we manage to put the final piece together and put the ball in the back of the net, then we’ve got a good chance.’
The midfielder also echoed the words of his manager since the day he arrived at Celtic Park, insisting they must stick to their principles at all times and have faith in the way they play football. He said: “I think at times like these, you have to believe in the way that you want to play, you don’t start to change too much about your approach or how you want to play or how you see the game being played. I think we just need to try and become a better version of ourselves in that sense, and we have to stop the ball going in our net, and then we’ve got to get three goals to win the game.
“So, that’s exactly what the task is for us, and I’m pretty sure we’ll approach it in the same way. We understand the mathematics of it, but when we approach the game tomorrow night, we’ll want to do all of the things that we have been doing – defend well, keep a strong line and we go and play our football and try to score goals.
“That’s the way we approach every game and, like I say, we have to be pretty much perfect if we want to get through the tie. We’ll try not to focus too much on that, we’re just trying to focus on the performance and then hopefully the performance is good enough to get us through.
“They are a good side, strong side, physically strong and well set-up defensively, coached really well and they took their moments in counter-attack, which, at European level, you expect that anyway. So when the ball turns over, these guys are quick and they’ve got the ability to finish the move off.
“So they were a very good side but I still stick by the fact that had we been a little bit better in terms of quality-wise when we got around the box, then I think the game was ours for the taking. Of course, we have to respect the opponent, we go there, it was a good result for them last week, but we have to be pretty much perfect tomorrow night to make it through the tie, but that’s the challenge ahead and we have to face it head-on.”
Watch Callum’s media conference below…
Paul Gillespie