Was beating Manchester Utd, Milan or Lyon Celtic’s greatest Champions League night?
That song certainly brings memories back. Memories of standing with your head held high and your chest puffed up screaming yourself hoarse as you welcome Celtic and a big name European opponent on to the pitch.
Often folk say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, where the Champions League is concerned, that phrase is absolutely true. My heart is very fond of the prospect of Champions League football again.
So much so, that I have spent a good chunk of my day listening to recordings of Celtic European nights on youtube.
If nothing else, I think it would be perfect for us to qualify to show everyone that Celtic is a stand alone club and has never needed the now defunct Rangers or anyone else for that matter.
Of all the many years of going to the games, I can’t think of many better nights than watching Celtic compete against a European side at home. To think of it makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.
Take a second to think about the first time you were at a Champions league match at Celtic Park or to think of the great things that have happened. Think of the very late goal v AC Milan. Nakamura’s free kick v Manchester Utd.
I sit behind the goal that he scored that into and I swear there was a split second of silence where I heard the ball making contact with the net before all hell broke loose in the stands.
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What about Boruc penalty save v Man Utd. Destroying Lyon 2-0. Beating Juventus. Even a defeat in the Champions League was still a pretty amazing match, the time when Barcelona beat us at home, I think it was 3-2.
If memory serves me correct, after the Nakaura free kick, I was pretty battered and bruised by the time I was able to pick myself up from falling over the seats and over the people round about me who had done something similar.
So, what do we need to make that sort of night a possibility again? We have to beat either HJK Helsinki or KR Reykjavik. Given that HJK are 7-0 up from the first leg I would suggest that it’s very likely that they will be our opponents.
Already a few folk have told me that is the best draw for us, but really is it? They are already 17 games into their season, are the current Finnish champions. Along with their league win last season, they also secured a cup.
Does anyone know a great deal about Finnish football? I don’t so I am pretty sure that big Mixu Paatelainen will be out soon to tell us a bit about them. I suspect that he will be on the radio or news pages to give us a bit of an insight.
The main thing is that we have to remember there are no easy games in football and they just get much more difficult as the competition becomes more exclusive, lets face it, the Champions League certainly is an exclusive competition.
I’d like to think that if Neil Lennon can get the players in to cover the positions that he wants, we can get into the group stage proper. I know we can’t rely purely on stats but HJK are rated a number of places below Motherwell. I’m not comparing the two teams, I’m merely sharing this stat.
Would we be confident of beating a fully match fit Motherwell team while we had barely played a competitive match for a number of months? I don’t know the answer to that but I’d suspect that it will be a very very tough match.
With the Europa League experience behind us along with most of the players having played a significant part in winning the league last year, I’d like to think that they will come out with a confident mindset and do what we have to do to get into the big competition again.
A while before Rangers died, I wrote on these pages that I wouldn’t miss the games v them if we still have Champions League football. We are close to it so time for the team to do us proud once more and get us back into where we belong – competing against the very best.
There has been so many big names who have spoke out about their experiences of the Champions League at Celtic Park and a lot of English commentators that I’ve heard seem to think that Parkhead is a unique place for the Champions League.
I’m not really a religious person but I am thinking of becoming one so that I can start doing a massive amount of praying that we make it. It’s difficult to put into words what getting back into this competition will mean. I reckon the board will be pretty happy too given that they can rake in £20m or thereabouts!
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