“We looked like a good European team,” Brendan Rodgers said afterwards and everyone of the fans that had witnessed the 2-1 defeat from Bayern Munich knew exactly what the Celtic manager meant.
A combination of horrendous defending and good fortune provided Bayern with their opening goal midway through the first half but in every area Celtic matched the German champions.
James Forrest more that deputised for James Forrest with his pace something that Bayern struggled to live with.
Celtic pushed and pushed for an equaliser through the second half and got their reward in the 73rd minute when the neatest of touches from Forrest opened up the Bayern defence with McGregor sliding home the equaliser.
A home win seemed possible but Bayern bounced off the ropes to notch a winner but at the end of the 90 minutes no one could argue that it will take a pretty special team to deny Celtic in the Europa League after Christmas.