Earlier this month, in the aftermath of our home defeat at the hands of PSG, I wrote a lengthy piece on why that result wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. I argued that there are five teams at the very top of the game – Juventus, Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG – who will, on their day, do that to anyone … even each other.
They are the super-clubs. Our continual misfortune is to be drawn against them.
Underneath them there are perhaps a dozen so-called “elite clubs”. On their day they, too, are pretty hard to beat but it’s doable and we’ve done it. Had we gotten one of those clubs as our top seeds there would have been no 5-0 humbling.
When people talk about where Celtic “belongs” in football, I think it’s clear that we do belong in the Champions League groups. We’re a Champions League team. We’ve spent the money and the time building the infrastructure of one, and in doing so we have moved decisively to the front in terms of Scottish football. Domestic dominance is one thing – and I will never get tired of it – but Celtic wants to be so much. We deserve to be so much more.
The club ought to be here, and at this level – the level under that of the super-clubs – we can give a good account of ourselves and hold our own. There is no doubt about that at all. The media’s hysteria in the aftermath of the PSG result was all about undermining us; it wasn’t based on reality. As I said in the article the following morning, PSG brought a forward line to the game whose combined value was greater than the total cost of every club in the country, from the players to the fixtures and fittings in the stadiums.
We have proved ourselves over the course of this campaign already; the Astana result at home was incredible. The Rosenborg away performance was disciplined and brilliant. Those displays were conveniently forgotten by the media, but last night was further evidence of just how far this team has come. That performance was just superb.
There were some players who started tremendously and kept that up all the way; Boyata was magnificent. Even as early as ten minutes in I knew he was having a stormer. So too did Simunovic. Other players had to grow into the match, the most notable amongst them being Ntcham who started out looking nervous but set up the first goal with that beautiful through ball and then was absolutely immense from that point forward.
The first goal was a wonderful thing in and of itself; the 28 pass move was reminiscent of the goal we scored last season and which has been nominated for the Puskas award.
Last night was disciplined. Our passing stats were extraordinary.
The way we held the ball and commanded the middle of the pitch was just brilliant to watch. The forward players were alert and Leigh has done himself immeasurable good with a Champions League groups goal. Scott Sinclair was born to play on this stage, and so was Patrick Roberts.
The media has been quick to talk down Anderlecht. Just a few weeks ago they were praising them for holding Bayern Munich to a better result than we got, with ten men. Now they are a poor side. What utter nonsense.
Do we ever get credit?
They are a very capable, technically gifted team who plays a physical game in a tough, competitive league.
And last night we left them in the dust.
That performance had everything we’ve been waiting to see from a Celtic side in Europe for a long time. We are growing as a team all the time. If we really have virtually assured ourselves European football after Christmas we should be aiming high.
The media, in the meantime, is scrambling to find something negative to say. Sevco fans are still deluding themselves that we’re a team with only one or two good players and an underachieving manager. But the truth is, had we lost last night these same people would not have been surprised; they expected us to.
They are absolutely sick and I am glad that they are.
We are a Scottish club who last night kept our country on European football’s map.
And some of them could not be more miserable about it.