Three Reasons Why Celtic Fans Should be Excited by the Performance Against Bayern
On Tuesday night Celtic welcomed the German champions Bayern Munich to Celtic park for an important Champions League clash. Disappointingly ended with Celtic getting eliminated from Europe’s most prestigious competition.
Celtic were highly impressive in the 2-1 defeat to Bayern and showed many encouraging signs for what is to come under Brendan Rodgers. However, the end result was not the one they may have hoped for. Celtic park is famous for European nights under the lights and that night felt like one of those nights where something special was going to happen. Unfortunately for the hoops their remarkable effort was not enough to get a result against the German giants. This may be the end of Celtics champions league journey this year but that game showed many reasons on why Celtic fans should be excited for what is to come.
Here are three reasons on why Celtic fans can get excited from that encouraging performance against Bayern:
1. Celtic can still compete at the top level playing attacking football.
Celtics famous 2-1 victory against Barcelona back in 2012 showed that the club was still able to produce results against Europe’s top teams. However, this was an extremely impressive defensive performance for Celtic and since then they have not been able to cope with Europe’s elite. Celtic have since been embarrassed by both Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain in the Champions league group stages. Tuesdays performance against Bayern not only showed that Celtic can still compete at the top level it also showed that they can do it playing attacking football. After Celtics defeat to Bayern in Germany Rodgers was highly criticized for his inability to change his style of play against the top teams. Celtic set out to prove the critics that they do not need to change their style and can cause trouble to the top teams with their attacking play. Celtic and Bayern shared the possession in Tuesdays match with Celtic having more attempts and arguably the better of the chances. This demonstrates that Celtic can compete at the top level without parking the bus and playing defensive football as they are expected to do.
2. The academy is producing top level players.
This is perhaps the most exciting take-away from the game on Tuesday night. Celtic had three academy graduates in the lineup against Bayern and all three of the showed that they are more than capable of competing at the top level. Kieran Tierney and James Forrest were the two standout performers from the Celtic side. Tierney was highly impressive defensively shutting down Coman and Robben on numerous occasions and he looked promising going forward. James Forrest was the best Celtic player on the park as he looked to cause Bayern problems every time he got the ball in an attacking position, he set up the goal and delivered a perfect ball to Stuart Armstrong early in the game. Forrest was exciting going forward and was also solid defensively throughout, a very encouraging performance from the Scotland international. The third and final academy graduate that was in the side on Tuesday night was Callum McGregor. McGregor was the quietest of the three on Tuesday night but did not look out of his depth at any point in the game, he put in a solid shift for the hoops and chipped in with a composed finish to level the game.
3. If they can compete against Bayern, why couldn't they make a run in the Europa League.
Celtic may be eliminated from the Champions league but they are still in an excellent position to qualify for the Europe League and have European football after Christmas. Assuming that Celtic lose away to PSG and Bayern beat Anderlecht, all Celtic have to do is not lose by more than three goals when they host Anderlecht in the final game of the group stages. Considering Celtic are at home and dominated Anderlecht in Belgium they should be able to hold the Belgium champions off and qualify for the round of 32 in the Europa League. Celtic showed they can compete with the big boys and although the Europa league will have some big teams in it, none will be as strong as this Bayern side. Celtic fans should relish the opportunity to make a good run in the Europa League. I don’t believe they are quite good enough to win the competition I feel that an in form Celtic side could be extremely difficult to stop, especially at home.