Celtic produced a performance to remember after they beat RB Leipzig 3-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Brendan Rodgers’ side went into the game knowing that they were playing against a dangerous yet wounded animal.
Yes, RB Leipzig had lost their opening three Champions League matches, but they were seeded in Pot 1 at the start of the tournament for a reason.
Added to that, Marco Rose’s side are also sitting second in the Bundesliga, so this wasn’t going to be easy and potentially very tricky to navigate.
Even though Celtic fell a goal behind and were under pressure early on in the game, as soon as Nicolas Kuhn’s curling effort levelled the scores, the home side didn’t look back and took home the points.
Celtic’s man of the moment was on fire and it wasn’t so long before he was celebrating his second goal of the match, with Reo Hatate adding a third in the second half.
Understandably so, this win from the Bhoys rightfully gathered a lot of attention and praise.
Paul Merson hails ‘massive win’ for Celtic over RB Leipzig
In the context of this newly-revamped Champions League format so far, it now asks whether the champions of Scotland can qualify via the top-eight places.
Yes, there is still a long way to go, but as Paul Merson alluded to on Twitter this is ‘massive’.
Parkhead is special on any ordinary night, but under the Champions League lights, the team produced and Merson was delighted for the team.
“Great night for them,” wrote Merson after a fan asks ‘what about Celtic, Merse, just wow’. “Massive win!!
What the stats say about Celtic’s win over Leipzig
Even after going a goal down, Celtic proved their worth, equalised and then dominated proceedings against Germany’s second-best team.
From Celtic conceding seven to Borussia Dortmund, then reacting by picking up a point against Atalanta and beating RB Leipzig, the response has been pretty impressive so far.
Celtic had 60.5% possession of the ball, with 17 attempts on goal compared to their opponents ten, according to BBC Sport.
Added to that, five of them were on target for the home side, including four blocked shots to Leipzig’s three.
Celtic also had 25 touches in the opposition’s box and Rose’s men were restricted to 15 touches.
The Bhoys also won ten Aerial duals to their opponents’ eight.
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