Aiden McGeady is already looking forward to Lazio’s visit to Celtic Park on matchday two of the UEFA Champions League.
It was a disappointing evening for the Hoops in Rotterdam as they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Feyenoord. The result leaves us bottom of Group E already as the only side yet to register a point.
Despite another bruising evening amongst Europe’s elite, the former Celtic winger reckons there are positives to be taken from the result as he looked ahead to the Lazio home game in a fortnight.
“The result [Lazio 1-1 Atletico Madrid] in the other game leaves the group wide open,” McGeady said. (Scottish Football Podcast)
“In two weeks time, when Celtic face Lazio at home, it’s a massive game. If Celtic can get three points it could be a real springboard for a successful campaign, albeit on the back of a bad defeat on paper.
“If you actually look at the performance, down to nine men it’s demoralising. Feyenoord looked brilliant when Celtic were down to nine men. But, until then, Celtic were well in the game.
“There’s a lot of positives to take, especially from the first-half performance. In two weeks time, if there’s fewer individual errors and Celtic approach the game the same way, with the same gameplan, I think we might see a different outcome.”
While it’s easy to feel downbeat after yet another Champions League loss, it is important that we confine our frustrations to this campaign alone. What has gone before isn’t relevant to this current side.
The defeat at De Kuip was not the start we wanted. But we now have back-to-back home games coming up. If we can win them both then we’ll be in a good position to qualify.
Unlike in most of our groups over the years, there is unlikely to be a stand-out side who are going to romp the section with 13 or more points. There is no Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain this year.
Feyenoord, Atletico and Lazio are highly likely to take points off each other. If we can earn at least a couple of wins at home, we will find ourselves in with a chance of European football after Christmas.
Imagine how good we’d all feel if Lazio are beaten in Glasgow on October 4.
In other news, what the Dutch media are saying about Feyenoord vs Celtic
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