Celtic’s 2024/25 Champions League campaign was far better than the team has delivered in previous years.
UEFA’s revamping of the format certainly helped matters, evening out certain aspects of the playing field for teams like Celtic, who lack the domestic platform or financial might to compete with Europe’s best.
Brendan Rodgers guided Celtic to the playoff stages before heartache struck in Munich when Bayern knocked out the champions of Scotland.
After Vincent Kompany’s side had won the first leg at Celtic Park 2-1, and were clear favourites to progress in the second leg, but Nicolas Kuhn’s goal made Bayern think very differently.
Months down the line, Alistair Johnston has used that game and what he noticed from the Bayern players as an example of what Celtic should do domestically.
Alistair Johnston on what he noticed about the Bayern Munich players
Yes, there is no other team in Scotland that faces the pressure like Celtic, but the same can’t be said on the European stage.
Johnston explained how, when facing Bayern, he noticed how their players ‘didn’t even look fazed’ when the Hoops were ‘on top’ and putting pressure on them.
The Canadian international noted the Munich players’ ‘body language’, and how you can ‘win games’ based on that, and he wants Celtic to do the same on the domestic scene, as he told One Soccer.
“When you are at a club like Celtic, it’s about walking out there, no matter how the game is going,” said Johnston.
“Chest up. Confidence. I know, in the Champions League, when you play against a team like Bayern Munich, even when you feel like you are on top of it, but you look across, and they all don’t even look fazed. How difficult can that be when you are technically the underdog in that match?
“So, it’s about us doing that domestically as well. Realising, ‘look, you can win games just on your body language’, and if things aren’t going great, okay, just stick to the principles. Keep playing your game, and that’s something I have developed in my time over there (in Scotland) is dealing with that pressure.
“Yes, the MLS has come a long way, the national team has come a long way, but the level of pressure at those kinds of clubs, it sort of is hard to fathom until you are living and breathing it.”
Celtic’s domestic dominance in numbers
There will be some Celtic fans screaming that the team is already doing that, and that is also proven by how the opposition sets up – home or away, in the Premiership.
The financial gulf is there for all to see, but the job still has to be done, and for the last 25 years, there has been very little to moan about.
It never used to be the norm for Scottish teams to win the domestic Treble, but Celtic have made it the norm because of individuals such as Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon and Ange Postecoglou.
- Titles since 2000: 19
- Trophies since 2000: 42
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