Celtic have received plenty of credit for their Rennes display over the last few days, but Christopher Jullien isn’t exactly determined to get carried away with it.
The Hoops snatched a priceless opening-day point against the Ligue 1 side on Thursday. Ryan Christie’s penalty canceled out Mbaye Niang’s first-half spot-kick to seal a fine result. However, at the same time, Celtic will perhaps be a tad frustrated not to have won the game.
Christie had another stone-wall penalty denied. Vakoun Issouf Bayo, meanwhile, was sent off when Celtic had a man advantage.
In any case, it was a fine result. But Jullien isn’t exactly doing cartwheels over it. Speaking to the Scottish Sun, you can sense some slight frustration in the Frenchman’s comments.
“It wasn’t such a big result, to be honest. We played reasonably well at times, but we didn’t have as many shots at goal as we would have liked.
“But I thought we played well and limited them to one or two chances. Even in the final few minutes, when they were pushing for the win, they didn’t create many chances.
“It was a little bit of a sad feeling not to get the three points. It’s hard to take but it shows how far we’ve come that we were disappointed not to have beaten the team who are second top of the French league.”
Jullien not getting carried away with Rennes display
Jullien’s attitude here is right on the money. It’s important to remember that our performance in Rennes only managed to secure us a point on the night. Everyone will be aware that there’s still plenty of work to be done in this group.
But one thing Jullien may not be privy to is how poor we’ve been away from home over the years in Europe. When we perform as well as we did on Thursday night against a team as good as Rennes, it’s worth celebrating. It shows improvement in our away-day performances.
However, for supporters, it’s confirmation that this side can do the tough stuff. They can leave Scotland and come back with big results in Europe. That’s something so many Celtic sides in the past haven’t been able to gloat about.
Neil Lennon is unbeaten in five European away matches this season alone. He’s managed three wins and two draws, and they’ve not been against dud sides either. Cluj, AIK, and Rennes are all in there. It’s a fine list of sides to have frustrated on their own patch.
Jullien, however, will know all about Rennes. He isn’t dancing around over the prospect of a point. This is a Celtic side that believes they can do big things in Europe.
Watch this space, they might just do so with the attitude and quality we seem to have.
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