Celtic full-back Kieran Tierney won’t be taking anything for granted when Celtic face Bosnian side FK Sarajevo in the Champions League at the start of July.
The Hoops may have been resounding 6-0 winners against FC Alashkert in the first qualifying round last year but Tierney knows it won’t be a walkover when Sarajevo come calling.
What did he say?
Speaking to the official Celtic website, Tierney said: “You don’t get easy games or bad teams nowadays. Every team is good and they know how to play football. They’re all well organised so there’s a clear standard to the football in that regard.
“They’re going to be hard to break down and they’ll come at us as well. We’re going into the unknown against a team we’ve never played and against players we’ve never faced.
“It’s a hard ask, but the expectation at Celtic is to win and go through and that’s what we’re planning to do.”
Refreshing to see
It’s good to see someone of Tierney’s calibre paying respect to our future opponents. It would have been easy for him and his Celtic teammates to disregard the Bosnians given our recent success at this stage of the tournament.
The humble nature of the youngsters in the current squad isn’t spoken about enough. The likes of Tierney, Callum McGregor, James Forrest and Ryan Christie always come across well in media. They are likeable guys who always show respect for the opposition and rarely get caught up in their own hype.
The Celtic squad believe in their own ability but they’re very rarely caught out with a daft comments in the media. The PR team deserve huge credit for the way our players come across.
Hopefully the team can follow Tierney’s lead now, by showing respect for Sarajevo and then beating them in style.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
