Celtic left-back Boli Bolingoli believes the club can make it into the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League this season, The Scottish Sun report.
The new Hoops fan favourite has been speaking ahead of the start of our group stage campaign against Rennes on Thursday.
Bolingoli reached the quarter-finals of the competition with Club Brugge back in the 2014/15 season. Last term he reached the Round of 32 stage as part of Rapid Vienna’s team.
Now he thinks he’s well placed to do even better, talking up the ability of his teammates at Celtic Park.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “I have a lot of experience in the Europa League and I can’t wait to start with Celtic. I believe we can do something. I think we can go very far.
“My experiences with Club Brugges and Rapid Vienna were nice. We were really happy to get so far. Now with Celtic, we can do better than that.
“This is why I am looking forward to it starting. It’s going to be a great season for us. I have this feeling because we have so much quality.”
Is this realistic?
As we know, going on that kind of run this season would take a mammoth effort from Neil Lennon’s men.
We don’t have a very good record in recent European knock-out ties and our form away from home on the continent would need to improve drastically.
However, I love a dreamer and Bolingoli’s enthusiasm has to be applauded here. He’s made quite the prediction about our season ahead.
For me, his comments say more about the defender than Celtic or our European chances. That he has so much confidence heading into a crucial match against Rennes is fantastic to see.
Initially looking a little shaky in a Celtic shirt, the left-back has emerged as a thrilling performer and was arguably our best player at the weekend against Hamilton.
His European ambition should excite supporters. He clearly feels that Lennon has built a squad worthy of competing against some very good teams.
First though, let’s focus on the group stage. If we can pick up a few good results then we can start dreaming of the bigger challenges that follow.
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