Excitement is building ahead of Celtic’s entry into the Champions League.
The Bhoys play eight matches in the league phase over the next few months, hoping to make it into the top 24 of a 36-team table.
Doing that will require around nine or ten points, which stat-trackers Opta have predicted Brendan Rodgers’ side can pull off with their schedule of opponents.
As we countdown to matchday one next Wednesday night against Slovan Bratislava, naturally memories of European campaigns gone by pop up and UEFA themselves helped with those efforts on Friday.
Fraser Forster Celtic heroics vs Barcelona are as popular as ever
The official Champions League account on X shared highlights of Fraser Forster’s famous tussles with Barcelona to their 52 million followers and the clip quickly went viral, liked and shared thousands of times as well as racking up close to 700,000 views at the time of publishing.
Forster earned the nickname ‘La Gran Muralla’, the Great Wall, from the Spanish press for his performances against the La Liga giants during the 2012/13 season – the last time Celtic qualified for the knockout stages of the competition.
Celtic will need similar heroics from current goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to help them progress this time around – something that one of the Dane’s former teammates thinks he can demonstrate.
Anders Lindegaard talks up Kasper Schmeichel
Anders Lindegaard, formerly of Manchester United and Denmark, reckons that Celtic’s summer signing can come up big for the Bhoys at the elite level.
He said this week [Daily Record]: “It’s fantastic for him to be playing Champions League football again, especially at this time of his career. He’s had a very good start at Celtic and that is important for a goalkeeper.
“Kasper is a great signing for Celtic. It’s a great move for them and for him. He is a brilliant goalkeeper, he is top class and has a lot of experience.
“He will have a positive influence on the Celtic team, he has a lot of top level experience in club and international football. They have made a very good signing with him.
“Kasper is very good with his feet and already has that connection with Brendan Rodgers. He knows what he is getting with him, he knows that he will fit in with the way he likes his teams to play.”
Forster’s exploits in Europe with Celtic are almost mythical so Schmeichel might not quite reach that adulation but he does have the quality to help the Bhoys win points as Celtic shoot for that play-off spot.
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