AS Tom Rogic stood in the tunnel at Ibrox at the weekend and tried to contain his delight at both scoring against Rangers and helping Celtic to another comfortable win, he was grilled about the forthcoming game with Anderlecht.
Was the match in the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium tonight of even greater importance than the Old Firm derby to the Scottish champions? How far did he think a draw or even a win in Belgium would go towards securing third place in Group B? Could Brendan Rodgers’s side do well in the Europa League knockout stages?
The Australian attempted to downplay the significance of the fixture with some fairly bland soundbites. Every Champions League group game was massive to the Glasgow club. They would try to win each outing they had in the competition. This meeting with Anderlecht would be no different to their encounters with Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich.
Nobody was fooled.
Celtic’s showdown with Anderlecht this evening is their biggest of the season after their play-off matches with Astana last month. The ramifications of success will be massive for the Parkhead club and the players know it.
It is, too, one of their manager’s most important game since taking charge last year. Being involved in Europe beyond Christmas this season will be definite progress for Rodgers’s side. The Northern Irishman’s stock will rise even further as a result.
Domestic success is always welcomed by Celtic supporters. Landing a treble and going undefeated last term was rightly celebrated. But they are also a club with a proud European heritage. Being involved at this stage is a great achievement. Going even further, however, would be widely hailed.
Celtic have defied all expectations and progressed to the knockout rounds of Europe’s elite club competition on three memorable occasions in the past – in the 2006/7 and 2007/08 campaigns when Gordon Strachan was in charge and in 2012/13 season when Neil Lennon was at the helm.
Yet, the gulf between the continent’s richest clubs in the five largest leagues, in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, has widened considerably since their last success five years ago and their prospects of emulating those feats and finishing first are second in the months ahead are minimal.
It is not impossible. Celtic have overcome AC Milan, Barcelona and Manchester United line-ups every bit as star-studded as the Bayern side or the PSG teams they will face this term. At Parkhead, in front of over 55,000 of their fans, anything can happen. In the past, it frequently has.
However, realistically, given the vast difference in player budgets between Celtic and Bayern and PSG, finishing third in the section and dropping into the last 32 of the Europa League is all that can reasonably be expected of them.
Celtic enjoyed, despite finishing bottom of their group, some fine moments in the Champions League last season. They drew with Manchester City at home and away and with Borussia Moenchengladbach away. The less said about their brushes with Barcelona the better.
But the spending power of their Bundesliga, La Liga and Premier League adversaries made challenging for one of the top three places impossible. That is not the case to the same degree this time around with a rival from the less affluent Belgian Pro-League to face.
Anderlecht may, having reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League last season only to be edged out after extra-time by eventual winners Manchester United, be placed above the likes of Lazio, Liverpool, Moenchengladbach, Fenerbahce, AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven and Besiktas in the Uefa Club Rankings.
But achieving a result against them is well within the capabilities of Scott Brown and his team mates, especially considering the difficulties their opponents have been experiencing. They are in seventh place in their league, have sacked their manager Rene Weiler as a result and replaced him with Nicolas Frutos on an interim basis.
They have some talented players. Nicolae Stanciu, the Romanian internationalist who they paid a Belgian record £9m for last summer, is a skilful attacking midfielder who will pose a threat.
But the Celtic fans who will make their way to their rivals’ 21,500 capacity arena tonight will do so in the hope of seeing their team win in the Champions League group stage for the first time since a 2-1 triumph over Spartak Moscow in 2012.
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