With the Champions League draw a matter of a few hours away, fans have been discussing all things European football this week as they pick their preferred draws for Celtic’s group stage campaign.
Brendan Rodgers overseen two Champions League campaigns as Celtic manager first time round, starting in the 2016/17 season when he became the first manager to qualify for the group stage since Neil Lennon back in the 2012/13 season.
There were some highlights and lowlights in those campaigns with the squad failing to qualify for the knockout rounds on both occasions and facing some tough sides along the way such as Manchester City, PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
There were some great nights across those two seasons as well. Rodgers gave us some memorable Thursday nights at Paradise as we reached the knockout round of the Europa League in his first season before succumbing to a disappointing defeat over two legs against Spanish side Valencia.
Celtic 3-3 Manchester City // UEFA Champions League Group C // 28th September 2016
Celtic endured a qualifying route full of drama, thrills and late goals.
A qualifying campaign that started with a loss to Gibraltan side Lincoln Red Imps and ended with a loss to Israeli side Hapoel Beer-Sheva, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side would have strolled out of Celtic Park with their flawless opening record intact. You also would have been wrong.
Celtic came hot out of the blocks, looking to avenge a 7-0 loss in Barcelona on gameweek 1 and they did just that with Moussa Dembele putting Celtic ahead inside 3 minutes. Fernandinho brought City level soon after but Celtic were ahead again less than 10 minutes later as a young Kieran Tierney’s effort deflected in off of Raheem Sterling. Sterling made up for his own goal by scoring at the right end and bringing things level heading into the break.
Celtic started fast again with Dembele scoring a spectacular second to put Celtic 3-2 up before Nolito equalised for City. Celtic had the visitors rocked inside a noisy Celtic Park and it showed that Celtic were making progress under Rodgers.
Before this match, Celtic hadn’t won a European group game in 16 attempts but the Hoops hit three past the Belgians in what was a dominant display with three different scorers on the scoresheet.
Celtic knew that they weren’t going to be able to compete with PSG and Bayern Munich for the two knock-out spots but beating Anderlecht would be vital if the club wanted to secure European football after Christmas.
Olivier Ntcham and Kieran Tierney linked up brilliantly before the Scot put in a brilliant delivery for Leigh Griffiths to tuck home and put Celtic ahead. Patrick Roberts’ deflected effort put Celtic two goals up after the break before Scott Sinclair added a third to round off an impressive performance.
Celtic 2-1 RB Leipzig // UEFA Europa League Group B // 8th November 2018
This game had far more drama compared to the previous encounter mentioned as Celtic fought hard to see off the German giants. After losing the last two fixtures on match-day 2 and 3 to RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig respectively, Celtic looked like a completely different team as they came at Leipzig.
Celtic went into the game knowing defeat would put them out of the competition and Tierney was up for the challenge as he put Celtic ahead on 11 minutes. Jean-Kevin Augustin equalised with 12 minutes to go before, a matter of seconds later, Odsonne Edouard popped up to put Celtic back in front. Ryan Christie shone in particular on this day after breaking into the team this season.
JAMES MCKENZIE
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