As I write this, Celtic’s second leg tie against Bayern Munich is about 14 hours away. The game may well have already played out by the time you read this. However, I hope you will still do so anyway, because regardless of the result, the message still stands.
Hope Can See Us Through
Bayern Munich are one of the best teams in the world at the moment. They have a level of player, a level of finance and a level of experience that our current Celtic team can only dream of.
That however, is exactly what Celtic have to do. We have to dream, to hope, and to believe.
With away goals no longer an issue, a single early strike from Celtic could shift the balance of this entire tie in our favor.
Unrest at the Allianz
Despite outward impressions, all is not well at Bayern just now. In reading the post-match fallout among their own fans last week, I saw a great deal of discontent.
Whilst the vast majority of comments were respectful of Celtic’s industry and effort in the first leg, the perspective of most German fans, rightly or wrongly, was that this shouldn’t even be a close thing. Celtic are, in their eyes, a team who shipped seven goals to Borussia Dortmund just a few short months ago. A Dortmund side who lag far behind Bayern in the Bundesliga title race.
Bayern have a proud history both domestically and on the European stage. With this reputation, naturally, comes a huge level of expectation. Many fans feel, despite being ahead in the title race and in with a very real chance of lifting the Champions League trophy this year, that the current squad doesn’t meet this expectation.
Last week’s match did little to allay those concerns.
A Celtic defeat should never be celebrated. However, for all Bayern’s superstars, all their firepower and their rightfully earned reputation as a European giant, this game isn’t dead. The demolition job many in the media, including plenty of gleeful cheerleaders in Scotland predicted, never materialized.
We’ve Come a Long Way, But We’ve Still Got a Long Way to Go
It speaks volumes to how far Celtic have come, in such a short space of time, that fan perception has shifted from reluctant acceptance of an absolute scudding by Dortmund in October, to being genuinely disappointed to lose by a single goal to Bayern Munich a little over four months later.
As I said before, our biggest weapon in the Allianz Arena tonight isn’t our footballing ability, our tactics or our endurance. It is hope.
Celtic as a club and a fanbase have endured several periods of hardship in our illustrious history. Recent dominance domestically may have obscured that truth, especially from some of our younger fans. Yet, the one thing we never lost was hope. I remember when we lost 2-0 to FC Koln, then turned them over 3-0 at Celtic Park.
I was there when we swept aside the likes of Celta Vigo and Liverpool on the way to a European final. I sat proudly alongside my father and my late Uncle Frank as Celtic Park stood up to a Barcelona side that included arguably the greatest player of all time and said “Not tonight Lionel!”
The form guide, and once again our own mainstream media gave us no chance in all the aforementioned ties. And still, Celtic endured.
Our Greatest Weapon Lies Within
As a great man once said: “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”
That man was Christopher Reeve, and if anyone knew a thing or two about overcoming the odds, it was him.
We’ve done it before, we can do it again. Hope is our greatest weapon. Let’s unleash it in Germany tonight!
