Believe the hype, £11m Arne Engels can take Celtic to new level in Champions League

Believe the hype, £11m Arne Engels can take Celtic to new level in Champions League

THE Champions League has proved to be a problematic competition for Celtic in the past couple of seasons and victories have, despite laudable displays against the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Lazio, been hard to come by.

There promise to be, with league phase games against Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, RB Leipzig and Aston Villa coming up in the months ahead, some difficult encounters and a few low moments for the Scottish champions again this term.

But one of the biggest challenges which Brendan Rodgers might face after an emphatic opening win – the first they have managed in no fewer than 13 attempts – over Slovan Bratislava at Parkhead last night will be tempering the heightened expectations of supporters.

Celtic’s jubilant followers danced out of the stadium at the end of the 90 minutes believing, with no little justification, that this might just be the year when they do a more than make up numbers.

Rodgers baulked at suggestions that the Slovakians would be easy opening opponents both when the draw was made earlier this month and at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday evening.

He pointed to the fact that Vladimir Weiss’s men had successfully negotiated four ties and eight games – they had overcome Struga of Macedonia, NK Celje of Slovenia, Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus and Midtjyllandd of Denmark – to make it through to the Champions League proper for the first time in their history.

He would, too, have been well aware that wily old warhorse Weiss had masterminded the infamous 5-0 win which Artmedia Bratislava recorded against his boyhood heroes in a qualifier back in 2005.

But Celtic dominated from the first minute to the last and would have won by even more had it not been for Dominik Takac. The goalkeeper denied Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels and Kyogo Furuhashi in the first half and Engels and Alistair Johnston in the second.

The atmosphere at Parkhead on Champions League nights is rightly renowned around the world. Some superstars of the global game, normally after they have enjoyed a comfortable win, have raved about it. The home supporters certainly cranked up the decibel levels a notch or two before hostilities commenced.

There was a rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone which would have brought a tear to a glass eye before the teams emerged from the tunnel and that raised expectation levels around the ground tangibly.

The Green Brigade normally produce something a little special for these occasions and they did not disappoint. Giant banners were unfurled from the top tier before kick-off. One read “Last Night As I Lay Dreaming”. The other showed two of the Lisbon Lions lying in bed with the European Cup in between them with a teddy bear in it the morning after their win over Inter Milan in 1967.