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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Callum McGregor in defiant Celtic Champions League message

Callum McGregor insists Celtic will give Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta as good as they get in their next two Champions League games.

Brendan Rodgers’ side will face two much tougher tests in UEFA’s top club competition next month following their 5-1 thumping of Slovan Bratislava this evening.

The Scottish Premiership champions couldn’t have asked for a more promising start to the new-look league phase, as they registered three points in their quest to at least reach the play-off phase.

McGregor controlled proceedings in midfield as always, as Celtic kept the Slovakians penned in their own half for much of the game.

“Yeah, it was great,” the 31-year-old reflected on the night. “I think you can see everyone had great fun. I thought we started the game well, obviously, we got our goal. Both teams were feeling their way in a bit.

“At half-time we felt we had another few levels to go and the start of the second half was outstanding. We blew them away.

“We then concede the goal but we recovered well and scored another two to put them to bed.

“It was a fantastic night. Hopefully, the supporters enjoyed it because I’m sure the players did.

“This is the next level for the group in terms of growth and development. We always felt it was important to start well.


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“Bratislava, they’re a good team but we were expected to win. We came here full of belief, the supporters in the stadium came full of belief, and you’ve got to go deliver. The players did that.

“It’s a fantastic start for us, especially the second half with the quality we showed with the goals.

“I thought we were really dangerous on the counter attack as well. The team defended well, worked hard, blocked spaces – you’ve got to defend at the right times in the Champions League.

“It’s a fully deserved three points. Now we rest up and go again at the weekend.

“We want to try and win our home games. We’ve got two difficult fixtures coming up after this, but this should give us belief.

“We’ll go play our football, we’ll see what happens, we want to give these teams a game. If we show what we did tonight, then hopefully, we can.”

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