WHEN Celtic fell seven points behind Rangers in the cinch Premiership after being held to a 1-1 draw by Dundee United at home last September, a fair few fans and commentators declared the title race was as good as over.
Their manager Ange Postecoglou did not share their pessimistic outlook.
“It’s a weird league,” he said. “You call things early here, don’t you? It’s quite remarkable that seven games in people are calling the title already.”
The Greek-Australian was correct to be relaxed about his team’s form and league position at that early stage in the 2021/22 campaign. That game was the first in a 32 match unbeaten run. His charges were crowned champions the following May.
Can Celtic recover from the 3-1 defeat they suffered to RB Leipzig in their third Champions League group game in Germany on Wednesday night and silence their doubters in similar fashion in the coming weeks?
Can they haul themselves off bottom spot in their section, finish in the top two and go through to the knockout rounds for the fourth time in their history? Can they even do well enough to secure third and a place in the Europa League?
It will be far harder for them than turning things around in the Premiership given the quality of the teams they are in Group F alongside – Leipzig, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk are altogether tougher opponents than Dundee, St Johnstone and Motherwell.
But they have shown enough in their opening three fixtures, despite only have a point to show for their efforts, to suggest they can rally. Plus, they have two games at Parkhead coming up this month. So it is too soon to write them off.
The same goes for Rangers. Their city rivals have had a wretched time of it since beating PSV Eindhoven in the second leg of the play-off in the Netherlands back in August to book their place in the tournament proper for the first time since 2010.
After their opening three Group A games they have, like Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest, nul points. They have, too, conceded nine goals and failed to score once.
There will need to be a vast improvement in every area of the field in their remaining encounters with Liverpool and Ajax at home and Napoli away if they are to avoid suffering six losses.
That could easily happen if no upturn is forthcoming. Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv, Marseille and Villarreal, among many others, have all been whitewashed in the past.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, though, play their next two games at Ibrox. Having tens of thousands of their supporters roaring them on should have a positive impact on their performances.
It did against Borrussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and Leipzig during their run to the Europa League final last term. It did when they took on Napoli last month despite the defeat they ultimately, after being reduced to 10 men, suffered.
It was enjoyable to travel to Merseyside this week and cover a game at Anfield for the first time. It was impossible not be impressed with the quality of the hosts’ players and play. But the noise and intensity of the crowd disappointed a little.
The one-sided nature of the encounter was partially responsible for that. An evenly-matched contest would have brought the best out in the home support. Still, is unlikely Ibrox or Parkhead would have been so subdued during a “Battle of Britain”.
Scottish sides may struggle to compete with foreign opponents from larger football nations because their inferior broadcasting deal means they are unable to spend tens of millions of pounds on new signings.
There are few stadiums down south or on the continent, however, which can match the atmosphere that is generated inside their grounds on big European nights.
Borna Barisic, the Rangers and Croatia left back, is well travelled at both club and international level and firmly believes that Ibrox is up there with any arena he has played in. He is optimistic that returning there next Wednesday night will spark a turnaround.
“When we play at home it will be a little bit easier for us,” he said. “I thought Anfield had a good atmosphere. But for me Ibrox is the best still.”
It is 12 long years since Rangers last won a Champions League group game at Ibrox (they beat Bursaspor in 2010) and nine years since Celtic triumphed (they beat Ajax 2-1 back in 2013). So Ibrox and Parkhead can hardly be described as impenetrable fortresses. Still, they are intimidating venues.
Both Glasgow clubs have claimed some notable scalps on their own turf in the Champions League group stages over the years; AC Milan, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lyon, Manchester City, Manchester United, Porto, PSV Eindhoven, Shakhtar, Valencia and VfB Stuttgart have all either been beaten or held to draws.
Do the riches on offer in in other European leagues mean they can no longer compete in the Champions League? Celtic’s games against RB Leipzig and and Shakhtar Donetsk in the East End and Rangers’ matches with Liverpool and Ajax in Govan will show.
