Nicolas Kuhn admits he was gutted to be denied a glory Champions League goal against his former club Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, but the winger saw enough in Celtic’s attacking display to encourage him that they can score the goals they need to progress when they travel to Germany for the second leg of the tie.
Kuhn slammed the ball home past Manuel Neuer from the edge of the area in the opening minute of the game to send Celtic Park into a frenzy, only for the wild celebrations to be cut short by the assistant referee’s flag as striker Adam Idah was in an offside position.
From there, Bayern took a grip of the contest until the latter stages, when Celtic turned the tables on the Bundesliga leaders and almost forced an equaliser, and it is the moments that bookended the game that are giving Kuhn real hope ahead of the return leg. Even if he is still smarting a little over his disallowed goal.
“It would have been unbelievable,” Kuhn said.
“It was really nice for a short time. The noise was crazy, like it was for the whole game. The supporters were amazing.
“In the last half an hour we were much better, and we created some chances. There is still some way to go in the tie. I know Bayern are confident as a club, but I don’t think they will believe the tie is over.
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“They will try everything to win at the Allianz Arena – but so will we. It would have been better for us if we had won the game, but everything is still open for the second game.
“Hopefully we can have a better result.”
Kuhn also believes that the battling display Celtic put on to stay in touch with Bayern will have silenced any lingering doubters over their credentials to compete at this level after the early season thumping from Borussia Dortmund.
“Yes, one hundred percent,” he said.
“I think it was a one-off game against Dortmund and we learned our lesson from that night.
“We have a lot of young players and for a lot of guys it is the first time in the Champions League.
“There was a lot of good in the campaign and the other night. The goals we conceded were too easy but it’s something we will work on for next week.
“We saw we had opportunities on the counterattack. But also, if we keep the ball, we can be good in possession.
“In some situations, we need to play better but there will be opportunities.
“We can have belief. We have scored goals already in the league phase. We are in good form and hopefully we can score some more over there.”
