Champions League: Celtic v RB Leipzig
Venue: Celtic Park Date: Tuesday, 5 November Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Scotland & BBC Sounds. Text updates on BBC Sport website & app
Brendan Rodgers is still looking for a marquee win in Europe as Celtic manager – and a victory against RB Leipzig, currently the second best team in Germany, would most definitely go down as one of those.
Celtic have won their last two home Champions League matches. Jiri Jarosik and Massimo Donati were the heroes the last time they did three in a row at Celtic Park.
After beating Feyenoord last season and Slovan Bratislava this season, Rodgers’ team have now given themselves a chance of emulating Gordon Strachan’s class of 2007.
George W Bush was in the White House, Gordon Brown was in No 10 and the late Alex Salmond had only recently been elected First Minister of Scotland, which is just a way of illustrating how long Celtic have been waiting to win three times on the spin in a stadium they like to think of as a fortress.
If they want visitors to see Celtic Park as anything other than a bucket list venue – it would be nice if a global superstar said, just once, that he hated the place on the back of a chastening experience.
Firework-free on Bonfire Night?
Celtic folk will be hooked, as ever. Watching, too, will be the disciplinary people from Uefa.
There’s a game beyond a game here. It’s the Celtic board versus elements among the support. It’s Uefa’s sword of Damocles hanging over the club over the ultras’ use of pyrotechnics versus the rebellious nature of some fans who usually couldn’t give a damn about edicts from governing bodies and threatened punishments.
The threats are real and Celtic know it. They copped a £16,770 fine last month and one firework in a European game over the next two years will mean Celtic receiving a ban on selling tickets for their next away trip. In this case, it would be against Dinamo Zagreb on 10 December.
Rodgers has practically begged the fans to toe the line. They did just that in Bergamo, knowing the likely consequences if they didn’t. The flares were back with a vengeance before their League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on Saturday. The game was delayed by 15 minutes as a result.
Pyro at football matches in Scotland are illegal, but in reality there’s no disincentive for fans to use them. From Uefa, there’s a warning. From the SPFL, there’s silence, which is exploited by the pyro brigade.
Maybe – maybe – this is the compromise the fans have reached among themselves. Full compliance in Europe, but anything goes at home. The club will hold its breath. In a sense, Tuesday is a test, on and off the pitch.
‘Must-win’ for Bundesliga high-flyers
Celtic showed a refreshingly different side to their personality away to Atalanta last time out. Before that game, fans might have been minded to offer up prayers in the hope that the damage inflicted on them would be modest.
What they got was a disciplined performance, a terrific defensive effort which had its foundations in excellent goalkeeping from Kasper Schmeichel. They rode their luck at times and were thankful for some errant finishing from the Italians, but what they delivered was pragmatic and mature.
Rodgers said he would never move away from his coaching beliefs, but he shifted slightly in Italy and the team was much better for it. The naivety and vulnerability of the 7-1 in Dortmund had gone. Instead, there was realism, concentration and a hunger to stay in the fight.
More of the same, then. Another draw would be a good outcome. That would take Celtic to five points with very winnable home games against Bruges – 26th in the table – and Young Boys – 35th of 36 – to come.
A point against Leipzig and six against the other two, and Celtic are home-free and in the play-offs.
From Leipzig’s perspective, however, this is surely a must-win. They have zero points after a brutal run of games and after Celtic they have Inter, who are sitting seventh, Aston Villa, who are top, and Sporting, who are eighth. After that they have a gimme against Sturm Graz, but three points might be useless at that stage.
They won’t lack class and they won’t lack desperation, either. As a club, they are an extraordinary outfit. In the last six years they have bought in more than a half a billion in revenues from player trading alone. Celtic have a fine track record on that front, but Leipzig are in a league of their own.
Naby Keita to Liverpool, Timo Werner to Chelsea, Dayot Upamecano to Bayern Munich, Christopher Nkunku to Chelsea, Dominik Szoboszlai to Liverpool, Josko Gvardiol to Man City, Dani Olmo to Barcelona. They’ve done 15 different deals ranging from £10m to nearly £80m. The Leipzig tills have been ringing relentlessly.
They might currently be sitting pointless and 11 places below Celtic in the Champions League table, but the nuance comes with the knowledge that it was Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool they lost to, all by a single goal.
They’re second in the Bundesliga and, until the weekend when they lost 2-1 to Borussia Dortmund, they were on an all-time club record run of 19 games unbeaten in the league. Nobody at Celtic will need any telling about Leipzig’s clear and present danger.
What Celtic do in the face of that danger is the compelling bit.