Callum McGregor: We're all looking forward to Hampden final

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Celtic F.C.

·24 May 2024

Callum McGregor: We're all looking forward to Hampden final

Callum McGregor has won numerous trophies over the course of the past 10 years – 21 in total – and if Celtic can win this Saturday’s Scottish Cup final against Rangers at Hampden, it would bring him level with Scott Brown in terms of major honours with the club.

Yet, the Celtic captain approaches every final and every opportunity to lift a trophy as if it is his first attempt.

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It is an approach which has always driven him throughout his career, and it’s that determination to keep pushing forward, wanting to improve and achieve the next success which has held him in good stead up to now.

That hasn’t changed this week where, after lifting the SPFL trophy last weekend at Celtic Park, he and his team-mates have been working hard at Lennoxtown and focusing on what they need to do at the National Stadium in order to be successful.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s showpiece match, Callum McGregor said: “The way that I’ve been brought up and the way my football career’s panned out so far, I’ve tried to maximize every opportunity that I’ve got, and at the start of the season I want to try and win everything that we’re in.

“When you lose one, it hurts and that stays with you, and throughout my career I’ve tried to limit the amount of times I’ve felt like that, so come Saturday I’m going try and limit the amount of times I feel like that again.

'That’s where I am and that’s what we try to get across to the players – that come Saturday afternoon we want to be the ones standing with the trophy.'

“We go into the game at the weekend full of confidence, but we understand the challenge. It’s going to be a massive game and both teams are really good teams, so we understand where we are.

“We have to give everything to the game, and in cup finals you need a bit of luck, you need things to go your way, you need to play well on the day, so we’ve got a good chance.

“We turn up, we’re full of confidence off the back of securing the league so, for us, we’ve always been confident and obviously the last 10 days have put us in a nice place where hopefully we can finish with a Double at the weekend.

“We’ve had good success together, and the guys who’ve joined us, we’ve had that successful moment in getting over the line at Kilmarnock and then the Trophy Day at the weekend.

"Hopefully that brings the group tighter together as well and they get to feel what it is like to be a successful Celtic player, and hopefully that can carry us into the game at the weekend.

'But make no mistake, we know how difficult that’s going to be. In cup finals you’ve got to do a lot right on the day to get yourself over the line.'

"So hopefully we’re in as good a place as we can be and it’s now down to us as players to turn up and deliver.

“It’s a great occasion and a great showpiece for Scottish football, and it’s brilliant to be involved in as a player. This is what you want to do, this is why you play football, and if this doesn’t get you excited then you’re probably in the wrong sport.”

And the Celtic captain also cited the importance of the manager on these occasions. Brendan Rodgers has an enviable Scottish Cup record, with 16 wins out of 16 so far in the competition.

And it is his calmness, along with his experience, that the players will tap into tomorrow.

“Everyone knows he’s ultra-experienced and he’s a top level manager and someone who’s really, really calm under pressure,” McGregor said, “and that’s what he tries to relay to the group every time we go on the pitch.

“We have a process, we trust in that and we trust in him. He trusts the players, and then when you get to the pressure moments, it’s about staying calm and actually relying on that even more and relying each other to get through those big moments.

“He’s a top manager and I’m sure he’ll be ready for the game and, come Saturday, he’ll have the players ready as well.”

Callum McGregor’s press conference