Kasper Schmeichel: Full focus on Kilmarnock

In partnership with

Celtic F.C.

·8 November 2024

Kasper Schmeichel: Full focus on Kilmarnock

This weekend’s action at Rugby Park where the Celts take on Kilmarnock will pull the curtain down on an amazing week of football, and hopefully the team will take a bow with another win.

The show began with Saturday’s League Cup semi-final against a high-flying Aberdeen side and a resounding 6-0 victory at Hampden.

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Then on Tuesday night, Bundesliga outfit, RB Leipzig arrived on UEFA Champions League duty and the Celts came up with showstopper again, and a 3-1 win against a side, who like the Dons, could be expected to steal the limelight from the Celts.

There’s a different test this Sunday on the synthetic surface at Rugby Park against a side who beat Rangers there just last month, and who will be out to put the brakes on the Celtic rollercoaster.

It is, though, a speeding rollercoaster that is gathering momentum with the win over RG Leipzig the latest in a list of dazzling performances.

Keeper, Kasper Schmeichel said of the game: “It was a very good performance.

“Very complete in many ways, we started the game really well, went behind and then we needed to show character, belief, determination and composure to get back into the game.

“We worked our way back in and I thought it was a performance that had everything.”

The qualities listed be the Celts’ No.1 will still be very much in demand on Sunday against the eighth-placed Ayrshire side, and Schmeichel very much expects the team to maintain that outlook.

He said: “This is modern football and you have to be on your game in every single game, there are no easy games, and we are in no way expecting an easy game on Sunday.

“That’s the beauty and the challenge of playing at a club like Celtic, because you have to be able to adapt to all the different competitions you are in.

“You play in a semi-final one day, then you play in the Champions League, then you play in the league.

“You have to be able to cope with that demand, the physical demand, the mental demand, and we’ve shown all the way through the season up to now that we’ve been able to do that.

‘And now it’s a new challenge. Tuesday has gone, we’re not thinking about that anymore, that was a great night, a fantastic night for all of us, but at midnight we park that and on to the next one.’

“The next one is Kilmarnock and that’s going to pose a lot of challenges in their own right. We’re not taking anything for granted,

“That’s a big strength in this squad, that we don’t get carried away with ourselves, we don’t take things for granted.

“We have to work hard, we know that going into any single game in any competition, you have to outwork the opposition - if you don’t then you’ll have a difficult game.”

And even with the Celts firing on all cylinders and many eyes looking towards what can be achieved this season, the keeper, like his team-mates and manager will live by the football mantra of one game at a time

He said: “It’s one of those things that will obviously be discussed in the media, discussed among fans, and as a football fan myself, you always look forward and dream, but our job is no to look beyond the next game.

“The next game deserves our full attention. If we start thinking or dividing our attention to other areas, other aspects, then we’re not paying the respect that we need to pay to the opponent that we’re up against.

“We’re not about to do that, so full focus on Kilmarnock and then whatever happens in the future happens.

“You have to take each game as it comes, you can’t go thinking of two games ahead, that just never works.

“I think we’re in a good place, the squad is good, we are playing well, playing good football and we’ve just got to keep going.”