Celtic F.C.
·26 November 2024
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Yahoo sportsCeltic F.C.
·26 November 2024
Celtic's most recent UEFA Champions League game was against RB Leipzig , and tomorrow night (Wednesday) they return to Paradise with a match against Club Brugge.
And the Celtic crowd are anticipating another special night, especially after the previous game against the Bundesliga outfit delivered one of the all-time memorable displays and atmosphere for a European night in Paradise.
Add to that the domestic form, expertly exhibited in the second half of the 4-1 win over Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday, and the Celts, including Cameron Carter-Vickers,, as well as the fans have plenty to get excited about.
The defender said: “We’re feeling really good and positive, and obviously the weekend’s result was a good one for us. In the second half I thought we played really well, so we're just looking to build on that going into tomorrow.
“Right at the beginning of the competition we kind of outlined how many points we wanted to reach, but since then we’ve just been taking it game by game.
'I think we’re in a strong position at the moment, so it’s just about adding to that points tally and seeing how many we can achieve.'
“We feel as a group that we’re probably pretty close to getting out of this group phase of the tournament.
“There are four games left and we want to get positive results in all of them. It’s just us against ourselves now in seeing how many points we can get.”
The 3-1 win over RB Leipzig has whetted the appetite for more, and Carter-Vickers said: “That was a really good night. I thought the performance throughout the game was pretty good. They probably had a 15 or 20-minute spell when they were on top.
“But I thought apart from that, we controlled the game pretty well, so that’s definitely an experience that we can look back on as a positive one and try and take that into tomorrow and build on it as well.
“I’m not sure it was a turning point as even when results haven’t gone our way we’ve always believed that, for any game, we can get a result.
‘I think more than anything, the Leipzig game probably showed people outside of our team and our group that we can get results.’
“We always believed in ourselves but it’s definitely good to show others, and give others an example of what we’ve always believed.
“Brugge are a very good team, we know it will be difficult, but we are focused on building on our last games in this competition and going from there.”
The USA internationalist added: “If you look at us as a group, we’ve been in this competition now for three years, and you can see how we’ve matured and grown as a group in this competition.
“It’s not just about learning from this season. I think we can take our learning from the last couple of seasons, and we have done so far to get into this season’s competition, and at the moment it’s paying off well for us.
“As a backline, as a team, it’s just about looking at the finer details. At this level, small mistakes that maybe don’t get punished in the league get punished, and this is about trying to eradicate them as much as you can.
“Of course, you are never going to eradicate all mistakes, that’s impossible, but, to try and tighten up on small details when we can here and there will definitely help us.
'We’re definitely confident and our performances have shown that we definitely can compete at a high level. It’s just about doing that consistently now.'
We are still only halfway through this group stage but there are signs, with four games still to play, that this group of Celts have what it takes to progress to the next stage.
Carter-Vickers said: “It’s a new format this year, so it’s slightly different to previous years, but our goal from the beginning of the tournament has been to get to a knockout round, and we feel that we’re pretty close to that.
“But we are fully aware that there are still four tough games to go and we need to get points from those games, so we are still focused.
“We’ve grown massively, and taking it back to the previous seasons, it’s been a massive learning experience for me and the group.
“Now you can see that we’re probably a bit more mature at this level, a bit more composed at this level and that definitely helps us pick up points.”
Celtic Vs. Club Brugge - Wed, Nov 27th 2024, 20:00