Kasper Schmeichel hails Celtic’s ‘maturity’ after sealing a place in the play-offs

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·23 de janeiro de 2025

Kasper Schmeichel hails Celtic’s ‘maturity’ after sealing a place in the play-offs

Kasper Schmeichel hails Celtic’s ‘maturity’ after sealing a place in the knockout play-offs of the Champions League courtesy of a dramatic late 1-0 victory over Young Boys…

UEFA Champions League Celtic Glasgow vs Young Boys Bern YB Celtic Park Glasgow. Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic. Photo Joeran Steiniek IMAGO

The Great Dane played a pivotal role in Celtic’s win over the Swiss champions last night following his exceptional double save to prevent Darian Males opening the scoring on the hour mark for the visitors.

Vídeos OneFootball

Schmeichel, who signed a new one-year contract extension yesterday, became the first goalkeeper since Fraser Forster in 2012 to keep a clean sheet at Celtic Park in the Champions League — a run that stretched to 22 games until last night.

The 38 year-old goalkeeper has now kept three clean sheets in five matches in Europe’s elite club competition, and that combination of defensive and goalkeeping stability is one of the key factors in Brendan Rodgers’ side securing knockout stage football in Europe’s top tier competition for the first time in 12 years.

Travelling down to Villa Park next week for their final outing in this elongated group phase, Schmeichel and his teammates will be aiming to pull off an historic win on English soil.

Speaking to Celtic TV yesterday evening, the Danish goalkeeper was euphoric about the Hoops’ landmark achievement.

“Incredible evening. These nights are special. We talk about a lot in the dressing room about taking this kind of opportunities because they are so rare,” he said.

“But yeah, full credit to the boys. I think we particularly in the first half, were excellent, quite a bit of adversity within the game, but we showed maturity, we showed some good experience in terms of how to play at this level.”

“Kept them from too many chances and created a lot. Okay, we needed a little bit of luck in the end with the goal, but in terms of the build-up, and playing, this is exactly what we’re trying to do.”

“So, a mature performance. Very, very, very good performance and incredible night to be a part of.”

UEFA Champions League Celtic Glasgow vs Young Boys Bern YB Celtic Park Glasgow. Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic. Photo Joeran Steiniek IMAGO

Schmeichel added: “I think the challenge playing for a club like Celtic is that you’re looking for perfection all the time and you’re never going to achieve perfection, but you got to get as close to it as possible.

“And I think, you know the fans, they play their part in terms of creating an atmosphere. You stand there and you’re listening to it, I was looking over at their bench, their players, when the anthem was going, and you know that you could see that that’s just not normal.

“So that’s up to the players to live up to that. And credit to them, particularly the young guys coming in, stepping up, having the confidence to take the game by the scruff of the neck, taking penalties, all these things that are needed,” the Celtic goalkeeper.

“You need guys to step up and everyone does that every single day. Everyone rises to that challenge. They relish that challenge. So yeah, it’s a joy to be part of.”

Conor Spence

Celtic Pools – Join the Weekly Lottery and support the Celtic Academy. Why not join Celtic Pools for £1 a week with the chance to win up to £25k