Smells Like Team Spirit

Callum McGregor hails the camaraderie in the Celtic ranks.

- Tony Connelly

THE team spirit within the Celtic dressing room has been soaring in recent weeks and Callum McGregor feels last Thursday’s UEFA Europa League win will help surge the growing momentum behind the champions.

Brendan Rodgers’ side went into matchday four of the Europa League off the back of some thrilling performances with ample goals and clean sheets in their three wins from three.

That form was evident when Celtic came up against a higher level of opponent in RB Leipzig, who had taken three points in the meeting two weeks earlier.

Celtic started the game well and it wasn’t long before Paradise was in full swing after Kieran Tierney fired the Hoops ahead. The Bundesliga outfit equalised in the second half, but Brendan Rodgers’ side responded immediately and regained the lead just 14 seconds after play resumed.

McGregor praised Tierney for his contribution and added that response from conceding the goal was excellent.

He said: “You could see that confidence we had in the way we responded to them scoring. We responded immediately by getting the ball to KT, a wee bit of combination play with him and Scott Sinclair then allowed Ryan to get in and Odsonne got the goal. We scored straight away and that put them right on the back-foot again. The goals came at good times for us as well.

“It was a great finish by KT to get the first goal. It’s a massive thing in European football to get the first goal and get the crowd up and really going. That gives you more confidence in the game to go and win it.

“To score fairly early on gave us good confidence throughout the rest of the game and it cemented all the good work that we did in the early parts of the game. To get that goal and then the belief it gave us meant we could go on and win the game, so it was massive for us.