CELTIC under Brendan Rodgers have managed to win just one group match out of 12 in the Champions League and that one didn't even come in Glasgow.
Last season saw them progress through the group stage on three points, the same tally as bottom side Anderlecht, but they were easily despatched by Zenit St Petersburg in the last 32 of the Europa League, the first knock-out stage.
This is not the record of an established Champions League side, which is why the idea of anyone, from manager to supporter, believing European football’s second competition is beneath them is ludicrous.
Sure, the disappointment felt on Tuesday night when a winnable tie against AEK Athens finished in defeat, plus a lot of conversation about signing policy, was understandable but some perspective wouldn’t go amiss.
Celtic will get past Suduva of Lithuania, the first leg of the Europa League play-off is away on Thursday, and will most likely be seeded for the group stage. With a couple of good signings and a near enough clean bill of health, Rodgers’ men have a chance of qualification and European football after Christmas.
For the young supporter out there who have found the past week hard to take, that didn’t happen once between 1980 and 2003.
“This isn’t a consolation,” so said Chris Davies, Rodgers trusted right-hand man. “We all acknowledge that having been in the Champions League two years in a row that it is disappointing not be in there, especially – and I think this has got lost – because of how well we played away from home and how much over two legs we actually controlled things and how many chances we created. We deserved to go through.
“But we didn’t. We need to accept that. We are now in a competition which does have some prestigious clubs. There are two big English names, Arsenal and Chelsea, and just the other night the winners of the Europa League, Atletico Madrid beat Real Madrid, the Champions League winners, in the Super Cup. That was the first time that had happened in six years. There are some seriously good teams in this competition and so we will have big challenges.”
One challenge will be to lift a group which collectively have hardly put a foot wrong for two years. This, really, is the first set-back but a fear among some supporters is that this levelling out in performance means the club will accept that the Europa League is their natural home.
But Davies insisted: “That won’t be the case, even if personally I find it at times hard to accept that the champions of Scotland have to play four qualifiers to go through the Champions League. That’s the landscape of European football as it stands.
“We will always keep striving to do our very best and, as we did in the previous two years, to arrive in that competition. This year it’s the Europa League and we have to give it our best shot. Hopefully we can make an impact.
“What we’ve achieved so far in terms of a Double Treble, we’ve had the plaudits for it and it was a fantastic achievement.
“You could say that this is the first objective that we haven’t quite reached. But when you’re at a club with a tenure of three, four, five, six years, whatever it will be, there will be ups and downs. It won’t be smooth and plain sailing the whole way. The most important thing is we stay together and come out of it stronger. That’s exactly what we’ll do.”
James Forrest has been here before. The winger, now passed 300 games for Celtic, has tasted both competitions and under Neil Lennon, in his second season as manager, a campaign which saw them play Rennes, Atletico Madrid and Udinese in the Europa League group stage helped that team take several steps forward.
Celtic won't win it. There are bigger and better teams who will go in the draw this month and then after Christmas the third-placed Champions League sides make an entrance. That in itself proves this is a tournament that retains some prestige.
"You can look at positives," said Forrest. "There are good teams in it and the big clubs all want to win it to secure automatic qualification for the Champions League.
"First and foremost we need to make sure we get in and then we can think about playing big teams. That was a tough group and we had a few good results. It was enjoyable to play against the likes of Atletico Madrid and play in those big stadiums. It sets you up for the following year."
What would get the juices going would be for Celtic to face one of the English teams. That would make the fans forget about Athens and Parkhead would be rammed.
"Look, what is a disappointment is that we won’t have a Champions League atmosphere at Celtic Park," admitted Davies. "So many people have spoken about that over the years. In saying that, a night against a big English team would also generate a fantastic atmosphere. We played Manchester City a couple of years ago and didn’t lose – including one of the famous nights at home since we’ve been up here. That is the sort of challenge we would embrace.”
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