Celtic return to Champions League action this evening when they host Belgian outfit Club Brugge in matchday five of the new-look tournament's league-phase.
Brendan Rodgers and his players enter the encounter with seven points on the board from four matches so far, while the visitors sit on six. A win for either side would mark a huge stride towards qualification for the competition's knock-out round, with both teams currently in fine form.
It remains to be seen whether or not a full house at Celtic Park can tip the scales in the home team's favour, but Belgian media well-understands the potential Paradise poses in determining the result come full-time.
The football chief writer for prominent outlet HLN, Niels Poissonnier, described Celtic Park as "one of the seven wonders of the football world."
He said (translated via Google): "Sir Alex Ferguson – the most famous Scot after Tony Blair and Sean Connery – once said it all, saying: 'You shouldn't beat the team, you should beat the atmosphere.'
"Club Brugge will soon be facing a stress test. 'Keep calm' is the message. The heart rate must not go too fast, the light must remain on for an hour and a half for everyone. One disturbance can be fatal.
"Celtic is not better than Club in terms of football technique. Plus, they are not at all bigger in terms of [height] - which means there are opportunities on set pieces.
"But what Celtic can do better than anyone else is roll up their sleeves and rush and put you under pressure until a link breaks."
Read more:
- Celtic vs Club Brugge: TV channel, live stream & team news
- The Kasper Schmeichel skill that's made Celtic a European force again
Poissonnier added: "Celtic behave like 'a swarm of bees' when they lose the ball. Their press is suffocating. [Brugge] will have to play under that pressure – break the first line, as they say.
"That is where there are opportunities. Especially because Celtic's strength lies up front, with its trident of Kuhn-Furuhashi-Maeda.
"Club must once again try to play football out of the duels. Whereby reason must prevail over emotions at all times. If not, Club will be at the mercy of the volcano called Celtic Park."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel