A German newspaper reporter has described the atmosphere during Celtic’s defeat to Bayern Munich as the best he has ever witnessed at a football match.
Heiko Niedderer, a writer for BILD, was left stunned by the noise of the home support, describing the reaction to Callum McGregor’s equaliser as ‘what the big bang feels like’.
The Hoops performed admirably in their Group B encounter on Tuesday night before succumbing to a 2-1 defeat against the German champions, a result that ended their hopes of reaching the Champions League knockout stages.
Read more: Bayern Munich legend Arjen Robben tips Celtic for Europa League success
But Niedderer was full of praise for the club on his return to Germany, writing: “If you want to know what the big bang feels like, you just have to be in Celtic Park when Celtic scores.
“This stadium is pure magic. The fans in the stands just amazing. Goosebumps guaranteed. Perfect football atmosphere. Or simply: The best football atmosphere in the world!
“I was able to watch many great games in Europe and have lots of magical moments: "You'll Never Walk Alone" in Liverpool. 100,000 fans in Barcelona singing the Barca anthem. The crazy fans of Sevilla, who make the whole stadium shake. The frenzied fans of Atlético Madrid.
“The trembling south stand in Dortmund, when the winner against Real went in. The collective ecstasy in the Weserstadion, as Werder (yes, they were once in the Champions League) led 5-1, and then just before the end of the redeeming goal of Barca was shown in parallel on the scoreboard and Werder came in 2nd place.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Arjen Robben and Thiago were raving about my Celtic stars
“But Celtic tops it all! I've never heard a stadium roar louder than McGregor's 1-1 win. Everyone, really everybody jumped up. Fantastic. An orgasm of almost 60,000 Scottish throats.
“Magic also in the 67th minute, when the whole stadium lights up the mobile phone lights and all fans sing the "In the heat of Lisbon", the song for the European Cup Heroes of 1967.
“Already shortly before kick-off the German fans were astonished. The "You'll never walk alone" can easily take on Liverpool. As the teams arrived from the time-honoured tunnel, the entire stadium roars as if on command.
“If you do not like this atmosphere, you do not love football."
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