‘Celtic need European ammunition to aim at sceptics’published at 15:18 British Summer Time 23 October
Atalanta v Celtic (Wed, 17:45 BST)
Tom English
BBC Scotland’s chief sports writer
Image source, Getty ImagesThe brutal truth of Celtic’s misery years in Europe is that the player who has been the totem of this team for so long is also the one who has suffered the most when things have gone wrong on the testing grounds of Spain, France, Germany and beyond.
Callum McGregor, 31, is a modern great of the club, but he bears the scars of Celtic’s failings in unforgiving places like few others. It’s him and James Forrest. They have run the full gamut, from Brendan Rodgers to Neil Lennon to Ange Postecoglou to Rodgers 2.0.
Rodgers has won 23% of his European group and knockout games as Celtic manager, losing 63%. Postecoglou won 21%, Lennon, in his second spell, won 36%. McGregor was there for the vast majority of them – 58 games, 15 victories, 26% success rate across eight-and-a-bit seasons.
It’s a lamentable return and if the bookmakers are to be believed then it’s going to continue, with bells on. They all think Atalanta will beat Celtic comfortably in round three of the Champions League on Wednesday.
In the betting for first scorer, the first nine options are Atalanta players, then it’s Adam Idah, then a bunch of other home players.