CALLUM McGREGOR has told his shattered Celtic mates: We should fear NO ONE now.
The Parkhead side earned Europe-wide praise for their performance in Munich, despite going out of the Champions League to a heartbreaking last-gasp goal.
Callum McGregor at end with Alistair Johnston[/caption]
Callum McGregor bursts through the Bayern defence – but can’t score[/caption]
Now their skipper can’t wait to go again next season, no matter where the draw sends them.
McGregor said: “If you can go there and play with that personality and that maturity, then there’s not many other stadiums you can go to that will be worse than that.
“When you play like that, you come away feeling like you’re a good player, you’re a good team and you should have got more out of the game.
“Straight away the hunger is there to do better, to do more.
“I know the players, I know the way they work and the feeling will be we want to experience more of this, that we want to be playing in the biggest games.
“We just have to bank all of this, then when we get the chance next season, make sure we’re there and then start our work all over again.
“The way we played caused them problems and you’ve seen that over the two games, so we should all take big belief from what we’ve done.
“I said that to the players. For some of them who are so young to give such big performances, and play with such personality and maturity in the game, was special.
“We’ve got some senior boys as well who were outstanding again, so it’s a really good mix.
“Every single player was at the maximum level and we were so unlucky not to progress.
“We had those 25 minutes at home when we understood the game and we refined that over the couple of days we had to prepare for the return.
“But it’s a big thing actually going out there and doing it. The players deserve so much credit because the performance was outstanding.
“We had even more of the ball than we did at home, so there’s another bit of progression.
“You’re feeling the situation, but you can also get after the ball.
“We nicked it off them a few times and the momentum of the game and the stadium started to turn, which was everything we spoke about.
“There was a really good feeling within the group that we could go there and make it really uncomfortable and we probably even exceeded that, to be honest.
“We played so well. They were uncomfortable in the game, you could feel that in the stadium.
“Ultimately, we’ve been knocked out, but we can take so much from what we’ve done.
“We bank all the experience we’ve gained over these ten games, and hopefully we come back even better for it.”
Celtic missed four big first-half chances before Nicolas Kuhn finally put them ahead with half an hour left.
But they went out 3-2 on aggregate when Bayern sub Alphonso Davies scrambled a winner in the last of four added minutes.
McGregor added: “Of course we’d have liked to get another one, but the team were excellent and we don’t want to dwell on what could have been.
“There are little bits we could have done better, little situations, but the game is the game.
“We just need to take our medicine.”
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