Monster Munchen

Celtic gave a good account of themselves in the first leg of their Champions League knockout round tie against Bayern Munich. A terrific finish from Michael Olise at the end of the first half, and perhaps more annoyingly, leaving Harry Kane unmarked at the back post at the start of the second the only real problems. Daizen Maeda’s goal has put Celtic back in the tie as the home side finished stronger, but as much as that might be the case there is a whole host of issues that Celtic would need to overcome to get through to the last sixteen.

One, Celtic need to beat Bayern in Munich, a team they couldn’t beat at home last week with the full might of the Celtic support behind them. Let’s face it, Celtic’s strength in Europe is usually at Celtic Park and indeed Bayern are the only team to have managed to win there this season in European or domestic competition. Indeed, only Aberdeen, Slovan Bratislava, RB Leipzig and Club Brugge have even managed to score at Celtic Park as the visiting side! By comparison, unfortunately, Celtic haven’t won any of their four previous away games this season in Europe. Two goalless draws at Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb came in between two defeats at Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa.

Two, Celtic need to beat Bayern in Munich, a place Celtic have been twice before and lost both times. In the 2003/04 Champions League group stages, Celtic led through an Alan Thompson headed goal before two late goals from Roy Makaay – one a poor headed clearance that he fired back in and the other a cross that eluded everyone and ended up in the net – turned the game around in Bayern’s favour.

Then in the 2017/18 Champions League group stage, Celtic lost 3-0 to goals from Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich and Mats Hummels.

Three, Celtic need to beat Bayern in Munich, which is in Germany where Celtic have never won before. As mentioned when they faced Borussia Dortmund on match day two of the league phase this season, Celtic hadn’t even scored in Germany until 2003 when they got two against VfB Stuttgart in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup. Indeed, add in the aforementioned visit to Munich the following season and Alan Thompson actually had two of the three Celtic goals in Germany at one point, with fellow Englishman Chris Sutton getting the other!

Unfortunately it’s now fifteen trips to Germany without a single win, and only three of those ended in draws. The most recent is one Celtic will wish to forget, given it was the 7-1 win for Dortmund earlier in this campaign.

At least Daizen Maeda got one of his now four Champions League goals there that night which, as many sources have noted, now puts him level with Joe Craig in 1977/78 for the number of goals scored in a single season of Europe’s premier competition. Should he score again, he’d go level with the three men to have scored five – the most scored by any Celtic player in a single European Cup/Champions League season – Lou Macari in 1971/72, Willie Wallace in 1970/71, and Stevie Chalmers in 1966/67. I think given Chalmers’ fifth that season was the goal that won the European Cup for Celtic, he probably stands out more than anyone else though!

Four, Celtic need to beat Bayern in Munich, something no team has done in Europe since Paris Saint-Germain won 3-2 in the quarter final of the 2020/21 Champions League.

Twenty games have come and gone since then, and Bayern have won sixteen of them, drawing the other four – and those four came against Villarreal, Manchester City, Copenhagen and Real Madrid. Only Copenhagen came in a group stage, the other three were all knockout losses in ties where Bayern also lost the away leg and so exited the competition. They did beat Copenhagen 2-1 though, but the 0-0 draw the Danes managed isn’t much use to Celtic tonight.

Bayern have lost at home this season, losing 1-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB Pokal (that’s the German Cup) back in December. Manuel Neuer was sent off early in that game, which certainly helped the visitors.

That’s their only home defeat this season, you have to go back to last season’s 2-0 defeat at home to Borussia Dortmund in March to find a result that would take Celtic through if they matched it – the Leverkusen one would only get them to extra time.

Five, Celtic need to turn around a single goal home defeat for the first time since they did so against Dynamo Moscow back in the 2009/10 Champions League third qualifying round. Having lost 1-0 at Celtic Park in the first leg, they went to Moscow and won 2-0 courtesy of Scott McDonald late in the first half and Georgios Samaras in injury time in the second half.

Incidentally, that was the only time Celtic have managed such a feat in their entire European history.

Six, Celtic need to win a post-qualifying knockout round tie for the first time since beating Barcelona in the UEFA Cup fourth round in 2003/04. Since those David Marshall inspired heroics more than two decades ago, Celtic have faced Villarreal in 2003/04, AC Milan in 2006/07, Barcelona in 2007/08, Juventus in 2012/13, Inter Milan in 2014/15, Zenit St Petersburg in 2017/18, Valencia in 2018/19, Copenhagen in 2019/20, and Bodo/Glimt in 2021/22 only to lose the tie every time.

There isn’t a lot going in Celtic’s favour here. Indeed, the only thing Celtic can really cling to going into this second leg is how they ended the game last week. Whether that was because Bayern were happy to sit back or not is up for debate, but the high press of Celtic seemed to rattle Bayern several times, and they did find their way to goal more than once – it’s just a pity Adam Idah was offside in that opening minute when Nicolas Kuhn though he’d got Celtic off to the best possible start!

Bayern Munich go into this match off the back of a goalless draw away to Bayer Leverkusen. That keeps them eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with twelve games to play, and next they host third placed Frankfurt on Sunday who are a further five points back.

Celtic go into this match off the back of a 3-0 win at home to Dundee United, who were third place at the time but have since slipped back to fourth. That, coupled with Rangers win on Sunday, keeps Celtic’s lead at thirteen points with twelve games to play. Celtic go to fifth placed Hibernian in the league this coming Saturday.

Good luck to Celtic tonight, they’re probably going to need it!