Celtic need to produce their best-ever performance in my time at club to overcome Bayern Munich, admits skipper McGregor

Callum McGregor has admitted it will take the best performance of his entire time at Celtic to overcome Bayern Munich and make it to the last 16 of the Champions League.

However, the Parkhead captain insists he saw enough in the closing stages of his side’s 2-1 first leg loss in Glasgow last week to convince him that the current squad are capable of going to the imposing surroundings of the Allianz Arena and getting one of the greatest results in history.

A late goal from Daizen Maeda gave Celtic a lifeline to cling onto last Wednesday and McGregor was clear when asked whether the team will have to reach heights he has never experienced before to overcome the current Bundesliga leaders.

‘Yeah, I think so,’ he said. ‘I think we have to max out in terms of performance level, and there’s no reason why we can’t.

‘Having seen what we’ve seen in the first game, we need a bit of luck and we need to be really good on the night, but we just go and we leave nothing on the pitch and see where we go from there.

‘When you go into these games, everybody’s got to believe that you can win. Even the way the first leg played out, there were very small margins and, on another night, with a different referee, who knows?

The skipper feels Celtic competed well with Bayern and can shock them in second leg

McGregor is delighted to put Celtic on their way to a 3-0 win over United at Parkhead

‘So, the number one aspect was that the performance was there. I think, if one of the big teams loses 2-1 away from home, then everybody still thinks they’re in the tie, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t feel that way.

‘The last 25 minutes (of the first leg) gave us a good template for the game. If we can change the momentum of the game, have a wee bit more of the ball, and make them defend, then you see that we could be good in the game.

‘I genuinely feel that if you’d played that game nine other times out of ten, then we might have actually got something from it, because the performance and the details of the game were all there, and we were unlucky.

‘I think they knew they were in a game anyway, but you saw, at the end, their reaction when the whistle goes. They were happy to get over the line at 2-1.

‘I expect a similar template for this game, and I don’t think they’ll be crazy either, because they’ll know that we’ve got pace in the team.’

After years of underperformance in UEFA competitions, this term’s journey to the Champions League play-off round has brought a huge home win over RB Leipzig and a dogged goalless draw at Serie A title contenders Atalanta.

And McGregor has made it clear that re-establishing the club’s reputation at the highest level is an important part on pushing to bring more success.

‘Yeah, that’s it. We’ll only do that by results, probably, first and foremost,’ he said. ‘Results are what makes people sit up and say: “Right, we’ll watch the game and see why”. ‘Then, when teams like Bayern turn up, they give you that respect because you’ve beaten Leipzig, you’ve drawn against Atalanta, really top teams.

‘That’s on us to keep trying to narrow that gap as much as we can.’

McGregor, of course, has been through the ringer in the Allianz Arena in recent history. 

He was part of the Scotland side hammered 5-1 by Germany in the opening game of Euro 2024 and knows Celtic cannot make the same mistakes the national team did that fateful night.

Luke McCowan, left, celebrates McGregor’s opening goal with the Celtic skipper

It remains to be seen if Adam Idah, above right, will start as main striker for Celtic  in Munich

Brendan Rodgers’ team will have to play at their very best if they are to overcome Bayern

‘If you don’t get it right, you give these guys confidence and everybody wants the ball,’ he said. 

‘When you’re playing against top players, you try not to give them any encouragement.

‘Obviously, in the summer, that’s exactly what we did. We lost an early goal, lost another goal and then, at that point, they smell blood, they’re coming after you and it’s difficult to play at that stage.

‘Hopefully, we’ll have the structure and the tactical understanding of the game and try and contain them as much as we can. 

‘Then, as the game goes on, try and build our way into the game and give them problems as well.’

Celtic, of course, lost 7-1 away to Borussia Dortmund early in this current campaign, but McGregor believes they have learned and shown greater resilience since.

‘Against the really top teams with big quality and speed, sometimes you can’t press every single pass – because if you do, you just open up and give yourself too much work,’ he said.

‘What we have is a really clever group as well, because the manager can put the tactics up on the screen, but you need the players to understand it and carry it out for you as well,’ he said.