It’s not often that Scottish clubs are compared to other teams on the continent.
Very rarely that happens in fact.
But when players and managers from opposing teams make claims that Celtic is actually better than, say, RB Leipzig from the Bundesliga, you have to sit up and take notice.
And that is exactly what Shakhtar defender Valeriy Bondar said after facing the Hoops last night.
As relayed by the Daily Record, Bondar revealed the conversations the manager had with the team prior to last night’s fixture when he made this claim, “I was really impressed by the team that played against us.
“We understood perfectly that the match would be difficult and we prepared well for the game.
“We were told by our manager that Celtic were better than Leipzig and that’s right – they are better than them at the moment.
“So we had to approach the game very carefully and we gave our all on the pitch. We did everything to win and to please our fans. We really enjoyed seeing Ukrainian people in the stands and the support we got.”
Now I don’t like being overconfident or getting ahead of myself so I’m just going to say this.
I have been heavily impressed at how Celtic have equipped themselves in Europe’s top competition so far.
I’m not going to make any wild claims about who is better than who in this league but what we do have is an excellent opportunity to progress from the group stages should we take maximum points from the Germans.
Oh, and we are better than them!🤦♂️ Dammit!