JAMES FORREST hopes the Parkhead fear factor can help Celtic achieve their goal of staying in Europe beyond Christmas this season, writes Graeme Macpherson. Brendan Rodgers’ side welcome Paris Saint-Germain to Glasgow tomorrow night in the first of six massive Champions League games.
Having finished bottom of their group last year with just three points, Rodgers has set a target of winning at least one of their matches this time around while accruing enough points to reach the knock-out stage of either the Europa League or the Champions League in the spring.
Forrest revealed he was blown away by the atmosphere at the home games last year, in particular the 3-3 draw with Manchester City. And he hopes a similar scene against PSG, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht can prove hugely beneficial to Celtic’s chances.
The winger said: “The atmosphere in the Champions League games last year was incredible. Once the game starts you just want to do well, especially with the fans behind you. When they are behind you then you always belief you have got a chance.
“You could even see that when we played Man City. They had won 10 out of 10 games at the start of their season and then they came and couldn’t beat us. The noise in the first 10 minutes of that game was crazy. The fans were unbelievable and there were probably a lot of the City players who hadn’t played against fans and opposition like that before. That gives us a lot of confidence as well.
“Even when you win a corner or a throw-in it is as if we have scored. That gets you and the team going. Also, when you see a team mate winning a tackle it gives you a boost. These are the games you want to play in every week. Everybody is buzzing for the PSG game.
“Our aim at the start of the season was to get into the Champions League. We have done that and now we want to try and progress and play in Europe beyond Christmas.”
All eyes will again be on Neymar who will take on Celtic for the fifth time in his career, having taken on the Scottish champions four times previously as a Barcelona player. His £200m summer move to PSG makes him the most expensive player of all time but Forrest warned against concentrating simply on the Brazilian.
He added: “I have played against him a few times now. We all know how good he is but we can’t just focus on him. We need to look at the rest of the team because they have so many other good players as well. If you look at all the money they have spent then it is massive.
“The Champions League is the best competition and you want to test yourself against the best and PSG are certainly up there. That will only give us more experience and we are all looking forward to it.”
Forrest believes Celtic will be better equipped this season having been through the experience of taking on Barcelona, City and Borussia Moenchengladbach.
The Euro veteran added: “The qualification process was a lot better this year than it was last year. You could see that from the team and our confidence. We had a couple of good results in the Champions League last year and now we want to get better and see if we can win a game and then see what happens in the group from there.”
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