SCANDINAVIANS are famed for their cool sense of detachment but this is ridiculous. Erik Sviatchenko is an unfussy type of defender but even he expected more of a clamour back home in his native Denmark about the manner in which he has made his mark in the Champions League with Celtic this season.

Indeed, for all their love of British football, the Parkhead side's draw with Manchester City wasn't even screened on Danish television, their gaze drawn instead to how Jannik Vestergaard and Andreas Christensen, two of Sviatchenko's rivals for a starting central defensive slot for the national team, were faring for Borussia Moenchengladbach against Barcelona, not to mention the exploits of Danish champions FC Copenhagen.

What Scotland would do for one Champions League quality central defender, not a handful of them, but what the viewers back home missed was another assured performance from this 25-year-old at the heart of the Parkhead defence in a team display which could quite easily have harvested three points rather than just one.

"To have a Danish player playing against the biggest players in the Champions League should have been a bigger thing in Denmark I think," said Sviatchenko. "Maybe [it is because I play in Scotland], I don't know. But I know that Copenhagen are getting all the fuss, all the credit.

"I don't think the game was even shown on Danish television, but 'Gladbach had two other Danes playing," he added. "It was an interesting group with three Danish defenders all playing in the same position. In the Danish national team, those two are keeping me away from playing. I don't measure myself against them in that way but I think we did well and I think I did well against them."

It is easy to give Brendan Rodgers all the credit for Sviatchenko's solid form and the Northern Irishman certainly deserves some. But in fact the Dane's thirst for self improvement comes from within. Since his teenage years, he has used video analysis to critique his own performances, even splicing and annotating his own footage to illustrate what he might have done well in a game and what he could have done better.

Rather than celebrate after a positive end to the club's Champions League campaign, this studious Scandinavian was huddled over a laptop, using a software programme called InStats which collates all his touches. Having made his own notes and thoughts on the subject, the next step was to see if assistant manager Chris Davies has any thoughts to add on the subject.

"I have done it since I was 15 maybe," said Sviatchenko. "It is a good thing to go through a game and put your thoughts out there. We have a thing called InStats where you can see all your clips so Stevie our analysis guy gives me the game and I go through them minute by minute and take down some small text, something like 'good pass' or 'could have been a better pass'. 'Maybe I should have shown for the pass'. 'Good defending'. Things like that.

"For instance, yesterday I couldn't sleep after the game because of the adrenaline that was pumping," he added. "So I used the time to go through the game then I asked Chris if he could come back to me on a few things because it would be nice to have their take."

While football is always far more than an individual game - each player has to be aware how their own individual decision-making affects the decisions taken by other players - Sviatchenko feels the footage generally backs up the theory that he is looking fitter, stronger and sharper this season. Not that anyone at the club will be allowed to rest on their laurels with Rodgers around.

"It is nice to be in good shape but I still think I can improve and that is the main thing," said Sviatchenko. "The manager wants me to be even better and do things 100% sometimes, rather than 90%. Although I always try to do things 100% it is about the power and the attitude you show. I don't know if he [Rodgers] is hard to please but he demands and that is a good thing. It means he sees something in you."

Sviatchenko feels that Celtic showed a "rapid progression" in their six Champions League matches, to make good on his claim that the Scottish champions were not entering the competition as mere "tourists". There is much to look forward to already for next year's campaign but first the Parkhead side have six months of football to see out, as they chase what could be a remarkable treble, ideally without losing a single match.

"We need to do the same things here as we do in the Champions League, nothing different," said Sviatchenko. "If you play the game against Partick Thistle and play bad, then it says something about a player if they can’t get themselves going for that game. I don’t think there will any problems. It’s about being relentless and keeping going on. If you want to go from good to great at some point then you have to do something extra."

The Dane is right, Celtic weren't tourists in this year's Champions League. At least apart from one occasion when Sviatchenko took the chance to procure himself a keepsake for the family. His brother Philip really wanted Ivan Rakitic's Barcelona jersey.

"My brother thinks he is a really good player, so I said 'I'll try'," said Sviatchenko. "Thankfully I got it and he [Rakitic] wanted my shirt too! I just need to go to the post office and send it to him. It is an early Christmas present but I will get him something else too!"