CALLUM McGregor has revealed that Leicester City’s surprise success in the Barclays Premier League last season has given Celtic confidence they can make an impact in the Champions League.
McGregor is hoping to line up against the English champions at Celtic Park in their first match in the International Champions Cup – a pre-season tournament incorporating many of the biggest clubs in Europe - this afternoon.
Claudio Ranieri’s unfancied side – who were written off by bookies as 5,000-1 outsiders at the start of the 2015/16 campaign - stunned football when they beat Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs to the title down south.
Brendan Rodgers’ team is currently attempting to qualify for the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in three seasons. They face a difficult journey to Kazakhstan to play Astana in the first leg of the third qualifying round on Wednesday.
But midfielder McGregor, who played in the 3-0 win over Lincoln Red Imps earlier this week, sees no reason why the Scottish champions can't join the continent’s elite if they emulate Leicester's positive approach.
Asked if the Foxes' win had been an inspiration to him, he said: “Yes, definitely. They won the Premier League last year. Everyone expected them to fall away, but each week they just got stronger and stronger.
“It just shows it can be done with a real good team ethic and working hard together. So if we take a wee bit of that into these Champions League qualifiers hopefully we’ll be alright.”
McGregor was pleased to help Celtic put the humiliating 1-0 defeat to the Red Imps, a semi-professional side from Gibraltar, behind them in midweek. He is now confident Rodgers’ team can get a result against Leicester which boosts their self-belief going into a difficult match against the Kazakhstani champions.
Stanimir Stoilov’s side held eventual finalists Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasaray to draws at the Astana Arena last season after qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history.
“Obviously the English champions are coming up, so we want to go and show the Scottish champions can handle them,” said McGregor.
“Even though it’s a friendly we don’t want to get beat. We want to put in a good performance and show we can handle that test.
“It’s good preparation before Astana. Obviously they’ll be faster, stronger, so we need to match that and it’ll be a good test before Wednesday. Hopefully we can come through it and then we’ll be ready.”
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