Celtic's European Success in a Scottish Context

Although few would have predicted it back in September, is Celtic's qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League really the shock qualification that media outlets have made it out to be? Similarly, is it really a big achievement for a Scottish club to reach the last 16 of Europe's premier club competition? This blog post will give a more in-depth insight into these questions than many of the articles being written at the moment.

Celtic last night secured their progress into the last 16 of the Champions League with a 2-1 victory at Celtic Park against Spartak Moscow. With that result, they had achieved something that neither the reigning champions, Chelsea, nor the reigning English league champions, Man City, could. The team were praised in the media across Ireland and Britain; Ewan Murray in The Irish Times/The Guardian wrote that qualification for Celtic was "worthy of immense credit"; Ronnie Esplin, writing in the Indo, claimed that Celtic had been "brave"; while Alasdair Lamont, writing for the BBC, claimed that qualification was the culmination of a great effort put in during a "glorious group campaign."

The up-turn in fortunes in the east-end of Glasgow has been quite astonishing in the last 15 months. The 25th of August 2011 saw Celtic crash out of the Europa League in the final qualifying match at the hands of Swiss team Sion FC. Although Celtic were re-instated upon appeal, the performance in Sion that night put huge pressure on Neil Lennon. Although Lennon prepared his teams well for European matches, the same could not be said domestically and Celtic were showing terrible form in the SPL. They were 15 points adrift of their Glasgow rivals by the time they travelled to face Motherwell on November 6th. Victory that day started Celtic on a winning run in the league that would stretch until the first week of March. Glasgow's Green and White went on to win the league, and Lennon's job was saved. What the Europa League had given Lennon was an almost carte blanche in terms of preparing his team for big European games. Jim Duffy, writing in the Scottish Sun, argued that the run in the group stages of the 11/12 Europa League was crucial to form of Lennon's team in Europe this season.

There was a time when Celtic set out at the start of each European Cup campaign with a realistic chance of winning the competition. Champions in 1967, the Parkhead side also reached the final in 1970 and reached the semi-finals in 1972 and 1974. However since their quarter-final exit at the hands of Real Madrid in 1980, The Bhoys have not made it past the last 16 stage of the competition. The great team of the 1960s and 1970s gradually disappeared and Celtic managed to win only five Scottish league titles between 1980 and 2000. The zenith of their European form in that time amounted to a third-round appearance in the UEFA Cup in 1983/84; a far cry from the glory days of Jock Stein's reign.

It would be disingenuous, and ultimately fruitless, to attempt to justify optimism for Scottish teams today based upon the seminal successes of The Lisbon Lions nearly fifty years ago. The state of Scottish football is very different to what it was then, with no team from outside of Glasgow having won the SPL (or its equivalent) in 28 years. The Champions League is also a far more money-driven competition than it was in the past, with the likelihood of a team comprised entirely of players from one city winning the competition being virtually nil.

One does not need to go back that far to see a real competitiveness in Scottish teams in Europe however. Martin O'Neill's arrival at Celtic Park in 2000 made the Scottish league far more competitive, with Rangers having won 10 of the previous 11 league titles, and this ultimately improved the form of Scottish teams in Europe in the years that followed. Twice in the last decade Scottish sides have reached the final of the UEFA Cup. A Henrik Larsson-inspired Celtic put in a great performance against Jose Mourinho's Porto side in 2003, and only lost by a goal to a side that would go onto win the European Cup the following season. Rangers were beaten by two late goals against Zenit St Petersburg in 2008.

This competitiveness has not been limited to the secondary European competition either. Celtic's result against Spartak sees them emerge from the group for the third time in the last ten years. This, coupled with Rangers qualification for the last 16 in 05/06 means that Scottish clubs are averaging a second round appearance nearly every other year in the last decade.

Neither of Celtic's victories against an under-performing Spartak side were particularly surprising given the performances of the Russian team this season. The performances against Barcelona were impressive but victories for Celtic against major European opposition at Parkhead are not uncommon. Man United and AC Milan have both been beaten in the Champions League at Celtic Park in the last decade, as have Barcelona in the UEFA Cup. What might be more telling for pundits attempting to predict Celtic's chances in the last 16 are their performances against Benfica. In both games, the Portuguese side looked more dangerous and the pressure told in Lisbon as Celtic were beaten 2-1. Ultimately though, Celtic are capable of giving any team a good contest at home.

From all of this it is clear that a Scottish team in the last 16 of the Champions League, while commendable, is not hugely surprising. The fact that Celtic took seven of a possible nine points from their home games is also hardly a shock. Historically, Celtic have been a far bigger force in European competition than they have recently been given credit for, and they have started to re-find some of that form over the last decade, or so. What would be really surprising now would be if Celtic were to progress beyond the last 16 for the first time since 1980, or even the last 8 for the first time since 1974. Who knows, maybe Lennon's Lions can add a truly historic chapter to the history of The Celtic Football Club?!