RALF RANGNICK is confident that he can achieve a Celtic Park double with RB Leipzig tonight, four years after RB Salzburg won in Glasgow when he was sporting director.
The German side’s head coach was blown away by the atmosphere at the home of the Scottish champions the last time he visited, when Salzburg triumphed by three goals to one over Ronny Deila’s Celtic side in this competition.
But just like on that occasion, he has no fears about his players being intimidated by the 60,000 fanatical Celtic supporters they will face, and he is convinced his side can get the victory that will all-but eliminate Brendan Rodgers’ men from the tournament.
“It’s so special here because the supporters - they are passionate and always back the team,” Rangnick said.
“We saw that in the first game when Celtic had 6000 fans. Now they have 60,000 and the atmosphere will be sensational.
“We will have 2500 fans and that is incredible for an away game on a Thursday night.
“The scenery here is very special – not only for the home team, but also for the guest team, The atmosphere is very motivating. The atmosphere in Celtic Park the is so extraordinary because the fans support their team unconditionally.
“They will field a better side this time, but we can cope with the big atmosphere. We played well against Berlin in front of a huge crowd and the players can handle that.
“We are confident we can achieve a win here like Salzburg did four years ago.”
Rangnick will be without two of his main attacking threats in German international number nine Timo Werner and Danish forward Yussuf Poulsen, who will both miss out through injury. Celtic meanwhile will be able to field a stronger side than they did when going down to a 2-0 loss to RB Leipzig in Germany.
Rangnick though doesn’t believe that the match will be significantly different than their first encounter a fortnight ago, and has faith that his sole available frontman - Matheus Cunha, who scored in the first match against Celtic - will be able to carry the fight up front on his own.
“Timo has problem with his toes, and Yussuf has a back issue,” said Rangnick.
“They can’t play against Celtic, but we still have a good team to field in this match.
“This is an away game and Celtic have more players available than they did the last time. But in terms of how the two teams will play, I don’t see much difference.
“If we defend as well as we did against Celtic in the last game, we will have a good chance.”
Leipzig defender Marcel Halstenberg backed up his manager’s assertions that he and his teammates will be well prepared to block out the frenzied atmosphere that will no-doubt await them when they walk out of the Celtic Park tunnel this evening, with those who have played at the venue previously filling the rest of the squad in on what to expect.
“A few of our players have been here before and we spoke to them about it,” Halstenberg said.
“The atmosphere is going to be very good and we know that Celtic will give 100 per cent for 90 minutes.”
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