Wednesday, 20th August, 2014
Celtic full-back Adam Matthews has claimed that the Hoops need to prove their Champions League status tonight.
The Scottish champions will take on NK Maribor in the first leg of their Champions League playoff tie tonight in Slovenia.
The Bhoys were battered 6-1 by Legia Warsaw over two legs in the previous round but the Polish side were forced to forfeit the second leg by UEFA as they fielded an ineligible player, which paved the way for Celtic to qualify for the playoff round.
Matthews will miss the tie due to an injury, but the 22-year-old admits that Celtic are under pressure to prove their European credentials tonight.
“We want to get into the Champions League, but we want to put on a performance that shows we deserve to be there”, Matthews told the club’s official site.
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“That’s the goal of the players and we know if we do that, we will have a great chance of going through.”
The right-back is confident that the Scottish champions have the ability to play much better than the last round and feels that if they can produce their best over the two legs, the Hoops will prove their detractors wrong.
“We know we have to play 10 times better than we did in the last round and we know we can do it.
“We showed in pre-season what we can do and I don’t know what happened in the two games in the last round, but we just didn’t play as a team.”
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