Tied at 2-2 on aggregate against Astana in the third qualifying round, the 20-year-old’s 92nd minute penalty put Brendan Rodgers’ side through and he will now be hoping to emulate his idols when the Scottish champions face Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva on Thursday.
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Hapoel Be’er Sheva boss Barak Bakhar reckons Celtic have sat up and taken notice of his side after they knocked out Greek giants Olympiacos.
And with Griffiths showing in the previous rounds that he has not lost his goalscoring touch from last season – he has scored in three of their four preliminary fixtures so far – he will be looking to play a key part in ending their hoodoo by bagging the goals that take them to the stage that has eluded them over the past few years.
“Now we are two games away and hopefully we can make it and everyone will be happy”.
Dembele said: “I grew up watching the Champions League as one of the biggest competitions in European and world football.
They are already under pressure because of the threat we possessed against Olympiakos, we just need to keep that focus of doing it right again”, said Ogu. It would be a joke to say we are favourites. We’re playing the champions of another country but we’re ready to accept the challenge.
“A club like Celtic doesn’t feel pressure”. Celtic know we beat Olympiacos so they are going to come ready. Two players lost their markers and that cost us two goals. “We would still be fresh if we’d played 40 games because this is the chance to qualify for the Champions League”. “We were there together for seven years and also played together in the national team”.
“This kind of stadium gives the advantage to the home team”, he admitted.
“I used to dream about playing in the Champions League and the World Cup, and started to work towards that”.
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“We’re coming to this stage to play a team like Celtic with such history, so it’s true we are not favourites. This is one of them”.
