Alistair Johnston

Celtic’s Alistair Johnston has said teammate Daizen Maeda is one of the most in-form players in Europe – and has admitted he will be a huge miss in the club’s Champions League play-off tie against Bayern Munich.

After a Scottish Cup hat-trick against Raith Rovers, the Japan international has scored ten goals in his last ten appearances—and he is suspended for the first leg against Bayern.

The winger was sent off late in the 1-0 win over Young Boys, with Maeda dismissed for kicking out at Mohamed Ali Camara.

Fullback Johnston admits it’s going to be a huge miss but is confident someone else can “step up”.

“Yeah, I mean, for crying out loud, he scored. I’m not sure what his stats are, but he’s got to be one of the most in-form players in all of Europe right now, and he can’t seem to miss right now”, he said.

“So yeah, again, when he’s scoring and creating, he adds just another dimension, but also everyone knows his work rate is unbelievable. He’s a nightmare as a fullback to go up against and I get the joy of having him running after me throughout the week most of the time.

“It’s a bummer for us, but at the same time, that’s why we brought in guys like Jota. You know, it’s to have that quality that between all of our wingers, that entire group

So that here is enough quality and depth that when something like that does happen, the suspension, that other guys can step up. So yeah, I think right now between Jota, Yang, and Nicolas Kuhn, like, we’re still really happy with where we are at in terms of our depth and our talent there.

“It’s a great opportunity for one of those guys to step up, and I’m expecting that someone will in the coming days.”

The first leg of the play-off will be played in Glasgow on Wednesday, with the return leg taking place in Germany the following Tuesday.

Johnston acknowledged the challenge Bayern Munich present and said that his side need to use a “rocking” Celtic Park to their advantage.

He said: “Yeah, as soon as we got through the league phase and we knew we had qualified, it was funny, as we got into the Villa changing room and realized that we were going to get Real Madrid or Bayern and that was pretty exciting.

“Then to see our name get pulled against Bayern Munich, it was going to be a special, special match. Again, it is one of those ones where you are excited just to be a part of and say that you’re going to have a chance to be out there because I think that we all can agree that Celtic Park is going to be rocking.



Now it’s up to us to go out there and, you know, give those fans something to cheer for. We’re all super excited about it. It’s a massive tie and a great chance for us to go and show not only the rest of Europe but the rest of the world what we’re all about as a team. It’s an exciting opportunity for us.

 

CELTIC right-back Alistair Johnston has stressed he will not be indulging in any trash talking with Bayern Munich’s wingers on Wednesday night – but insisted that his incendiary comment to Hearts midfielder Blair Spittal was probably justified.

Spittal revealed that Johnston had called him “a b****” when he was playing for Motherwell in a match against the Parkhead club last season when he appeared on the Open Goal podcast earlier this month.


Johnston will find himself up against the likes of Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman when the Scottish champions take on the German giants in the East End of Glasgow in midweek and will resist the temptation to wind any of them up.

However, the defender admitted that mouthing off at opponents was something he grew up with over in his native Canada and confessed he was tickled when his remark to Spittal was made public.



I am reasonably quiet on the pitch,” he said. “I generally don’t talk unless I feel there’s the need to talk. But I do remember this match, I do remember saying it.

“I would need to watch it back to remind myself exactly why I said it. But there was probably good reason. I don’t just say things completely out of the blue. He might’ve thought so.


But it’s not like he didn’t have a good laugh with it - and fair enough. I didn’t mean it with any derogatory meaning, it was like trash talk at the end of the day.”

Johnston added: Growing up, that was something you would always do. I’ve a couple of brothers and playing hockey it was just something that kind of went with the course

I was surprised by how quiet most people are over here. Usually at European level you don’t get a lot of it, especially with the language barriers. But I’ve been surprised a little bit more domestically.

“I guess that comes with a lot of times we get respect from the other teams. They don’t want to say something because then before they know it we’ve put the ball in their net a couple of times

But that (the Spittal incident) was a funny one. I was wondering if that would ever come out! He did well with it, though. It was a good story.”

Asked if he would resort to similar tactics against Bayern in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round play-off at Parkhead tomorrow night, Johnston said: “No, no. As I say, it doesn’t happen in Europe a lot.”

 

Should just always be our press guy. Speaks so well and can be pretty funny and humble.

Chatting away about the super bowl...hopefully trusty gets one inspiration from that....go phillies

 

Apart from letting Kane have a free header at the back post 1st half, thought he done ok.

 

Such a shame about his mistake for their second, because other than that he was superb.

 

Kane should have scored the header where he lost him at the back post, but thought he had a good game otherwise.

 

As above excellent for pretty much the full game, switches off for one second and the ball is in the back of our net. That’s the nature of elite level football, will get off with stuff like that 9/10 domestically but against world class opposition no chance.

 

I'm a bit perplexed by hos defending for the 2nd goal. He was the one marking Kane in the first half (badly for one of them) and he is just marking noone at that goal. Everyone else has a man or look like they're on a useful position.

Massive mistake to allow Kane of all people to be unmarked. Hes literally nowhere near him. Crazy defending

 

Thought he was poor ar marking, in the first half Kane has a free header, which luckily he scuffs.
Kane is a top quality striker and at times * catch you but he just seemed so free.