CELTIC captain Scott Brown hopes today’s team can summon the spirit of one from a decade ago which inspired the late and legendary Tommy Burns to an iconic celebration.
In Brown’s debut season at the club, a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Spartak Moscow at Parkhead took Gordon Strachan’s team into the Champions League group stage.
And Burns, then the first-team coach, memorably jumped on top of the players after an Artur Boruc save sealed the tie.
Brown, who will play his 95th European tie for Celtic tonight, faces another Russia team in Zenit St Petersburg and a win would arguably equal that triumphant night from 2007.
Read more: All the pressure on Zenit, says Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
And he believes the spirit of his Celtic team would see this side through the tie.
“I might not make it to 100 but it could be a special night,” said Brown. “The last time we played a Russian team – against Spartak – it was one of the best.
“It was us winning on penalties and Tommy jumping on top of us in the celebrations was something special. If we get through against Zenit it will be right up there with that night. That was an emotional one, getting us in to the Champions League.
“If we can get to the last 16 this year it would be fantastic for the club.
“It would be a big achievement because you see some of the teams that are in this competition at this stage. There’s the likes of Atletico Madrid in there but we need to get through this one first.”
Judging by the feeling emanating from the Celtic camp, both manager and players feel that something special just might happen again.
“You could see how much it means to the manager last week,” said Brown. “It showed he loves the club and he believes in us. We played well on the day and everything felt right for us.
Read more: Bobby Russell hoping Celtic's European exertions can open door to Rangers in title race
“Even things like the Europa League balls are fantastic. It was one of those nights. No one could quite believed it when he [Callum McGregor] scored, and we were all over each other in the celebrations.”
Back on the domestic scene, meanwhile, a title race could, potentially, be brewing – something that the Celtic captain was quick to dismiss.
He said: “We’ll be fine. We just need to get back to killing teams off and doing what we have been doing for a while now.
“We need to do it against Zenit, but it was a good performance in the first leg, with the ball and the way we pressed. We put a top quality team under pressure and, if we can do that against them, then we can do it in the SPFL.
“We need to get back to doing the hard stuff instead of thinking the games are going to be easy.”
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