Celtic captain Scott Brown says the Parkhead club’s recent signings need to stand up and be counted as the Glasgow giants take on Shakhter Karagandy for a place in the group stages of the Champions League.
The Hoops face the Kazakhstan champions at Celtic Park on Wednesday looking to overturn a 2-0 deficit from their first leg in Astana.
There is a place in the lucrative group stage of Europe’s elite competition for the winner while the loser will drop into the group stages of the Europa League.
Scottish international Brown is confident recent signings Amido Balde, Virgil van Dijk, Steven Mouyokolo and Derk Boerrigter will make the grade at the Glasgow giants.
But the midfielder says the summer signings don’t have time to ease themselves into the team and must start making an impact as Celtic face their most crucial game of the season.
“It took me a good six months to settle in but these days there isn’t that much time,” the Celtic captain said.
“They’re straight into big games. I don’t know if they realise how huge a club Celtic are but that’s why you come here – to play in the Champions League, in the big matches. They’ll figure that out very quickly.
“The home games in the Champions League have left a couple of them gobsmacked. But this is the biggest game of the season now.
“Whatever happens we’re in the Europa League but we want to be in with the big guns. We showed last season we could compete there and we want to show it again.”
Celtic, who came back from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw with Inverness in the Scottish Premiership at the weekend, have successfully overturned a 2-0 away first-leg deficit in three of the four occasions they have been faced with the task.
They defeated the French side St Etienne 4-0 in Glasgow in the 1968/69 European Cup, Sporting Lisbon 5-0 in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup and Cologne 3-0 in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup.
And Brown is convinced the current crop of Hoops can achieve the same feat with the help of their passionate support.
“The atmosphere at Celtic Park when it’s full is incredible and as soon as Shakhter walk out they’re going to be hit with it,” the midfielder said.
“That’ll put shivers down their spines because I know it did when I came here with Hibs.
“They’re going to give us a lot of possession because they will try to defend a 2-0 lead but we’ve got good enough players – including those who didn’t play against Inverness on Saturday – to come in and score goals.
“In the second half against Inverness the fans were behind us 110 per cent and that pushes us on to that extra 10 per cent.
“It’s going to take three goals and we’re going to have to start high up the park and put them under pressure, make them make mistakes. If we don’t score in 70 minutes we’ll stay patient because we know we can score two goals in five minutes.
“We just need a few goals and I believe we can do it. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, what matters is the confidence in our dressing room.”
European minnows Shakhter Karagandy rested almost their entire first-choice team on Saturday ahead of the crunch tie against Celtic.
The defending champions were held 1-1 at home by Irtysh in the Kazakhstan Premier League.
But manager Viktor Kumykov selected just one player who featured from the beginning of their 2-0 first-leg win over the Scottish champions.
Celtic captain issues rallying cry ahead of Shakhter
