CALLUM McGREGOR has urged his Celtic team-mates to “finish the job” and secure a Champions League knockout spot.
One more win should be enough to guarantee a play-off place, after the Hoops’ 3-1 triumph over RB Leipzig. Brendan Rodgers’ side still have a shot at securing a top-eight spot, and qualifying automatically for the last 16.
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Skipper McGregor said: “Even at half-time, you think, ‘We’re 2-1 up, let’s finish the job’. You don’t want to be a nearly team that play well and don’t get anything from it.
“We’ve set ourselves up really well in the first four games. Now the thing for us is to try and qualify and can we finish as high up as that table allows us?
“We know it’s going to be a big challenge and we have to keep working, but there’s no reason why we can’t.”
Celts welcome Club Brugge to Parkhead in three weeks’ time, before heading for Croatia Zagreb on December 10.
They finish their league campaign in the New Year against Swiss side Young Boys at home on January 22, and then away to Aston Villa a week later.
Celtic opened their campaign with a confidence-boosting 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava, but were brought crashing back down to earth with a crushing 7-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund.
They bounced back with their goalless draw in Italy against Atalanta, before the thrilling win over Bundesliga high-fliers Leipzig — hailed by Rodgers as his greatest victory as Hoops boss.
McGregor is delighted with the way his side have recovered from last month’s humiliating defeat in Germany.
Asked about restoring their reputation on the continent, he added: “Absolutely, and that’s great because it’s shining a positive light on the Scottish game as well.
“You see a lot of teams around Europe, when we get to this point, more often than not they are looking for the negative story.
“Now it’s, hopefully, a positive one, especially after the last two games in the competition.
“But it’s up to us now to try and finish that job — and also try to show Scottish football in the best possible light.”
McGregor stands just two games short of the century mark for Celtic in Europe.
And the Hoops skipper doesn’t believe he has been part of a better performance than Tuesday’s sensational destruction of RB Leipzig.
McGregor, 31, was superb against a side shaping up as Bundesliga title contenders.
He orchestrated a midfield masterclass, brilliantly backed up by Reo Hatate, Arne Engels and sub Paulo Bernardo.
The victory has taken Celtic, so often criticised for their poor performances in the Champions League, to the brink of the knockout stage.
And McGregor couldn’t have been happier with his 50th game in the tournament.
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He said: “We’ve played against some big teams here.
“But in terms of an all-round complete performance, it’s probably the best that I’ve been involved in.
“We’ve spoken about the process and trying to build and build — like games against Atletico Madrid where you play well and don’t quite get there.
“But this was definitely the performance of a team who look comfortable at this level, and look like they believe they belong here.
“We played with brilliant courage and quality on the ball. And then against the ball, we had all the attributes of the display against Atalanta.
“We married the Bratislava and Atalanta performances so it was excellent.”
Celts opened their campaign with a 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava, before being hammered 7-1 by Dortmund.
But they have bounced back with a goalless draw against Atalanta and the impressve win over Leipzig.
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McGregor added: “You are 5-1 down in Dortmund before you know it, and the game has totally gone. Two penalties, two smashed in the top corner.
“At this level, if you’re not on it, you can get done like that. You can lose five goals a half. Dortmund had it against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago.
“But the thing for us is the last two performances have been where we want to be.
“That’s the type of team we want to be in terms of controlling the game without the ball, not being under crazy pressure and trying to jump at the wrong times.
“It’s a more mature performance in terms of when to go, when not to go, and when the ball comes inside. You can be aggressive and try and win it.
“Especially so when you play at home, you need to bring even more control with the ball. That gives you a chance in these games where you can control the game’s tempo.”
McGregor purred over Celtic’s midfield quality against Leipzig.
He said: “The last two games, especially here, have been excellent, and that’s the type of team that we want to be.
“We want to be on the front foot and play good football.
“We’ve got so many good options there and whoever comes into the game is at a really high level technically. You have to be in the Champions League.
“It’s probably as good as we’ve been in terms of controlling the ball against quality opposition.
“The whole team played their part, everyone was outstanding.
“In the two build-up phases of the game we were excellent, and that really gave us a platform to be aggressive. But you’ve also got to be resolute and defend well, and even that was probably better than the Atalanta performance because it was more controlled.
“So, again, we’re just learning and building all the time, and at this level we’re more and more comfortable. It should give us brilliant confidence now for the remaining games.
“We can be proud of ourselves, and hopefully the supporters enjoyed it. But we just keep working and see what we can get out of this league phase.”
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McGregor made a hush-hush trip to boss Brendan Rodgers’ Mallorca holiday home in the summer of 2023, after the manager had agreed to return to Parkhead for a second spell.
And he was told restoring the Hoops’ reputation in Europe was a major mission.
McGregor added: “Well, we’re ambitious people, and we want to strive for the best and push this club as much as we can. That was the conversation, that’s where we want to be.
“It makes it all worth it when you have nights like this, and you can go home and you can be proud of yourself. I’m super proud of the team, and the way they handled the game.
“We started ever so well, and then we got a little punch on the nose with the goal, and that sort of rocked us for five minutes.
“But I said to the players at half-time about the massive character to be able to turn the game back around and go in 2-1, which was thoroughly deserved in terms of performance.
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“We showed great character to regain control of the game.
‘The second half was just outstanding, and as good as I’ve ever seen us in a Champions League game.
“But we’ll stay humble. There’s a lot of work still to be done.”
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