Liam Scales will calmly eye-up the Yellow Wall before his bid to help Celtic smash it down.
The Irishman is savouring the prospect of tackling Borussia Dortmund at their formidable Signal Iduna Park. Scales stepped out at iconic Euro venues such as Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano, Rome’s Olympic’s Stadium and Rotterdam’s De Kuip during his first Champions League voyage.
Now it’s his biggest stage yet, the 81,000-capacity home of the Bundesliga giants to mark another chapter in his brilliant career ascent. Scales has grown with each outing and it’s another mammoth challenge, but he is not daunted. Instead, Scales will stop for a moment before kick-off and just soak it up. Breathe where others have suffocated.
It’s part of his pre-match preparation. Taking that lingering look, inhaling the occasion and the setting as his way of getting fully ready for battle. Scales said: “For me, you get a minute before the game when the anthem’s playing, you’re lining up and we’ll do the huddle, then you can take in the atmosphere.
“It’s something I usually do, just to be calm going into the game, with a calm head. Just take a few deep breaths and then you’re ready. That would be something I’ve always done. Once the game starts, it doesn’t really affect you as much as you think because you’re so focused on what’s going on on the pitch.
“But I will take a minute while we’re lining up and coming out to take it all in because it’s obviously an amazing stadium and a great team. I was told it’s about 80,000 seats. That’s brilliant. That’ll probably be the biggest I’ll have played in. I’ll take it all in for that minute before the game. Then get down to business. I can’t wait.”
Scales knows others have choked in the pulsating atmosphere generated by the Dortmund locals, but said: “I could see that being the case because we have the same in Celtic Park. It can suffocate teams, but we know what it’s like to play in an atmosphere like that. So I think we’re well equipped based on what we’ve played in Celtic Park and even going to Ibrox sometimes, it can be hostile, so we’re quite ready for that.”
Scales is ready with those past experiences in the locker as he continued: “It’s sort of just knowing what to expect now. Obviously the first couple of games last season, it was new to me, but now I’ve had that experience and can use that to be better equipped. It’s just another game, really. It might be on a bigger stage or better opposition, but it’s another game that we have a chance to win.”
Celtic could not fly out to Germany in better spirits or form. Rodgers’ team were scintillating as they scythed St Johnstone in the perfect warm-up.
The boss demanded a Champions League mentality in Perth and Scales said it wasn’t an issue for the squad to target such heights. He explained: “I don’t think it’s difficult, to be honest. Obviously Tuesday night’s massive for us, but we weren’t even thinking about that before this game.
“This was a big game for us as well. We want to keep winning, putting teams away and keeping clean sheets. We’ve got everything to play for in the league, it’s not that difficult to get up for the games.
“Even though the Dortmund fixture might look like a bigger one and it’s maybe a bigger stage, this is the bread and butter and this is what we need to do well every week. so it’s massively important for us.
“The intensity was there from the start. We stayed on top of the game. I think we respected the challenge that they brought, probably did the dirty parts really, really well and then the quality took over. Towards the end, it was so good to watch from the back, watching some of the goals go in. It was amazing.”
Rodgers loved that style, but also the work rate with Daizen Maeda’s backtracking run late in the game a manager’s highlight. Scales said: “That’s not a one-off. You see that week in, week out. It’s so noticeable when he does it because of how quick and how far he runs, but all our attacking players are doing that for us 10, 15 times a game.
“We work on our counter-pressing, winning the ball back and as a team getting back into shape as quickly as we can. That shows the dirty side of the game that we did well as well as the nice parts.”
Celtic will need that ethic in Dortmund and Scales said: “Definitely. I think being defensively sound is important. Obviously we’ve seen with Bratislava, we were really good defensively, but the quality of opposition can hurt you with limited chances.
“They didn’t have many chances and they scored a brilliant goal. That’s what we need to be aware of, more so than on the ball. I think on the ball we’re a good side and we’re doing everything well at the moment. Every player knows where their options are going to be and we can do that in the league or we can do that in the Champions League.”
Celtic believe as Scales added: “The run of form we are in, I don’t think there is any other way we can be. We’re playing good football, we’re winning games, we’re keeping clean sheets. That’s given us the most confidence that we can possibly have going into a game like this.”