Buzzing Celtic are 90 minutes away from all-but killing off a rival in their pursuit to secure a top 24 slot in the upside down Champions League revamp.
Luckless Leipzig – flying high in the Bundesliga – know defeat in Glasgow at the hands of Brendan Rodgers’ side will leave them needing snookers after they lost a third consecutive game at the hands of red-hot Liverpool. And Celtic could be killing two birds with one stone – denting the Germans while moving seven points ahead of them with only four games left. That would leave Leipzig as almighty long shots to finish ahead of the Premiership champions and book their place in the playoffs.
Stats boffin Scotland’s Coefficient believes two wins from here, to take Rodgers’ side to 10 points, will be enough based on simulations of how the new 36-team tournament will play out. Celtic face the aforementioned Germans, Brugge, Young Boys, Zagreb and Aston Villa in their final five games. Rodgers was beaming after the draw in Bergamo and admitted the permutations were already on his mind.
Rodgers said: “If you look at our opening three games, to have four points I’m so, so happy with that. The first game, they were absolutely brilliant. They had everything, offensive, defensive. I think the Dortmund game speaks for itself. We learned from that. We’ve come away to a top team with big, big talents and keep a clean sheet to gain a point. So the four points after three games is equal to what we had last year.
“We have five games to go. Hopefully we can look to our next game and look to gain more points to end up where we went in January. But it’s a really, really big confidence boost for the team tonight.”