Kasper Schmeichel calls it the midnight rule – but there’s nothing dreamy about it.
Just as Celtic fans’ celebrations were likely to be gaining wings after Tuesday’s electric Champions League dumping of Red Bull Leipzig, Schmeichel was ensuring his feet were planting firmly back on the ground. The memory of a pulsating Parkhead victory were parked as the clock struck 00.00. As Tuesday turned to Wednesday his mind reset and turned to East Ayrshire and Kilmarnock after little over an hour to soak in what had just happened in the east end of Glasgow.
Even on the night of his 38th birthday and with Bonfire Night fireworks flying all around, the experienced goalkeeper knew there was no time to party as the dust settled on an explosive evening of top level football. He’s been here before. Schmeichel was part of the Leicester fairytale that followed up their Premier League glory by marching all the way to the quarter finals of the Champions League.
Don’t even try asking him if he feels the squad at Celtic Park is capable of similar though. It’s a time for cool heads. No emotion. Full focus on what lies immediately in front. As Schmeichel puts it “if you’re going into surgery, you’re not going to want an emotional surgeon”.
The Denmark captain was certainly clinical as he responded to a question about Celtic’s chances of matching Leicester’s march to the last eight. He said: “I’m not going there. That’s not how we roll. And that’s not how we got to deep in the competition with Leicester. It’s the next game. There’s no looking beyond that. If you just take one little percentage off this level, you’re going to get punished. No one in this building is going to get carried away with thinking, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that.
“People that have come through at Celtic or have been here, they understand that that’s the challenge. You’re going to have to deal with a variety of different emotions and challenges that come your way. This week we had a semi-final, we had a Champions League game, we have a league game.
“We have to give the exact same respect to all three, because all three mean something. They all mean the same. Victory is the most important thing. Personally, I usually have the rule that until midnight, celebrate or commiserate or whatever feeling there is, and then we move on. You learn that more and more with experience.
“You play every three or four days. There’s no time to dwell. You have to move on. You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. When you’re younger, you’re trying to make your way in the game. You’re trying to create a name for yourself in the game. You get very caught up in your feelings and your emotions sometimes, and you learn how to control them more.
“I think that’s a big advantage when you learn to control those emotions, because if you’re going into surgery, you’re not going to want an emotional surgeon. You’re going to want someone who’s clean and clinical.
“That’s what we have to be when we get on the pitch. We have to be clean and clinical. When we hopefully win, then that’s when we get to feel. If we lose, then we have to feel that. Then you have to cut that off and you have to move on.”
Schmeichel’s approach might be clinical but the memory of what was a special night at Parkhead did leave an impression on the man who has played at the very top level for club and country.
He said: “It was a great experience. It’s a special atmosphere at Celtic Park. I have a lot of friends who have travelled around the world and watched me play in different competitions, in World Cups and Euros and things like that. They’ve seen a lot of things but the other night they said that was special.
“On the pitch, we can hear – well, we can’t hear each other sometimes – but you can definitely hear the crowd. It makes a difference, it makes a massive difference. Talking to opposition players when they come to Celtic Park, it’s not just us that notices it, they notice it.”
For now though it’s deepest Ayrshire that lies in wait. And Killie’s plastic pitch where Celtic slipped up twice last season before making it third time lucky on a title clinching party night in mid-May.
Schmeichel was being put through his paces on Lennoxtown’s artificial pitch ahead of media duties yesterday. And he insists the quality of the pitch will never be an excuse of Celtic fall short of their standards.
He said: “I’m used to playing on lots of different surfaces through my career. You go to loads of different countries when you’re an international.
“In an ideal world, football is played on grass. But I understand the reasons why some teams opt for Astro. But I think luckily that’s going to change, or the rules are going to change in the next few years or so. But it is what it is. There’s no excuses. It’s still football and it’s another challenge. It’s part of being a modern footballer.
“You have to be able to adapt all the time. This week we played in three different competitions. Three different balls, three different types of pitches. Everything’s different. That’s where you show your true skill, is how you handle those things.
“Once we get there on the day, we’ll see what it’s like and get on with it. It is what it is. It’s a football game. We’ve all played on AstroTurf before. It’s not an issue.”