Defiant Arne Engels batted away questions over his move to Celtic – insisting that the switch from FC Augsburg “is everything he hoped for” despite the Borussia Dortmund battering.
Following his record-breaking £11m move from the Bundesliga, the Belgian has made an instant impact at Celtic Park as he filled the void left by Matt O’Riley. With the Hoops enjoying a perfect start to the season domestically and demolishing Slovan Bratislava in their Champions League opener expectations were high within the Celtic support going into the second matchday of Europe’s elite competition.
But the massive 7-1 defeat has left some in the German media questioning his decision of the 21-year-old to leave the Bundesliga behind last season. But Engels told Kickerthat the heavy loss was simply a bad day at the office for Brendan Rodgers’ men and insisted the full squad would pull together to record in the Premiership this weekend.
He said: “We just didn’t play well. Dortmund were really strong, but I still think 7-1 was a bit too much. We have to stick together now.
“We concentrate on ourselves and just look to the next game. It’s happening so quickly, there’s no time to think about it for long, we just have to get on with it.
“It wasn’t our best game; I think everyone could see that. The good thing is that our next game comes quickly and it’s up to us to show again that Dortmund was just a bad day and that we are still in a good mood.”
And in a telling view he insisted he was still enjoying life at Celtic. Engels went on: “Apart from this game here: yes. It’s everything I hoped for, sometimes even more. Even though today was a bad day for us, we are usually much better.”
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