Yahoo News Callum McGregor declares Celtic Champions League blank slate as he reveals touching 4am family moment from debut
Callum McGregor has declared the newly revamped Champions League as a blank slate as Celtic look to make an instant impact.
Brendan Rodgers and his troops take to the biggest stage in club football on Wednesday night as they welcome Slovan Bratislava to Glasgow's east end in their league phase opener. The atmosphere on big European nights is lauded by professionals past and present including some of the biggest names to have played the game and the Hoops supporters will be looking to bring that noise and passion off the park once again to inspire those on it to the perfect start at Europe's top table.
The shake-up of the premier competition will see a 36 team single league with Celtic playing eight games in total. A top eight finish will book a direct spot in the last 16 but finishing anywhere between 9 and 24 will book a two-legged play-off knockout round tie and the chance to join the eight leading sides. The Scottish Premiership champions face Bratislava, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge and Young Boys at home while they face trips to Aston Villa, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb on the road.
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Speaking to UEFA TV about the new look format, McGregor said: "It's fresh, it's new and everybody will be playing in it for the first time. Obviously I think your seeding then helps as well. Coming from pot 3 you are then playing against teams of a rough kind of marker of where you think you should be at. We've got a home game to start the competition. It all points to a sort of positive beginning of the campaign. On the night we have to do a lot right to make sure we maximise that."
Ten years ago, McGregor took to the pitch for his first team debut against KR Reykjavík in a Champions League qualifier and the rest is history for the captain who has won it all on multiple occasions in his career at the Scottish champions. But the former Scotland international - recently hanging up his boots from turning out for his country - looks back on that big moment where it all began for him with fond memories as he shared a touching family moment on his arrival back in Scotland.
He continued: "The game against Reykjavik was as big a turning point you can get really. Your first team debut and early rounds of the Champions League. You want to make an impact and be remembered because a lot of people come through and have five or six games then it doesn't materialise into the way they first planned it would. My parents stayed up until 4am to welcome me back when I first got back from the game. It was a brilliant family moment."
