Red Bull Gives You Money
Match day four in the Champions League used to mean we were past the half way point of the group stage, but now it means we’re completing the first half of the league stage. It’s so far so good Celtic as they sit in 20th places with four points after three games. They opened with the 5-1 win at home to Slovan Bratislava…
And although the 7-1 defeat away to Borussia Dortmund was a tough one to take…
The 0-0 draw away to Atalanta gave Celtic their first Champions League clean sheet since the 3-0 victory away to Anderlecht in the 2017/18 group stage.
With most in-the-know people saying that ten points will be enough to progress, and the knowledge that after tonight Celtic will have played both pot one teams and been away to their pot two team, there is cause for optimism. In theory, the hardest games will be behind them and they only need another six points with two home games still to come after tonight as well as two away games against pot three and four teams.
Of course, Aston Villa say hi. They are the pot four team Celtic need to go to, and they currently top the Champions League table. And more imminently, tonight’s opponents RB Leipzig from pot one say hi too.
That’s RasenBallsport Leipzig, not Red Bull Leipzig. Uh huh… Not like Red Bull bought SSV Markranstadt from the fifth tier, renamed them, and pumped money into them or anything. When your nickname is Die Roten Bullen, you’re not really hiding things, are you?
I should point out here that UEFA did check into this when they qualified for the Champions League at the same time as Red Bull Salzburg in 2017/18 and deemed them separate enough that there wasn’t a conflict of interest. The teams didn’t meet until 2018/19 in the Europa League and Salzburg won both games. Whilst Salzburg won that group, Leipzig finished third, but we’ll come back to that later…
The game at Celtic Park is an 8pm kick off and it’s live on TNT Sports 2.
Now, I say they say hi, but RB Leipzig are actually behind Celtic currently and will remain that way regardless of tonight’s result. With three defeats from three matches, they’re currently sitting in 31st place on zero points.
The fixture list has not been kind to them though. On match day one they lost 2-1 away to Atletico Madrid.
On match day two, they lost 3-2 at home to Juventus.
And on match day three, they lost 1-0 at home to Liverpool.
So that’s a late winner, a comeback, and a narrow defeat against both pot two teams and one of their pot one teams so far. Not ideal, but you have to think they’ll be glad to be facing a pot three team now, even if it is away from home. Especially when they still have Inter Milan and Aston Villa to face as well. They’ll be more hopeful against Sporting and Sturm Graz, and they’ll no doubt be hopeful tonight as well. Particularly given what the last German side to face Celtic did…
They’ll also be confident given their own history. The teams have met in two previous campaigns, and Leipzig and won three of the four games. In the 2018/19 Europa League group stage, Leipzig won 2-0 in Germany in the first meeting that season.
Then in the 2022/23 Champions League group stage, not only did RB Leipzig win 3-1 in Germany…
But they also won 2-0 at Celtic Park, with goals from Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg in the last fifteen minutes. This campaign was the last time Celtic met a German side, prior to the Borussia Dortmund game in this campaign of course.
However, Celtic did win the 2018/19 match at Celtic Park, one of only four victories Celtic have achieved over Germany sides in 29 matches home and away. Kieran Tierney opened the scoring early on, but Jean-Kevin Augustin equalised late on. That didn’t last long though as Celtic just took centre and went up the park and scored again through Odsonne Edouard to win the game 2-1.
Remember how I said the 2018/19 Europa League was when Salzburg and Leipzig first met? Well the corollary to this story is that in the final group matches, Red Bull Salzburg were winning 2-0 at Celtic Park when a late equaliser for Rosenborg away to Leipzig meant that Celtic Park suddenly erupted. Despite Celtic losing at home (and the Olivier Ntcham consolation penalty made no difference), that draw in Germany was not enough for Leipzig. They finished two points behind Celtic and went out, where finishing level would have seen them progress on head to head, even though their Red Bull friends from Austria had helped them out.
Anyway, as I noted earlier, there’s been plenty of other German visitors to Celtic Park over the years.
Sachsenring Zwickau were the first, then of East Germany, were the first to visit in the 1975/76 Cup Winners Cup quarter final. The game was a 1-1 draw, Kenny Dalglish scoring for Celtic before half time but a late equaliser from Ludwig Blank. Celtic drew a blank in the second leg though, with a 1-0 defeat in East Germany the difference between the sides in the tie. I can only find this from the away leg.
Borussia Dortmund were beaten 2-1 in the 1987/88 UEFA Cup first round. Andy Walker with an early opener, Derek Whyte with a late winner, after Frank Mill had levelled midway through the second half. Dortmund won 2-0 in Germany though and progressed.
Werder Bremen were the first German side to win at Celtic Park, 1-0 in the 1988/89 European Cup second round. The game in Germany was goalless.
Cologne lost 3-0 at Celtic Park in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup first round, goals from Paul McStay, Gerry Creaney and John Collins, after having won in Germany 2-0.
The next round saw Borussia Dortmund win 1-0 at Celtic Park and 2-1 in Germany though. Here’s a long video from that one.
Hamburg won both legs of the 1996/97 UEFA Cup first round tie 2-0. Can’t find anything from this one.
Celtic beat Stuttgart 3-1 in the 2002/03 UEFA Cup fourth round, coming from behind after Kevin Kuranyi had opened the scoring, thanks to goals from Paul Lambert, Shaun Maloney and Stiliyan Petrov. The 3-2 defeat in Germany wasn’t enough to stop Celtic going all the way to the final in Seville that season of course.
Bayern Munich were the first side to stop Celtic winning at home in the Champions League when they drew 0-0 at Celtic Park in the 2003/04 group stage. Celtic had won all of the previous five home games until then. Bayern did win 2-1 at home in that same campaign, coming from behind to do so after Alan Thompson had opened the scoring.
Hamburg were again winners in the 2009/10 Europa League group stage, with a 1-0 scoreline. The game in Germany was goalless. This is about as close as Celtic came to scoring.
Borussia Monchengladbach won 2-0 at Celtic Park in the 2016/17 Champions League group stage. The game in Germany was a 1-1 draw.
In the 2017/18 Champions League group stage, Bayern Munich won 2-1 at Celtic Park. Kingsley Coman opened the scoring, Callum McGregor levelled late on only for Javi Martinez to quickly get Bayern back in front with the winner. Celtic also lost 3-0 in Germany in this campaign.
In between the two RB Leipzig visits, Bayer Leverkusen won 4-0 at Celtic Park in the 2021/22 Europa League group stage.
The 3-2 win for Leverkusen at home was a much tighter affair for Celtic, and they were even leading 2-1 with ten minutes to go thanks to Josip Juranovic penalty and a goal from Jota. But Robert Andrich added to his opener and then Moussa Diaby got the winner.
The only other time RB Leipzig have faced Scottish opposition was when they met Rangers in the 2021/22 Europa League semi final. Although they did win 1-0 in Germany…
The 3-1 defeat at Ibrox thanks to goals from James Tavernier, Glen Kamara and John Lundstram meant it was Rangers who went on to the final in Seville.
RB Leipzig are second in the Bundesliga, three points behind leaders Bayern Munich after nine games. On Saturday they lost 2-1 away to Borussia Dortmund, their first league defeat of the season. They host Borussia Monchengladbach this coming Saturday.
Celtic are currently top of the Premiership on goal difference ahead of Aberdeen after ten games. On Saturday they thumped Aberdeen 6-0 in the League Cup semi final. They go to Kilmarnock this coming Sunday in the league.
Good luck to Celtic tonight!