Arne Engels reckons Celtic's crushing of Newcastle shows they can cause rivals ‘real pain' in the Champions League

Scottish Sun

9 hours ago

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ARNE ENGELS says Celtic's crushing victory over Newcastle can serve notice of their Champions League ambitions.
The Belgian scored from the spot as Celtic won 4-0 against the side who'll go straight into the group stages of European football's elite tournament after finishing fifth in the English Premier League.
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Arne Engels celebrates his goal against Newcastle
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And he believes the team's all-round performance can stand them in good stead
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The Hoops are desperate to get back to the Champions League group stage again this year
Celtic have to wait until the play-off round draw on August 4 to find out who they'll face to reach the group stage.
But Engels says Saturday's win shows they can cause top teams 'real pain'.
He said: 'One hundred percent the result was good for our confidence.
'It's a preseason game, so you never know how it will go, but it's always good to get good results against good opponents.
'It's up to us to now keep this going. We go to the Como tournament now and we'll see how it goes there.
'But it's up to us to just maintain the standards we've set for each other, and it's only going to get better and better.
'It's a big goal of ours, to reach the Champions League. In a few weeks, there will be really big games coming up.
'It's up to us to get physically really ready for those, and I'm sure we'll do great in those two games.
"We just want to get into the Champions League and see how it goes there.
'We set a really big standard for ourselves in the Champions League last season and that's also something we can reach again because we have a really good squad.
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'But it's not as easy as saying 'You need to go further' because we did really great.
'It's up to us to show we're a really good squad and that we can cause a lot of teams real pain. We did that on Saturday so let's see how it goes.
"It was a really good game. We had good positions in possession, and we really played well.
'Physically we feel really good. In the pressing, we were amazing.
'Overall, it was a really good game and it's always nice to see 4-0 on the scoreboard.
"We have a lot of football qualities and sometimes it suits us better if the opponent is a bit bigger than us.
'It's the same in the league - a lot of opponents have a lot of big guys at the back.
'But it's then up to us to just go through it and try to play football on the ground, because in the air maybe you won't win it.
'But then you see with the second goal, where Kasper had the assist, that we can play in the air as well. We can mix it up."
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The arrival of Swede Benjamin Nygren - a second-half sub on Saturday - adds more competition to the Celtic midfield, but Engels, who's been repeatedly linked with a move to Serie A Atalanta, says he's relishing that.
But he said: "It's always nice to get a lot of quality players in and it's up to us to show ourselves to the manager and everybody else in the stadium.
'There's always going to be competition everywhere, so it's just about keeping doing the right things that you always do.
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"We have a really good squad and there will always be rumours about players coming in or going.
'It's up to us to keep this all inside. You saw on Saturday that we have a lot of quality already.
'We'll see what's going in and going out - we never know. But the squad here now is fantastic.
"Everybody who's come in is really impressing us. They're still settling in.
'But on Saturday you could see that they're adapting to the system, to the style of play and the fitness we ask from each other.
'I'm really happy with all the guys, not only in games but in training also.'
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