Celtic v BSC Young Boys – “We cannot allow ourselves to be comfortable,” Daizen Maeda

The Celtic Star

·20 gennaio 2025

Celtic v BSC Young Boys – “We cannot allow ourselves to be comfortable,” Daizen Maeda

Daizen Maeda scored the winner against Kilmarnock on Saturday night to book Celtic’s place in the Scottish Cup Fifth Round draw and has admitted that he and his teammates will have to do better if they are to beat Swiss side Young Boys on Wednesday evening…

Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring the winning goal during the Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Scottish Champions can just about book their place in the next phase of the competition with a win and qualify for the first time since 2012.

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The last time we beat Barcelona under Neil Lennon on our road to the Last-16 and now we have it all to play for and in our hands as we try and scale the wall for the knockout rounds of Europe’s most prestigious award. It will be no walk in the park as we have seen from just about all the games we’ve played – If you exclude the Bratislava one – and we cannot take this game for granted or it will pass us by.

Maeda reflected on this in the aftermath of his goal against Derek McInnes’ side and insisted that we must take full advantage when we’re in on goal midweek. “Well, if we play against Young Boys the way we did on Saturday, then it will be very difficult for us,” Daizen said via Daily Record. “If we have these opportunities, we need to convert them to goals. The next game is the most important for us, of course. We need to recover well from the weekend and prepare for this next one. We need to try to get a good result – and to make history. We know what is necessary and we will be going for the win.”

Whilst the Hoops are yet to be beaten at home in Europe this season, after wins over Leipzig and Slovan Bratislava, followed with a draw versus Belgian outfit Brugge, it would be irresponsible to think that because Young Boys are bottom of this league phase that all we need to do is show up. In recent times, Brendan Rodgers’ men have become far too comfortable and let teams back into games when they should have been four up by half-time.

Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring the winning goal during the Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Maeda has acknowledged this fact and has urged his team to be clinical when required this week. He said: “There have been some good performances here so far. But I think we’ll be able to say after this game whether we feel our home form in the competition has been good or bad. Right now we just have to focus on this one. You can say Young Boys cannot qualify but that means they have nothing to lose. That is dangerous. They can come here and give 100 percent. We cannot allow ourselves to be comfortable. We have to perform like we are the challengers rather than think about how they will be treating us.”

Paul Gillespie

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