MARC Albrighton, the Leicester City winger, has revealed that he felt like applauding the Celtic fans at the weekend and expressed hope he can play in front of them again at Parkhead in the Champions League group stages this season
Albrighton helped the Barclays Premier League winners beat their Ladbrokes Premiership counterparts 6-5 on penalties on Saturday when their International Champions Cup match had finished 1-1 after 90 minutes.
But the 26-year-old was impressed with the backing the home supporters gave Brendan Rodgers’ team and is optimistic they can qualify for the group stages of Europe’s premier club tournament.
Because he has heard about the renowned atmosphere at Celtic Park on European nights and would like Claudio Ranieri’s team to play them in front of a full house in the competition proper.
"I have a few mates who have played at Celtic Park and are fans of the club,” he said. “I have watched the Champions League nights on TV and they told me all about it in the lead-up to this game. They told me to savour the atmosphere and enjoy it.
"There was a moment in the second half when the Celtic fans were all doing the Lech Poznan dance and it was amazing. You just had to look around the stadium and applaud the fans for the noise they were making.
"It's fantastic to see and I can only dream of what it would be like on a Champions League night at Celtic Park. They have had a lot of big games in the past and it would be great if we could play them this season.
"We will both be looking at the draw in a couple of months to see what it brings up. If we were to draw Celtic, or if they got another English team, they would be delighted.
"There is always an extra pump to the game with the Battle of Britain thing and the fans would be delighted if it happened. We will just enjoy the occasion if it does happen.”
Albrighton added: "I'd like to think Celtic do have enough quality to get through the qualifiers and make the Champions League. They are a massive club. We were up in Glasgow for a few days and we saw how big they are in this city. Even just training in the stadium on Friday night was special.
"You can see all the history and the tradition of the place and the fact they have kept that up over the years is credit to Celtic. Hopefully, they can have a good campaign, reach the Champions League and have some fantastic nights here again.”
Albrighton came up against youth teams coached by Rodgers when he was coming through the age-group ranks at Aston Villa and believes he was an excellent appointment by Celtic this summer.
"People are looking more at Celtic down south because Brendan has taken over as manager,” he said. "He has a fantastic record in the English Premier League and he has a great track record of doing well at clubs and bringing players through.
"I know from my days in youth teams when he was in charge of Chelsea. He’s been brilliant ever since then and has worked his way up. He has earned his place as the manager of a big club and deserves to be here. I hope he has success at Celtic and brings some great nights here.”
Albrighton added: "It was a good workout and a good test for us on Saturday. It was nice to get a competitive game in this early in pre-season.
"Celtic definitely gave us a good game. It was end to end and quite feisty at times. That's all good fun though and we enjoyed the game. It was different to the normal friendly in terms of the occasion and the battle.
"Last year, we played pre-season games against the likes of Mansfield so to come to Parkhead, we knew it would be a big occasion. They built it up as the Clash of the Champions. As England v Scotland, we knew it was going to be something big, It was a good test and we really did enjoy it.”
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