OTHER SPORT
TRAPATTONI: CELTIC ARE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CHALLENGERS
Trapattoni thinks Celtic can make the quarter-finals of the Champions League this year
By Gary Keown
ITALIAN legend Giovanni Trapattoni insists Celtic are back at the top of European football and ready to gatecrash the last eight of the Champions League.
The former Juventus and Bayern Munich coach gave his stunning verdict after taking Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg to the Uhren Cup in Switzerland and running the rule over Hoops boss Gordon Strachan’s new-look squad.
Trapattoni reckons the Parkhead side’s drive to the last 16 of the tournament last term heralded their return to the highest level of the game.
And the 68-year-old believes Bhoys fans will see their club become the first team in Scottish history to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League this time round.
Trapattoni was a dogged defender at AC Milan when Celts were a Euro superpower in the 1960s and 70s and coached Juve to a hard-fought Champions Cup win over the Hoops in 1981.
He said: “I wasn’t surprised that Celtic did well last season. It was more of a surprise for me three or four years ago when they were not at that stage of the Champions League.
“At the moment, I think Celtic are really up there at the top of football in Europe. They are on a par with the Italian, English and Spanish clubs.
“I definitely think they can go into the quarter-finals this time because they made it to the last 16 last year and only lost to AC Milan.
“Getting through the group for the first time is always difficult, but it helps in future when you have the knowledge you can do that.
“I have known Celtic for a long time and they are one of the major teams in Britain and Europe. I came up against them in my career and have always admired them.”
Trapattoni believes that summer signing Massimo Donati will make a big contribution to Strachan’s quest for glory at home and abroad.
He coached the Italian national side between 2000 and 2004 and had Donati in his youth ranks at the time of his £10million move from Atalanta to AC Milan in 2001.
Trapattoni said: “Massimo was one of the best players we had at the younger levels of the national team. I’ve known him for eight years or so and he was always very important.
“Massimo has a good personality, he’s still young enough and I think he can do very well at Celtic. “He plays the ball confidently and I am sure he will have no fear of the game in Scotland.”
Donati’s switch to the San Siro ended in frustration as he spent most of his time there farmed out on loan to the likes of Atalanta and Messina.
Trapattoni said: “Why did his move to Milan not work out as hoped? He was not a classic big star. In football, you have the fantasy players, the creative ones, but Massimo is the kind of player I was in my day.
"He is solid, like concrete, and that’s the kind of thing that is needed in Scottish football. “Scottish football is not South American football. “In Europe, our football is different.”
