Kyogo Furuhashi has been on a good run of form lately. He scored the winner for Celtic against the Rangers at Ibrox before the international break. And then he got himself another one against Dundee FC at the weekend. Thus, the Japanese forward should be ready to take on Feyenoord in the Champions League in midweek.
Kyogo did not score a single goal in the Champions League last season despite appearing in all six games. He will surely want to put that right this time around. If Celtic are to have any chance of making it out of their group, he almost has to.
There are a lot of people who doubt Celtic’s ability to go away from home and get a result in the Champions League. Kyogo has sent a clear message ahead of their trip to De Kuip to take on Feyenoord this midweek though.
As reported by the Daily Record, Kyogo said:
"“We got the result in the Rangers game so that showed we can handle the atmosphere. We got the win on Saturday as well, so we are in a good flow at the moment.“Hopefully we can keep it going. The bigger the stages, the more I get excited. I really enjoy playing under that pressure in games like the finals, the derby matches and Champions League.“In my position, everyone works hard to give me the service, so it is not just about the striker. But I do enjoy playing in these big game atmospheres.”"
Kyogo sends clear message to Celtic doubters
De Kuip is a difficult ground to travel to and get a result. Feyenoord have gotten some big wins in Europe there recently. But at the same time, the Rangers did go there and come back with a 2-2 draw some years back. If Celtic are able to pull off something similar, it would be viewed as a major boost for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Rodgers had won only one Champions League game over the two seasons that he did manage Celtic in the competition in his first stint as the manager of the club. Similar to Kyogo, he has a lot to prove at Europe’s elite level.
Both sides will go into the group stage opener on the back of comfortable league wins at the weekend. Celtic won 3-0 against Dundee FC in the Scottish Premiership. Feyenoord got themselves a 6-1 victory over Heerenveen in the Eredivisie.