Callum McGregor: Celtic can take ‘huge amounts of belief’ from Bayern heartbreak

Celtic captain Callum McGregor quickly cast aside his Champions League heartbreak and outlined his hunger to make further progress next season.

McGregor and his team-mates were seconds from taking Bayern Munich to extra time in the knockout stage play-offs before Alphonso Davies scrambled a stoppage-time equaliser at the Allianz Arena.

The 1-1 draw saw Bayern progress 3-2 on aggregate but only after Nicolas Kuhn’s goal had given the Bundesliga leaders a major fright.

Celtic again showed they had taken major lessons from their 7-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on matchday two, but also from the first hour of the first leg against Bayern, who could not replicate the control they had at Parkhead until the latter stages of the second leg.

It was the Hoops’ first knockout game in the tournament for 12 years and McGregor is targeting improvement again next term.

“At the final whistle, I think every (Celtic) player on the pitch was heartbroken,” the 31-year-old said. “We gave so much to the game.

“But when the dust settles, the players can feel really proud of themselves because that performance against a top, top club in Europe hasn’t been done many times, and we set out to deliver what we did.

“There was a really good feeling within the group that we could come and make it really uncomfortable, and we probably even exceeded that. We played so well, and they were really uncomfortable in the game, and you could feel that in the stadium.

“When we come away from the game, ultimately, we’ve been knocked out, and that is the feeling. It’s disappointing. But the players can take huge amounts of belief from that, and we bank all the experience that we’ve had over these 10 games, and hopefully we’re even better for that next year.”

Brendan Rodgers will be determined to strengthen his squad after the departure of Kyogo Furuhashi and injuries to Paulo Bernardo and James Forrest limited his options to make changes as Bayern got on top in the final 20 minutes. But McGregor also feels there is scope to grow from within.

“They should take big belief, and I said that to the players,” he said. “For some of them, so young, big performances, and to play with such personality and maturity in the game…

“Obviously, we’ve got some senior ones as well, which bring that together, and they were outstanding again as well.

“If you can come here and play with that personality and that maturity, then there’s not many other stadiums that you can go to that will be worse than that.

“We hope there’s more to come. When you get knocked out of these competitions and you play like that, then you come away feeling like, yes, you’re a good player, you’re a good team, and you probably should have got more out of the game.

“So, now, straight away, the hunger is there to do better and to do more. I know the players and I know the way they work, that will be the feeling, we want more of this and we want to be playing in the biggest games.”

McGregor set the tone for the early stages when he won possession and burst through on goal, only to miss the target. Kuhn had an effort cleared off the line and Daizen Maeda also had two good chances before the 20-minute mark.

“We’d seen the template of the first game,” McGregor said. “We’d seen enough in the 25 minutes at the end of the game. We knew the game would follow a similar pattern, to be honest.

“We knew that we had to be good against the ball, and could we nudge that ever so slightly and start gaining momentum, which we did – even more in this game than we did in the home game, which was good.

“So, there’s another bit of progression there, a bit of feeling the situations where you can really get after the ball. And we nicked it off them a few times, and the momentum of the game and the stadium starts to turn.

“I said this the other day, we want to come off the pitch with no regrets, and I don’t think any of the players did, because they left everything out there.”