Cameron Carter Vickers details solid Celtic pairing with Auston Trusty as he makes Champions League vow

Cameron Carter-Vickers reckons the stunning of RB Leipzig is the statement win that proves to the whole world Celtic belong among the Champions League elite.

The American international believes the 3-1 victory over the Bundesliga’s second-placed team was as good a performance as he has seen in his four years with the Hoops. The defender has watched Celtic take some heavy defeats under Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers but he believes this squad has learned from those experiences and has now found its feet in Europe’s premier club competition.

There were questions raised again when Celtic lost 7-1 away to Borussia Dortmund but since then they have drawn away to Atalanta and beaten Leipzig. That is on top of their opening win over Slovan Bratislava, which puts them on seven points from their opening four games and gives them a genuine chance of making the play-off or knockout stages.

Carter-Vickers said: “We’ve been in the Champions League for three years now and throughout that time it’s been a process of learning for us as a club. Now we feel like we’re ready and the belief has grown in the group. We know we can get to that level, and it’s now just about doing that continuously and repeating it. You can always improve.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, but like I said before, the three years we’ve been in this competition now. It’s been a process for us, a learning process and also a process for us to believe as a group of players.

“We’re at the stage now where a lot of us have played enough games now at this level that we know we can perform at it. It’s just about putting that together and giving it our all.”

The 26-year-old knows Celtic have done well in the league phase but is also well aware that nothing has been