Kasper Schmeichel makes Celtic clean and clinical plea as keeper shuts down Leicester Champions League repeat talk

Kasper Schmeichel calls it the midnight rule - but there’s nothing dreamy about it. 

Just as Celtic fans’ celebrations were likely to be gaining wings after Tuesday’s electric Champions League dumping of Red Bull Leipzig, Schmeichel was ensuring his feet were planting firmly back on the ground. The memory of a pulsating Parkhead victory were parked as the clock struck 00.00. As Tuesday turned to Wednesday his mind reset and turned to East Ayrshire and Kilmarnock after little over an hour to soak in what had just happened in the east end of Glasgow.

Even on the night of his 38th birthday and with Bonfire Night fireworks flying all around, the experienced goalkeeper knew there was no time to party as the dust settled on an explosive evening of top level football. He’s been here before. Schmeichel was part of the Leicester fairytale that followed up their Premier League glory by marching all the way to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Don’t even try asking him if he feels the squad at Celtic Park is capable of similar though. It’s a time for cool heads. No emotion. Full focus on what lies immediately in front. As Schmeichel puts it “if you're going into surgery, you're not going to want an emotional surgeon”.

The Denmark captain was certainly clinical as he responded to a question about Celtic's chances of matching Leicester's march to the last eight. He said: “I’m not going there. That's not how we roll. And that's not how we got to deep in the competition with Leicester. It's the next game. There's no looking beyond that. If you just take one little percentage off this level, you're going to get punished. No one in this building is going to get carried away with thinking, we're going to do this, we're going to