Luke McCowan needs Celtic 7 year Champions League itch scratched by doing 'hardest possible thing'

Luke McCowan says Celtic are desperate to end a seven-year drought in Europe’s harshest environment.

Brendan Rodgers’ side face Dinamo Zagreb looking for a priceless away win in the Champions League. Celtic’s last triumph on foreign soil in this stage of the elite competition came in Brussels over Anderlecht in September 2017.

McCowan feels it’s a target for the current crop as he said: “Exactly. I think winning away in the Champions League is obviously massive. So we obviously look to try and do that.

“I think that’s probably one of the things the boys are looking towards is trying to get that, but, listen, we know it’s a hard thing to do.
Since 2016, it’s been unbelievable teams playing here and playing away in the Champions League, so we just know it’s a tough thing to do. But you never know, it can maybe happen come Tuesday.

You try and look to win every game, regardless of where it is, but we know it’s going to be so hard. It’s a tough place to go.

“Obviously, off the back of a couple of tough games this week, you know it’ll be hard because you’re away in the Champions League anyway, but the boys will be up for it and ready to go come Tuesday.”

Although it’s tricky to work out permutations in the new-look league set-up, victory for Celtic would put them onto 11 points and surely give them an outstanding chance of reaching the play-offs That would be a superb achievement and McCowan said: “I hope so.

We just know, as I’ve said previously, performance levels are everything.

“That’s what we focus on first and then, if we come away from the game and we’ve made it to a qualification spot or whatever it is and you get through, then so be it.

“But it’s about having your standards and keeping them maintained.