Opinion: Celtic star who shone in Europe can be key in knockout tie

Celtic‘s return to the Europa Conference League on Thursday night against Bodo/Glimt will be a good litmus test of how the team are progressing overall.

Ange Postecoglou’s side have made progress in Scotland, but it is still hard to tell just how well the Hoops are doing in Europe, although the side did perform well in the Europa League group stages.

A win over Bodo/Glimt in the knockout round of the Conference League would be a statement from Postecoglou and the Hoops that they are serious about winning the competition.

One player for Celtic who has thrived in European competition this season in Jota. The winger didn’t feature for the Bhoys in the Champions League qualifiers that Celtic played in at the start of the season, and that is a real shame as he would undoubtedly have made an impact for the Hoops in those matches.

He made up for that in the Europa League group stages though, as he contributed two goals and two assists as the Hoops battled to a creditable third place in the group behind Bayer Leverkusen and Real Betis.

Jota was responsible for one of Celtic’s moments of the season in the aforementioned group stages. 

His incredible cross field into the path of Kyogo set up the Hoops striker to score against Ferencvaros. Sadly Kyogo will not be featuring for the Bhoys in the game as he continues his recovery from injury, but Jota is capable of being very influential for the Hoops in the game.

He might be working with a different striker on this occasion – either Giorgos Giakoumakis or Daizen Maeda – but that shouldn’t prevent Jota from linking up with the Hoops forward.

Interestingly, the two goals Jota scored for the Hoops in the group stages of the Europa League were both away from home, against Ferencvaros and