FOOTBALLERS always relish the opportunity to put a poor performance or a disappointing result behind them quickly.

But Celtic’s players, who dropped their first William Hill Premiership points of the season on Saturday when they squandered a two goal lead against Aberdeen at Parkhead and were held to a 2-2 draw, could be forgiven for viewing their next outing with a little trepidation.

It will be difficult for Brendan Rodgers’ charges to get their weekend result out of their system against Atalanta in their third Champions League league phase match in Italy on Wednesday night.

Indeed, the Scottish champions, thrashed 7-1 by Borussia Dortmund in Germany three weeks ago, will be doing very well to avoid more humiliation and pain against the Europa League winners in the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.

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Their Serie A opponents have drawn with Arsenal at home and beaten Shakhtar Donetsk away so far in Europe’s revamped elite club competition and are in 10th place in the 36 team table ahead of the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. 

Rodgers, who will once again be without his first choice centre-half Cameron Carter-Vickers and left-back Greg Taylor in midweek, described them as the best man marking side in the world at the weekend.

Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi, though, is excited about, not daunted by, the prospect of testing himself against Gian Piero Gasperini’s men and attempting to open his account away from home in the Champions League.

(Image: PA Wire) “I’m looking forward to beat such a defensive style,” he said. “Obviously, if I play, I will try to enjoy it and see how much I can perform against this kind of team. It’s going to be a good game.

“It was a difficult match [against Aberdeen] and we ended up drawing. But we just have to focus on the next match as a team sticking together.

“We know it is going to be difficult. So whoever is playing from the start has to play together, link together, attack together, defend together and we have to perform very well because, obviously, the opponents are a very good team, so we just have to prepare well.

“Individually, definitely I will have the chances, even though we play against a tough opponent. So I just have to be prepared to put the balls in the net, or at least I try to get the shots on target.

“And, as a team, as I said before, we have to work collectively, whoever is playing from the first minute, whoever is coming on off the bench. We have to share the same ideas, we have to work on it and try to get the result.”

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Japanese internationalist Furuhashi set up his countryman Reo Hatate for the opening goal in the first half against Aberdeen and then doubled Celtic’s tally just three minutes later when he pounced on a loose ball in the opposition area.

However, the £4.6m forward, who took his tally for the 2024/25 campaign to five at the weekend, was disappointed that he and his team mates failed to capitalise on any of the opportunities they created in the final third thereafter and allowed their rivals to stage a comeback and claim a point. 

(Image: PA Wire) The 29-year-old, who has netted against Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Slovan Bratislava at Parkhead in the Champions League, is determined to give a better account of himself personally in Lombardy and is hopeful his side can as well.

“It was a good chance that I could create and Reo could score,” he said. “Otherwise, I could also get [more] goals. However, in the second half, I had two chances where I could have scored as well which ended up not going into the net. That’s something I need to improve as well, so I just have to keep working hard for that.

“But still, we had the chances as a team and also for myself. So what we need to do is work out how we can pass these kind of walls to try and score. We need to have a good picture and the same ideas on how to break through.

“Rather than talk about what we should do and what we can do, it’s about on the pitch. So we have to perform and show to everyone that this is what we can do and we have to show it ourselves.”