Jota Promised Celtic is ready to fight Bayern Munich in the Champions League after his goal helped the Scottish Premiership leaders with a comfortable 3-0 home victory on Dundee United.
Callum McGregor, Jota and Adam Idah all found the target with impressive strikes while Celtic expanded their lead over Rangers to 16 points before their rivals play to hearts on Sunday.
With the league title now anything but certainly with 12 games to play, Celtic will immediately focus their attention on the second stage of their Champions League play-off draw against Bayern.
The Scottish Champions Trail with 2-1 that starts the second stage on Tuesday in Germany, but they do not give up hope after winning a victory on Saturday, even while resting Daizzen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn and Arne Engels. All three came from the bank's bank in the second half.
“We will go there to fight,” Jota told Celtic TV about the Bayern game.
“We know that it will be a very difficult challenge. Bayern Munich are one of the best teams in the world, but I think everyone in the last game could see that we can do very interesting things.
'We will go there with the same mentality [as we did for the first leg]That is to do good things, to look for the result and hopefully to win. “
3 goals, 3 points! #Celdutd | #CelticFC pic.twitter.com/wdmgaat0YG
– Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) February 15, 2025
Jota had already marked his return for a second spell at Celtic with a goal on his second debut road to Motherwell.
But his goal in this competition was his first in Celtic Park since she returned to a contract of five and a half years of Rennes.
After his first enchantment, the winger joined Al-Eittihad in the Saudi Pro League, but struggled to tease a starting place before he had the same problem with Rennes in Ligue 1.
Jota was originally signed by Ange Postecoglou on loan from Benfica in September 2021 and impressed before the move was made permanently the following year. He helped Celtic to win the Interior Treble for his switch to Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Jota added: “Returning is definitely something special. Celtic fans always give me so happy.
“They gave me something that nobody has ever given me. In the end I just want to give something back to the fans and give them happiness and joy.
“I want to give the best of myself on the field, and as a group we also want to deliver and win titles.”
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers believes that his direction is heading to Munich with a positive mentality.
“The mentality of this team has been ruthless and [this match] Came clearly after a tough and physical game [against Bayern] While Dundee United came here and did not play fresh for a while, “said Rodgers.
“The performance level was really good. We want to win every game. If you don't do your job, or you are looking for a simple game, then you came loose. The quality of the goals was excellent.
“It's a wonderful finish [by Jota]. Everyone in the stadium has seen their quality earlier, so it is really good that he comes back to that feeling of scoring goals and hard work.
“Now we will come in again, recover on Sundays and prepare for a really exciting game for us on Tuesday. We are going into it with a good feeling.”
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