Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring with teammate Adam Idah during the Premiership match between Celtic FC and Dundee FC at Celtic Park on February 05, 2025 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Q: How do you as a group of players manage to put Tuesday to one side, knowing that you’ve got a big league game at the weekend? How do you do that when you’ve got such big fixtures either side?
Adam Idah: “I think myself personally, at the start of the season, I found it quite tough going from Champions League back to playing league games. But I think having the experienced boys in the group really helps, like Callum, Greg, Jamesy. They kind of help you get through it. It’s the same goal with every game. We want to win games and we want to go out and perform well. At the end of the day, like I said, we all have the same goal and we want to achieve the same things. It can be tough but you have to get through and it’s a game of football at the end of the day and you want to win those games.”
Q: Adam, what was going through your mind after 25 seconds vs Bayern?
Adam Idah: “Yeah, it was a bit of a mad one. It was an unbelievable start but these things happen in football. I still don’t know myself, is it? Is it like interrupting with Neuer and that? It happens and I thought the boys put out a really good shift in the whole game and we stuck to it. We never gave up right until the very end. It was a really exciting game. It was a good game. Like I said, we’re looking forward to it.”
Q: Were you surprised when the flag went up?
Adam Idah: “I was and I wasn’t because I knew I was offside. I just didn’t know how much of an impact I was making on Neuer. Watching it back, maybe I did. I don’t know. It’s a difficult one but hopefully we can try and put it right on Tuesday.”
Q: What’s it like in a game like that? You’re obviously coming up against one of the best teams in Europe. Does it just take a while to almost adapt to the level, the tempo they’re playing at as well?
Adam Idah: “I don’t think so. I think we’ve played in a lot of big games now already up until this game. I think we’re a top team as well and we’ve proved ourselves that we can play at that level. I think we’ve learned a lot from the games previously, for the likes of the Dortmund game. You can’t switch off at any minute. You have to be on it all the time and that’s something we’ve learned. I think you could tell that by the game on Wednesday night. Even though we didn’t probably have as much as the ball, it’s about the other side of the game being defensive, staying compact and we’ve done that really well. Like I said, these are the types of games where you get your chance, you have to take it and if you don’t, other teams can punish you. They’re obviously a great side and it’s up to us to keep switched on.”
