Luke McCowan has thrown down the gauntlet to Rangers and Hearts boss Derek McInnes after insisting that no team in Scotland can cope with Celtic when they hit top gear.Although the Hoops exited the Europa League 4-2 on aggregate, their 1-0 victory over Stuttgart in Germany felt like far more than a consolation. McCowan’s strike inside the opening minute secured a famous win at the MHP Arena, and the determined defensive display that followed underlined a point the midfielder was eager to make — Celtic are far from finished this season.
With a pivotal trip to Ibrox looming on Sunday, McCowan made it clear that the performance in Germany should serve as a warning shot to their domestic rivals.“We need to go there with the confidence from tonight,” McCowan said.
“But we know it’s going to be a hectic atmosphere, a lot of pressure on the game for both teams especially.
“But we just know we’ve got enough in that dressing room and we need to go in with the right attitude and the right hunger.
“The main thing for us now is the league. We have to put full focus to Sunday and the games remaining. It’s nice to have that kind of memento of not winning in Germany before, but that won’t matter at the end of the season. We want the title in our hands. We just need to keep that in mind.“I guess you want a good performance that can lead to a good result. We know if we’re at it, no team in that league touches us. We need to have that mentality going in.
“As Celtic players, we need to know we’re champions still until we lose it. Right now, we’ve not lost it, so we need to have that mentality.”
Those words will not have gone unnoticed in Govan — nor in Edinburgh. With Hearts pushing hard under McInnes and Rangers desperate to seize momentum in the title race, McCowan’s confidence borders on defiance. The message is simple: Celtic still believe the crown is theirs to defend.The midfielder is also determined to turn his statement performance in Germany into a starting berth at Ibrox.
“I hope so,” he said.
“That’s what I’ve got to do and that’s my job, because as a squad rotation player yourself, you need to be chapping on the door as constantly as you can. Especially if the team isn’t performing and you’re not within that.
“You need to do your best to get yourself in, but you don’t get yourself in with your words. It’s actions that matter. It’s goals and assists and good performances. I hope I’ve done that tonight.“That was my first start in a wee while as well, and I’ve got that ability to go and play at this level.
“I just need to go and show that with games like this. Going and scoring obviously helps my case, but as I said, it will not matter nothing if we don’t go there on Sunday and get a good performance in that leads to good results.
“I think it’s all about the reaction, really. We obviously had a disappointing result in performance at the weekend, and you had to show up tonight with, as I said, the right attitude, even though the game was an aggregate 4-1 down.“We knew if we get the first goal, we can give ourselves as much a chance as we can. And as I said, the performance as a whole was good for the players to have.
“Now we just need to build on that.”
Celtic may be out of Europe, but McCowan’s words — and his goal — have ensured the focus swings straight back to the Premiership title race. Rangers and McInnes’ Hearts have been warned: when Celtic are firing, they believe nobody in Scotland can live with them.