Celtic have earned their long shot at glory - is this the starting XI to cause huge upset in Munich?

Trailing Bayern Munich 2-1 from the first leg in Glasgow last week, Celtic will need the mother of all performances and results to do what so few teams can manage when they visit Bavaria: win.

Only German champions Bayer Leverkusen, whom Bayern drew with at the weekend, have left Munich with a victory this season. Poor old Dinamo Zagreb were smashed into smithereens when they visited earlier in the campaign. Bayern Munich won 9-2 that night, making Celtic’s 7-1 defeat a few hundred miles up the road in Dortmund look like a mild beating.

Yes, October 1, 2024. The Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, the scene of Celtic’s biggest crime so far this season when they were given a pasting by the German side. It was a night to forget, but also a watershed one in terms of their season. Celtic have grown from defeat, using it to learn and regroup before taking a point away from Europa League holders Atalanta and then beating another Bundesliga team in RB Leipzig at home as they drove an upturn in their Champions League fortunes.

Celtic went on an 18-game unbeaten run of the back of Dortmund, a spell of games where they laid the foundations for qualifying for this play-off round of the Champions League, won the Premier Sports Cup and chiselled a seemingly unassailable lead at the top of the Premiership. They return to Germany a much better, more mature version of themselves.

Many still don’t think that will be enough for Celtic to do anything tangible against one of the favourites for the Champions League. Bayern Munich are in fine form, eight points clear in their own domestic league and rid of the ills of last season, when they ended up trophyless. Head coach Vincent Kompany has rejuvenated a squad with a nice mix of exciting youngsters and seasoned campaigners such as Harry Kane, who scored the decisive goal in the first leg.

With the final due to be played at the Allianz Arena, Bayern have extra motivation to take care of a Celtic team who for two-thirds of their meeting in Glasgow were a clear second best to them. While Brendan Rodgers’ men rallied and put the Germans under some pressure towards the end, one could not help but feel that Bayern have an extra gear or two to find.

Do Celtic have any more gears away from home in Europe’s premier competition? While the draws against Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb were laudable and the performance competitive against Aston Villa, Rodgers’ team have not won on the road in the Champions League this season. You have to go back to 2017 for the last time Celtic won an away Champions League tie that was not a qualifier when they pilfered Anderlecht in Brussels. They remain a club unable to make much of a dent when they step outside of Scotland.

Moreover, they have never won a competitive match on German soil. The past and the present, therefore, is stacked against this Celtic team. Rodgers can at least take heart from his players being in excellent form, in particular the goal and assist pressing machine that is Daizen Maeda. Kyogo Furuhashi, once the darling of the Celtic support, has been quickly forgotten due to his fellow Japanese’s excellent form.

One of Rodgers’ biggest decisions for Munich is who to play at No 9. While Maeda is more often than not deployed as a winger, he is clearly effective as the central striker. Celtic improved at Parkhead when Maeda was moved inside and Jota came on to play out wide, partly because Maeda is much better at leading the press. His pace is also handy on the counter-attack. Bayern play a high line and take risks in possession.

Idah has done well since ending a barren 14-game run in front of goal at the end of last month, netting five times in five games since Furuhashi’s departure. But Maeda’s stand-out figure of 22 for the season cannot be ignored, and Rodgers hinted that Jota is becoming fit enough to start a match of such magnitude. Fellow forward Nicolas Kuhn, another impressive performer this season, is obviously clearly in the mix. Four into three won’t go for Rodgers, yet this is a nice problem for the Celtic manager to have.

Midfield was so often Rodgers’ area of real deliberation, but the ankle injury to Paulo Bernado earlier in the month against Raith Rovers means that the trio of captain Callum McGregor, Arne Engels and Reo Hatate are set to start, with Luke McCowan in reserve. Defensively, Auston Trusty and Cameron Carter-Vickers have struck up a solid and dependable partnership in the centre and Greg Taylor will return at left-back for Jeffrey Schlupp. This Celtic team largely picks itself behind the forward line for such an occasion.

There is nothing to lose on Tuesday night for Celtic in Germany. They are not expected to progress, having met Rodgers’ Champions League goal of progressing past the revamped main stage. They have earned their long shot at glory at the stadium where the trophy will be lifted on the last day of May. Emerge victorious and the Allianz Arena should change its colour to green and white.