KIERAN TIERNEY believes performing at international and Champions League level is the main reason for his continued improvement.
The 20-year-old defender, who switched to right-back in last night’s 2-2 draw in Slovenia that ended Scotland’s World Cup interest, has more than coped in the stratosphere intensity of the major club and country competitions.
Tierney said: “It definitely helped me massively. For Celtic, those six qualifiers to get into the Champions League I think were actually really important for me personally.
“They were high-pressure games that we were involved in right away and you had to be in the right place mentally as well as physically.
“Definitely from my own point of view they helped me get to a level quite quickly of being in a place where you know every game is must-win and it is an attitude that I brought into Scotland.
“I think the way we have played and the manner in which we have kept the recent run going deserves a lot of credit because everyone has given their all.
“At Celtic, we are playing must-win, high-pressure games a lot and it definitely makes a difference.
“To me, that is a great benefit to Scotland that there are so many of us playing at that level.”
Tierney will return to domestic football on Saturday as Brendan Rodgers prepares his team for the visit of Dundee to Parkhead.
The Hoops then travel to face Bayern Munich in Germany the following midweek and then get ready for a League Cup semi-final meeting against Neil Lennon’s Hibs at Hampden three days later.
Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong, who missed the past two World Cup-ties against Slovakia and Slovenia, are both battling injuries in their bid to return to action.
Boss Rodgers, though, has insisted he will not rush the midfielders.
NEW CQN PODCAST – A CELTIC STATE OF MIND OUT NOW!
A NEW CQN Podcast is out now featuring interviews with Celtic legends Bobby Lennox, John Fallon, Tommy Callaghan and Kenny Dalglish.
This week, ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ pays tribute to The Quality Street Gang.
In the second of a two-part series, Paul John Dykes interviews:
Bobby Lennox, John Fallon, Tommy Callaghan and Kenny Dalglish!
The discussion is all about one of the finest crops of youngsters ever to emerge from Celtic Park…
And we finally reveal just where that nickname came from.
Enjoy the new podcast…
The new Invincibles treble disc DVD is now available from CQN Bookstore HERE. It is quite simply unmissable. What a season that was!
All CQN t-shirts are now reduced to £10, choose from our Invincibles shirt, the Jock Stein one or the Gotcha classic! We’ve added some new books too and there’s some crackers on the way! More on that over the next few weeks or so.
