Daizen Maeda has called on Celtic to shake off their midweek Champions League humiliation and deliver a dominant performance against Ross County this afternoon.
The Japanese forward, who scored the Hoops’ only goal in their 7-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund, feels the fans are owed a performance in the Highlands after the heavy defeat in Germany.
Celtic had been in superb form before their capitulation at Signal Iduna Park, cruising in the league and putting five past Slovan Bratislava in Europe.
The Hoops have the chance to make it seven successive clean sheets at the start of this season, which would equal a record.
Maeda has stressed that the team can’t let the disappointment from Dortmund linger as they return to Premiership action.
The 26-year-old said to RecordSport: “Obviously there is some tiredness because we have been travelling a lot but we can’t use that as an excuse.
“We need to perform on Sunday, especially after Tuesday. We know our supporters travel in good numbers to all of these games and we’ll have a lot of fans there on Sunday.
“We have to make them happy. Everyone is focused on Ross County already. We can’t carry the result from Dortmund on Tuesday with us.
“Regardless of what anyone says, we must focus on the next performance. On Sunday we’ll try to be dominant again, the way we have been so far this season. We know it will be a difficult game but have to keep our feet on the ground and do our best.”
Celtic will face a determined Ross County side in Dingwall, but Maeda is confident that the Hoops can rise to the occasion and secure the three points.
Celtic have a good record in Dingwall in recent years. You have to go back to February in the COVID season to see Celtic drop points in the highlands. Before that, it was a 2-2 draw in 2017.
Celtic will look to go into the international break on a high with a win in the lunchtime kick off.
