Alistair Johnston has revealed that his Celtic teammate Auston Trusty was on cloud nine after watching his beloved Philadelphia Eagles pull off an upset in Super Bowl 59—and Johnston hopes Celtic can channel that same underdog spirit when they face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The Eagles defied expectations by dominating the Kansas City Chiefs, ending their bid to make history with a third consecutive Super Bowl title. The 40-22 victory was a shock to many, with the Eagles controlling the game from the start, much like the kind of performance Celtic will hope to deliver against Bayern.
Auston Trusty, from Philly himself, was buzzing when the Eagles stormed to victory.
Johnston, a self-confessed Dallas Cowboys fan, admitted he wasn’t thrilled to see his team’s rivals win, but he couldn’t help but be impressed by the Eagles’ performance—and he’s drawing parallels between that NFL upset and Celtic’s upcoming European challenge.
“I watched it in the morning actually,” he told RecordSport.
“I am glad I didn’t stay up because the Chiefs got dog-walked, oh my goodness. I am a Cowboys fan so the Eagles are our long-standing rivals. It was a bit of a tough one.
“It could have been 40-0 at half-time. I wasn’t expecting that. Three-peat no more unfortunately for the Chiefs. But Trusty was pretty chipper in the morning. He is an Eagles fan so he was pretty happy.
“He is a Philly boy. He said he fell asleep at half-time, which is fair enough as the game was over at that point. It is probably best for us because we are going to need him. I am happy he got his rest in and the Eagles took care of business.
“Philly is a very well-known sports city. They take their sports seriously, are known for being very passionate. It is a very blue collar, working class team.
“When they won the Super Bowl a few years ago they had to put oil or lube all over all the street poles because people were climbing up them and hanging off them. They have got a little bit of Glasgow Celtic about them in some ways.
“We will see. Hopefully a couple of field goals as well. Hopefully we will keep a clean sheet like the Eagles did for so long. I’ll tell you what, if we could put up an Eagles’ scoreline I would be buzzing with that. That would be something, oh my goodness.”
Much like the Eagles were written off against the Chiefs, Celtic enter their clash with Bayern as underdogs.
They’ve received a big boost heading into the match, with Daizen Maeda’s suspension getting overturned, making him available for the match.
He’s heading into the knockout tie in great form, having netted a hat trick in his last outing against Raith Rovers.
