The Champions League barometer that has Celtic fans licking their lips and it’ll show where team is really at

Chris Sutton has named his three stand-out performers from Celtic’s Old Firm demolition of Rangers on Sunday – with Callum McGregor, Kyogo Furuhashi and January recruit Nicolas Kuhn all coming in for extensive praise.

The Parkhead hero couldn’t resist aiming a dig at Philippe Clement’s flops after labelling the Hoops’ 3-0 victory a “breeze in the park” in Glasgow’s east end – a result which saw the reigning Premiership champions open an early five-point gap over their bitter rivals with only four leagues games played.

Sutton explained that due to the huge gulf between the two clubs at present, Celtic fans should be looking to judge the club’s progress on this season’s Champions League campaign. The Glasgow giants were handed a favourable draw as part of the new format, with Slovan Bratislava, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb, Young Boys and Aston Villa making up their group phase opposition.

He told casinoapps.com: “Callum McGregor, the captain, he’s a brilliant footballer. Sadly, for Steve Clarke, he’s stepped down from the international team to concentrate solely on club football. He just makes Celtic tick. He sits in that number six position. I say that, but he’s scored three magnificent goals this season; magnificent strikes, albeit yesterday, his goal had a touch of a deflection, but Celtic are playing really, really well.

“Kyogo Furuhashi loves playing against Rangers. He’s a really intelligent player. He’s not the biggest, but his speed is excellent, and his brain, the way his brain works is wonderful. He scored a good goal; he links superbly well.

“Nicolas Kuhn, who came in last January and didn’t really get up to speed. He had a dental issue, which strangely enough, knocked him back and he never produced last season. He has had a really strong pre-season, and he’s come back and looked exceptionally sharp.”

Despite being fairly competitive in recent years, Brendan Rodgers and his players are eyeing vast improvement in the Champions League after years of underwhelming performances in Europe’s elite competition. The Parkhead club have failed to win a European knockout game since defeating Barcelona in 2004 and only last December won a group stage match for the first time in 10 years.

He added: “The way that Celtic wiped the floor with Rangers in the Old Firm derby, I think a lot of Celtic fans will be looking at the Champions League campaign this season and thinking this is where we will really learn about the team, and this is where we’ll see if there has been progression. “The Champions League will be the barometer and Celtic fans will be thinking what an opportunity this is. Celtic are in a really good place at the moment. They had a brilliant pre-season, where they picked up some decent scalps against the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, and they’ve carried that good form into the new season.

“Beating Rangers in the manner which they did, the Old Firm is normally a game where you go and watch and you’re biting your nails, but that wasn’t the case. It was a breeze in the park.”