Mika Baur's Celtic Park Debut: From TV Dream to Champions League
Mika Baur walked out at Celtic Park for the first time and felt exactly what he had only ever seen through a television screen.
“Incredible,” the Celtic midfielder said, still riding the buzz from his home debut. The noise, the colour, the sheer surge of energy from the stands hit him hard. He had expected it. It still stunned him.
Now he wants more – and he knows exactly what is at stake.
From TV dream to Champions League doorstep
Celtic carry a commanding 3-0 lead into tonight’s Champions League play-off second leg against LASK, after a ruthless first-leg display in Glasgow. Martin O’Neill’s side have one foot in the group stage, but nobody inside the camp is pretending the job is done.
Least of all Baur.
The 22-year-old German made his first Celtic Park appearance in that win, having previously featured off the bench at Tannadice in the League Cup following his move from Paderborn. The step up in scale was obvious.
“The atmosphere and energy in the stadium – I knew it before from sitting in front of the TV and now to feel it in real life is incredible, such a nice feeling,” he said. “Playing in the Champions League is a dream for every young kid growing up watching football.”
He is now one game away from living that dream properly, not as a spectator but as a protagonist in green and white.
No room for comfort against LASK
O’Neill has been careful to hammer home one message since the final whistle in the first leg: this tie is not finished. A 3-0 cushion is healthy. It is not a guarantee.
Baur is on exactly the same page.
“It’s difficult because we know they are a good team,” he said of LASK. “They made a good match in Glasgow, so we know what we have to do. We need the same mentality and energy to hopefully win again.”
No talk of managing the game. No hint of easing off. For a player still settling into a new country, the clarity is striking – match the intensity, keep the standards, finish the job.
A new city, a new style – and an impressive manager
Away from the floodlights, Baur is juggling everything that comes with a move abroad: a new league, a new language, a new city and a manager whose methods have already left a mark.
“He makes us feel comfortable, his way to manage the team is different to how I know it in Germany, but he’s really, really impressive,” Baur said of O’Neill.
There is a lot happening in his life right now. Training sessions with new teammates. Adjusting to a different style of football. Wandering through Glasgow’s streets between house viewings, trying to pin down a place to live while also trying to pin down a place in the team.
“There’s a lot going on at the moment, but I really enjoy it, to meet new people and play with them, it’s a different style but I really enjoy it and to walk around the city, look for apartments, it’s a nice time at the moment.”
Nice, but potentially transformational.
Beat LASK, and the young German who once watched Celtic Park and the Champions League from his sofa will be stepping into the competition he grew up dreaming about – with the roar of that “incredible” stadium now driving him from the centre of the pitch, not the other side of the screen.
