“When you walk out and you feel the atmosphere,” Liam Scales

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The Celtic Star

·23 de septiembre de 2025

“When you walk out and you feel the atmosphere,” Liam Scales

Rather than fret about the incredible atmosphere that the Red Star Belgrade supporters will create tomorrow night at the Stadion Rajko Mitić, Celtic’s left-sided centre-back Liam Scales is relishing the prospect…

Liam Scales celebrates. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

This will be a first chance for the Ireland defender to play in Belgrade and it will also be the second new stadium to play at for Scales as he’d never previously played at Firhill until Sunday’s Premier Sports League Cup quarter final win over Partick Thistle which saw the Irishman net Celtic’s second goal in the 4-0 win. Wouldn’t that be a brilliant score for Celtic to achieve in Belgrade although most would settle for 1-0 for the Bhoys!

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First time playing in Belgrade

“I’ve never played in Belgrade before but I’ve heard it’s a tough place to go and the atmosphere is quite good, so I’m looking forward to it,” Scales said, as reported by Daily Record. “It’s always good to feel the atmosphere before a game. But once we start playing, that all goes out the window and we’re fully focused on what’s happening on the pitch.

Liam Scales at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“In terms of the best atmospheres, Probably Dortmund. Feyenoord was up there as well, that was loud. But Dortmund was intense and I do enjoy the noise.”

Scales also had his international trips away with Ireland to refer to when considering atmospheric football arenas around the world. “We were just away in Armenia with the national team and they have a lot of ultras. It’s not a massive stadium, but they were very, very loud as well.

“When you walk out and you feel the atmosphere”

“For me, once the ball’s in play, it doesn’t really matter whether there’s 70,000 or no one there. You’re so focused on what’s happening in the game. It’s all background noise. But when you walk out and you feel the atmosphere, like we do at Celtic Park, it’s nice for the first couple of minutes and then the whistle goes.”

Liam Scales of Celtic wins a header from a corner during the Scottish Premiership match, theRangers vs Celtic, Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, 31/08/2025. Photo Colin Poultney PSI

Ibrox of course must rate as one of the most hostile environments for any Celtic side to play in, especially since theRangers fans threw their toys out the pram after Beautiful Sunday in March 2018 to cut the allocation to deny the Celtic support – guilty as charged of repeatedly over celebrating – full use of the Free Broomloan stand. But again Scales is unfazed and regards himself as an experienced pro more than able to handle it.

“Yeah, experience is brilliant at helping you cope with those sorts of big games,” he admitted. “You know you’ve been there before and you know you’re at the level and you can deal with that sort of atmosphere and that level of opposition.

Liam Scales of Celtic challenges for the ball with Ricardinho of Kairat Almaty during the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round First Leg match between Celtic and Kairat Almaty at Celtic Park on August 20, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“It has helped being part of the games in the Champions League and sort of winning big ties in Europe. It’s definitely helped.”

Atonement

The Europa League campaign for both sides tomorrow night is all about atonement as mentioned earlier on The Celtic Star as both Celtic and Red Star Belgrade suffered shock eliminations in the playoff to Kairat and Pafos respectively. Like Brendan Rodgers said at the weekend, Celtic have moved on from that and now have to work to ensure a successful season domestically and hopefully also in the Europa League. That’s a view shared by his fellow Irishman.

Liam Scales checks out the protest as the Celtic team comes out at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Champions League – “It was tough getting knocked out”

Liam Scales too prefers to look forward and notes that the recent additions to the squad can make a big difference: “We’ve had the time to be disappointed about the Champions League and it was tough getting knocked out. We obviously wanted to be in the Champions League, but it’s a huge opportunity for us to go and do as well as we can in this tournament.

“When you look at the draw, the quality of opposition is still really, really high. They’re going to be really good, enjoyable games and we’re really looking forward to them.

“We’ve brought in a couple of the players and we’ve got a lot of strength in depth now. We’re in a good place. We just need to kick on now between these two international windows and go on a nice run to set us up.”

Referee John Beaton shows Liam Scales 5 of Celtic a yellow card during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic at Pittodrie on 10 August 2025. Aberdeen Pittodrie. Photo Stephen Dobson PSI (IMAGO)

Defensively Scales reckons that Celtic are better prepared to cope with these away European matches and notes the improvement last year in the Champions league – Dortmund aside – from the previous season.

“I suppose if you compare it to the manager’s first season here, when we felt like we were in games away from home but we just struggled to get that result or keep that clean sheet,” Scales noted.

Liam Scales heads in the 4th Celtic goal during the pre-season friendly match between Celtic and Newcastle United at Celtic Park on July 19, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

“We got a couple of good results away last season”

“Then we got a couple of good results away last season. So it did feel that we were going in the right direction. That comes with time playing under the same manager. When he first came in, he was trying to put his stamp on things and it was taking us time to adapt.

“I think we have improved a lot since then.”

Hopefully that improvement is there for us all to see tomorrow night.

COYBIG!

Readers of The Celtic Star and indeed all Celtic supporters joining the Celtic Pools Weekly Lottery and paying by direct debit will be able to claim a FREE stadium tour worth £18.50. This promotion will run from now until the 20th October 2025. Click on image to join.