Rennes midfielder Benjamin Bourigeaud has insisted they are not travelling to Celtic to ‘do tourism’.
The club travel to Celtic Park this evening to face the Scottish Premiership champions in the Europa League with their fate already sealed.
Bottom of Group E with just one point to their name after four games, the French side can no longer qualify from the group.
It means their trip to Celtic, who are top of the group and already qualified but seeking to top the group, is something of a dead rubber as far as the visitors are concerned.
Bourigeaud, though, insists that is not the case and has warned Neil Lennon’s side that he and his teammates are not there as tourists.
“We did not come to do tourism,” L’Equipe reports him saying.
That was a sentiment shared by manager Julien Stéphan, who insisted his side would have to ‘redeem’ themselves after a disappointing defeat to Dijon at the weekend.
Key to any hopes for his side’s success will be overcoming the atmosphere at Celtic Park; a stadium renowned for being a tough place to visit.
That’s something Stéphan is aware of, with the Rennes boss describing it as a ‘cathedral’ with a ‘special atmosphere’ adding that ‘playing in these conditions is an incredible and exciting challenge’ for his players.
Glowing words indeed and if Celtic are smart, they’ll be using Celtic Park to their advantage to ensure all three points here.
