Moritz Jenz feared he was facing a nightmare before Christmas when PSG sent out Lionel Messi for some festive frolics last season. The new Hoops defender was expecting the French powerhouses to give their star men the night off against his Lorient side as they prepared to carve the turkeys.
It turned out the former Barcelona legend was the shock name on the team sheet but Jenz managed to hold his own and avoid a stuffing. PSG needed a stoppage-time goal from Mauro Icardi to salvage a point against the mid-table French outfit and the education the defender received that night was better than any present Santa could deliver.
Jenz reckons if he can stick the shackles on Messi and co then he can handle anything that comes his way at Celtic after signing a year-long loan deal with a view to a permanent switch next summer. The 23-year-old former Fulham academy kid said: “I remember that, because the game was before Christmas, I thought ‘they are not going to have all their superstars, it’s going to be okay’.
“But 10 minutes before, they showed the team sheet and they had everyone with them. Then you get excited because these are the people you have been watching since you were small. These are the top guys at the top level. In the warm-up, you just forget. You don’t care who’s next to you, Sergio Ramos or Messi.
“On the football field, we are even. Maybe they have much better qualities, but if you work hard and make it difficult, you have a chance. In the end, you just focus.
“We managed to draw. The away game was a heavy defeat but I was on the bench for that game so I have a good record against PSG! Messi was just fantastic. For me, he’s just the greatest player.
“It’s impossible to man-mark him because he knows exactly where to be between the players. He gets the ball every time and you can’t get close to him.
“So you need to have good cover and communication. You learn more things about how to organise and how to be tougher and make it quite nasty for them.”
Jenz would love another crack at the likes of Messi in the Champions League and he insisted Celtic won’t be intimidated by the big guns in the group stage.
He said: “We should not go into games with anything to fear because Celtic, if you see them in the league, they’re very brave. Attacking football, possession football. Last year Celtic played Leverkusen and were brave.
“They could have won the game out there, where they lost 3-2. So you need to have the mentality to be brave and proud and to 100 per cent go for it.”
The German defender insisted he’s ready for the step up after his time in Switzerland with Lausanne and in France with Lorient – and he’s also prepared for the mentality shift. That awareness of what the expectations are among Ange Postecoglou ’s side, and the passionate support, comes from his best pal and an old familiar face at Parkhead..
Jenz is thrilled to be linking up with Hoops ace Matt O’Riley again, with the pair having a history that stretches back to their time together in the Fulham academy – where he also got the history lessons from coach and former Celt Peter Grant. It’s one reason the Berliner feels like he already knows the Parkhead club inside out.
And the stopper reckons he was destined to play for Celts – even supporting Werder Bremen as a kid. He joked: “They also play in green and white!
“It will definitely be different here. At Lorient the target is to stay in the league and finish in a good position in their eyes.
“But at Celtic you have to win, have to win trophies, have to be first, you can’t draw because a draw is a disaster and a loss is even more of a disaster – it’s where you want to be as a player. If you want to become a top player you have to play on a level where you are always 100 per cent in a game.”
Jenz admits he’s not a typical footballer. He’s more likely to be in a museum than on a Jet Ski but he’s a different animal on the pitch – thanks to advice from the likes of Grant.
Jenz said: “Peter is a great person. He’s very polite, a proper gentleman. On the field he’s a different person. You need that fire and he’s like a lion. I want to play as many games as possible here and win trophies. That’s why you come to Celtic.”
Jenz knows he’ll have to muscle his way past Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt to become a regular, though.
But he believes fierce competition for places will help all of them and give him the chance to achieve his dream of playing for Germany.
Jenz, who also qualifies for Nigeria, said: “Competing with those guys can elevate my game as well, because the standard is so good. You need good teammates to push you. They will push me and I will push them. We will try to improve each other.
“Germany is great country to play for an hopefully one day I can make a couple of appearances, then maybe a couple more and then, who knows, perhaps play in a World Cup or Euros. But I need to do my best for the club first. That’s the most important thing and after that we can talk about the national team.
“I have a better chance of getting there playing here because it’s such a big club. I need to do the best I can for Celtic.”
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