DORUS de Vries, the Dutch keeper who replaced Craig Gordon in the Celtic starting line-up on Saturday, today insisted he is ready to face Rangers and Barcelona after coming through his first full game of the season.
De Vries, who signed a two year deal with the Scottish champions earlier this month, performed well for his new club in their 4-1 victory over Ladbrokes Premiership rivals Aberdeen at Celtic Park at the weekend.
The 35-year-old, who had been sidelined with an ankle injury, previously worked under Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City and was preferred to Gordon at the weekend due to his greater aptitude for passing the ball out of defence.
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The former Nottingham Forest player is hoping to retain his place in the Celtic side for their Premiership match against Rangers at Parkhead on Saturday week and the opening Champions League group game against Barcelona in the Nou Camp three days later.
“I always feel ready,” he said. “Especially after Saturday. You always want to get your debut out of the way. It was a good win by the team and especially after returning from my injury in the last two weeks. It’s just been really nice to be on the training pitch. The more you train and the more you play games the better it will become.
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“I’ve only been here for a short time, but it’s a great time to be involved. There’s a lot of things happening at the club. I was there in Israel the other day and you could see how much it means to qualify for the Champions League again, which is a great achievement by all the players.
“That was a great moment to step on and kick on. Saturday was a really important game. We all know about Aberdeen and what they did last year. They are always going to be a good side and in the past Celtic have always been a little bit difficult against them. But we showed today that we intend to do whatever we can do and score goals.
“You always want a game, it doesn’t matter who against. If it’s a pre-season friendly, it’s a pre-season friendly, it doesn’t matter which opposition. You don’t take things for granted as a player, you never should, you don’t want overestimation or underestimation to come into play. All you want to do is perform on the day itself, whoever the opponent is it doesn’t matter.”
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