Paulo Bernardo knows all about UEFA Champions League football at Paradise, having experienced it last season while on loan at Celtic from Benfica. The Portuguese midfielder played in all six of Celtic’s group-stage games, starting two of the match away to Atletico Madrid and Lazio, and coming on as a substitute in the other four fixtures. Now having made the move to Glasgow a permanent one in the summer, the 22-year-old is looking forward to his first UEFA Champions League experience as a full-time Celt. That could come tomorrow night (Wednesday) when Brendan Rodgers’ side play host to Slovan Bratislava on matchday one of the competition. It’s a new, league-style format for this season, with Celtic having four home and four away fixtures against eight different opponents. And the Hoops will be hoping to kick off their campaign with a victory. Speaking ahead of Wednesday night’s match, Paulo Bernardo said: “It’s always exciting and we live for these moments and this competition. ‘As a kid I always wanted to see the Champions League matches and it’s really nice to be here now.’ “It’s a different format so we know we have more chances now because it’s a league. It could be good for us, but it’s step by step, game by game and let’s see what we can achieve. “It will always be difficult but we are here to dream too, so we’ll do as much as we can to achieve that knockout stage. We will do our best and will try tomorrow to make a step forward to do that.“I don’t see the game against Slovan Bratsilava as the easiest. We have to do our jobs, and if we do well we can get the three points, but we need to focus on the game and respect our opponents.” Bernardo has started the new season in impressive form, as has the team overall, with five wins out of five in the league. There is fierce competition in the squad, particularly with the arrival of several new faces during the recent transfer window, but the midfielder is relishing the challenge of trying to stake his claim for a place in the starting XI, and he believes competition can only be beneficial to him and to the team. “It’s good for the team because we have a lot of games and it will be nice to have very good quality in those positions,” he said. ‘I always want to start and I will continue to work hard, whether I’m starting or on the bench, but we have competition with each other and we’re here to win our spot in the team.’ “We’ve started the season very well. Even in pre-season over in America, the team were very good. We are in a very good moment and we’re very happy with it and we’re all very excited to go on the pitch tomorrow. “The Champions League has the best teams in Europe so we are playing against the best, so we have to be the best too. Big teams in this competition are always difficult to play but I always think we are here to compete.”
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