A rare and precious point away from home in the Champions League was worth a good deal more to Celtic than another £700,000 pay out from UEFA.
Repairing their reputation as one of the grand old clubs of Europe has become more important to Scotland’s champions than the cash. They’ve got enough of that swilling around the bank already.
The first British winners of the European Cup, the chances of Celtic doing it again are now null and void. Realistically, that ship has sailed.
Supporters are entitled to expect a competitive team, though. A side capable of going away from home in the Champions League and giving the diehards something to sing about on the flight home.
After the humiliation of a 7-1 mauling in Dortmund, a scoreless draw at the home of last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta felt like progress.
Rodgers gives travelling fans the thumbs up after team ground out scoreless draw in Italy
Liam Scales keeps the dangerous Retegui at bay during another Atalanta attack
Compact, industrious, focused, disciplined and courageous. All of the qualities missing in Germany were evident in Italy.
Auston Trusty had his best game for Celtic yet after repelling Atalanta time and again
Claiming an unexpected point in Bergamo, Brendan Rodgers and his side set the template for how to play away from home in this tournament.
Proving there doesn’t have to be a binary choice between all-out attack and 11 men behind the ball - the point people were making all along - Rodgers found a satisfying middle ground between the two in the Gewiss Stadium and, in the process, restored any goodwill eroded by a horror show against Dortmund.
On a night when the likes of Auston Trusty and Liam Scales produced big, statement displays in repelling Atalanta’s attacks, captain Callum McGregor paid tribute to those who paid attention to his call to do their talking on the pitch.
‘It was hugely important, I think,’ said McGregor. ‘Probably more for ourselves, to be honest. People write what they want to write and we don’t really have a lot of control over that other than the performances that we put in.
‘If you don’t perform well, people are going to criticise you, that’s just the nature of the business.
‘But I think, for us, we came off the game against Dortmund and we just never did ourselves justice.
‘The boys were low, and they were low because they didn’t perform to the level that we know we can.
‘It can be a difficult one, on the back of that one. Maybe you think you’ve got it out of your system and the game starts and maybe you think: “Right, hold on, we’re in a game again”.
‘But I actually thought the boys dealt with that really, really well, showed big character, big belief, physicality as well, which is something that’s really important at this level.’
Scoreless draws don’t feature high on the list of great Celtic nights in Europe. In considering why Atalanta mattered, then, context is important.
Since beating Anderlecht 3-0 in September 2017, the Parkhead club had lost eight of their last nine away matches in the Champions League, conceding 36 goals.
They had lost their last seven games against Italian teams in the same competition by an aggregate score of 15-1.
Since the start of 2022-23 alone, they had conceded more goals (38) than any other side in the competition, shipping an average of 2.7 per game. In the 7-1 Dortmund thrashing earlier this month, they bled five by half-time alone.
They rode their luck at times in a first half against Atalanta when Mario Pasalic was popping up everywhere. The Croatian international hit the crossbar with a header then hammered a low strike straight at the legs of Kasper Schmeichel.
Unbeaten in their opening three games, Atalanta became only the second Champions League team since 2008-09 to have over 20 shots and 50-plus touches in the opposition box without scoring a goal.
Rodgers yells out his instructions during a fabulous night for his team in Bergamo
Full-back Johnston is quick to break down a promising Atalanta break
Captain Callum McGregor was greatly encouraged by the team's performance
They still couldn’t break through, even with Mateo Retegui, the top scorer in Serie A, battering at the door. That was a testament to the dogged resilience of a makeshift Celtic defence missing the first-choice duo of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Greg Taylor.
A left-sided central defender playing on the right side, Trusty had his best game in a Celtic shirt while Liam Scales - the player Trusty was signed to supplant - continues to defy the naysayers.
Skipper McGregor played in last season’s bruising 6-0 loss to Atletico Madrid, the 7-0 in Barcelona, the 7-1 at Paris Saint-Germain and the 7-1 to Borussia Dortmund.
Caught red-handed at the scene of the crime when Celtic lost to the likes of Malmo, Copenhagen, Bodo Glimt and Sparta Prague, the midfielder was another who stood up to be counted.
‘When you represent such a big club like this and you have a result like Dortmund, it hurts and it stays with you,’ he said. ‘All these things where you feel pride, you to try to put it right for yourself and your team-mates and then the supporters as well.
‘We came out the back of that game and we never showed ourselves in a good light, but it was important against Atalanta that we showed we don’t want to talk, we want to be a team that does the talking on the pitch.’
Rightly, McGregor described Atalanta as a ‘bonus point’. Winning home games always offered the best hope of finishing in the top 24 of the new 36-team format, which guarantees a two-leg play-off. . Given Celtic’s wretched away record in Europe, Dinamo Zagreb in December seemed to offer the only modest hope of a point on the road.
Winning two of the three home games against RB Leipzig, Club Brugge or Young Boys is both a realistic and achievable goal
‘It’s exciting,’ acknowledged McGregor. ‘We’re maybe ahead of where we should be in terms of points. Home games are always important, the next one (RB Leipzig on November 5) will be a very difficult game, similar to the Dortmund style the Germans play. It will be a tough game and we’ll have to bring a big level to that as well.’