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Cape Town - Celtic
forward Patrick Roberts says he returned to The Hoops in order to
partake in massive evenings like their encounter with Bayern Munich at
the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.
Roberts, 20, who is currently in his second loan spell with the Scottish Champions from English Premier League leaders Manchester City, claims the club brought him back for the European nights and not for the domestic scene.
Brendan Rodgers' side has fully subsidised the £42 000-a-week salary of the Citizens forward who joined the club for £12 million from Fulham in 2015.
Last season his 11 goals and 19 assists in 47 games proved the diminutive forward was well worth the investment from the Sky Blues and a return under the tutelage of Rodgers was mutually beneficial.
"This is why they brought me back, and why I wanted to come back. For these nights," he told reporters. "I want to push on in European competition, which is an aim.
"Hopefully, we can do that. I've never played there before. It will be a brilliant and different experience in Munich."
One of the players Roberts will come up against is Arjen Robben, a winger the young Englishman has looked up to since his youth days and has moulded his technique on - since first watching the Dutchman during his days at Chelsea.
"I have always enjoyed the way he comes inside and shoots," he said of the 33-year-old. "I've tried to emulate that, come in and shoot like that since he was at Chelsea, and I was only a young boy.
"I scored one like he did in his last game for Holland [in the 2-0 win over Sweden with which the Dutch ended an unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign a week ago] at training.
"Players like that put the hard work in at training throughout the years and that is why they are on the biggest stage in world football. I hope one day that can be me, but I need to keep practising my technique."
