RYAN CHRISTIE will finish off the best year of his career against Lazio.
But the Celtic midfielder hopes a rollercoaster 12 months has one final high at Parkhead.
It was late October last year when Christie exploded to life in the Betfred Cup semi-final against Hearts.
The Scotland star has since experienced ups and downs — including a cup final winner and serious eye injury.
European football has also brought highs and lows, but beating Lazio in the Europa League could top the lot.
Christie said: “Looking back, I had some luck with injuries on the day against Hearts and then the game went well.
“At that time, the matches after it were coming every three days.
“We had a run and I kept going. I got lucky with that and it spiralled up from there.
“Before that, my first start of the season had been at Kilmarnock and I saw that as a big chance, but we lost 2-1.
“It was the flip side of that at Murrayfield and suddenly everything came after that. It’s been a good year and the European games are definitely what I have enjoyed the most.
“The RB Leipzig win was the best atmosphere I’ve played in at Celtic Park. Starting the game and winning it made it a brilliant night.
“You really soak up playing in that atmosphere. When you get the chance, you need to grasp it.
“I hope Lazio is even better than Leipzig but to get a win we will need to be at our best.
“Another thing that pushes us is that if we do get a win, we couldn’t ask for a better start to the group.”
Christie has been studying Lazio in recent days and believes Celtic are facing a top Euro side.
But he is convinced Neil Lennon’s men have learned their lessons from their naive 4-3 Cluj Champions League loss.
He said: “It will probably take a Champions League performance to win it.
“It just feels like a really big game. Lazio have been a big name in European football for years, as have Celtic.
“They’ve got a real flair and will be coming with an attacking presence, looking to hurt us. First things first, we need to take care of that.
“On the flip side of that, I think we’ve got a lot of belief right now.
“Cluj was a major down so early this season but we had to use it to learn from it and push ourselves to get better and stronger.
“We immediately learned from it and the gaffer said at the time that was the important thing. No matter how much we were hurting, we had to make sure it didn’t affect us in the long term.”
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Christie still has one match of his domestic ban to serve but is free to face Lazio.
He is competing with Tom Rogic for a start and joked they were put in the same training team to avoid injuring each other.
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Christie said: “It’s brilliant to see Tom back as he’s a player I’ve admired from the moment I came to Celtic.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him — he’s one of the best I’ve ever played with.”
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