Celtic sets up for Bayern with ruthless league win
Jota has vowed Celtic is ready to fight against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League after his goal helped the Scottish Premiership leader to a comfortable 3-0 home win over Dundee United.
Callum McGregor, Jota and Adam Idah all found the target with impressive strikes as Celtic extended its lead over Rangers to 16 points before its rival plays away to Hearts on Monday (AEDT).
With the league title now all but certain with just 12 matches left to play, Celtic will immediately turn its attention to the second leg of its UEFA Champions League play-off tie against Bayern.
The Scottish champion trails 2-1 going into the second leg in Germany, but is not giving up hope after recording a win against United even while resting Daizen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn and Arne Engels.
All three came off the substitutes' bench in the second half.
"We will go there to fight," Jota said of the Bayern game.
"We know it will be a very difficult challenge. Bayern Munich are one of the best teams in the world, but I think everyone could see in the last game that we can do very interesting stuff.
"We will go over there with the same mentality [as we did for the first leg], which is to do good things, to look for the result and to hopefully get the win."
Jota had already marked his return for a second spell at Celtic with a goal on his second debut away to Motherwell.
But his goal in this game was his first at Celtic Park since returning on a five-and-a-half-year contract from Rennes.
After his first spell, the winger joined Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League but struggled to nail down a starting place, before having the same problem at Rennes in Ligue 1.
Jota was originally signed by Ange Postecoglou on loan from Benfica in September 2021 and impressed before the move was made permanent the subsequent year.
He helped Celtic to win the domestic treble before his switch to Saudi Arabia in 2023.
Jota added: "Returning is definitely something special. Celtic fans always make me feel so happy.
"They have given me something that nobody has ever given to me. In the end, I just want to give something back to the fans and give them happiness and joy.
"I want to give the best of myself on the pitch, and as a group, we want to deliver and win titles as well."
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers believes his side is heading to Munich with a positive mentality.
"The mentality of this team has been relentless all season and [this match] obviously came after a tough and physical game [against Bayern] while Dundee United were coming here fresh having not played for a while," he said.
"The performance level was really good. We want to win every game. If you don't do your work, or you look for an easy game, that's when you come unstuck. The quality of the goals was outstanding.
"It's a wonderful finish [by Jota]. Everyone in the stadium has seen his quality before, so it's really good that he's getting back to that feeling of scoring goals and working hard.
"Now we will get back in, recover on Sunday and prepare for a really exciting game for us on Tuesday. We go into it with a good feeling."
