Celtic were ultimately defeated 3-0 tonight by Real Madrid at Celtic Park, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
In the first half in particular, Celtic matched Real Madrid and had a fantastic chance early on with Liel Abada’s shot deflecting wide, with replays showing Giorgos Giakoumakis probably should have gone himself as he would have been clean through on goal inside the box before he laid it off to Abada.
Celtic Captain Callum McGregor was then extremely unlucky to see a beautiful shot crack off the woodwork.
Real Madrid did not look comfortable at all in the first half and didn’t seem up for the game, but Eden Hazard missed a golden opportunity, missing a sitter as he got his shot horribly wrong.
It was pretty even for the first part of the second half, but ultimately, our players tired and switched off defensively, while Real Madrid showed their class and experience and got three second half goals.
Daizen Maeda and Sead Haksabanovic also had two good second half chances, but ultimately weren’t able to take them.
But without a doubt, we proved tonight that we belong at this level, the first half absolutely showed that.
It is no shame in losing to the best team in world football, and that’s exactly what Real Madrid are.
We gave it our best shot and ultimately, we didn’t take our chances and Real Madrid’s class shone through at the end.
Special shout out to Luka Modric, who put in one of the truly great performances seen at Celtic Park.
We now go away to Shakhtar, confident that we can get a result.
