Celtic will be disappointed not to have taken something from their recent match against Real Madrid in the Champions League. The Hoops missed plenty of chances to score on the evening and Callum McGregor struck the post. Ultimately, the European champions walked out of Parkhead with a 3-0 victory. But it looks like Luka Modric was impressed by what he saw from the Glasgow giants.
Modric showed his true class throughout the match against Celtic, scored Real Madrid’s second goal and was applauded by the packed Parkhead crowd as he left the pitch.
Modric and his Croatian international teammate and Celtic right-back, Josip Juranovic, appear to have had an after match conversation. And the Hoops should encouraged by the Real Madrid legend’s observations.
As reported by the Glasgow Times, Juranovic said regarding his chat with Modric:
"“I spoke with him after the game.“He was telling me that the crowd was amazing and that we played good, first half especially, and that we need to continue like that.“What can I say? He’s captain of my national team, a really good person and you saw [on Tuesday night] that he’s a really good player, too.”"
Modric seems to have been impressed with Celtic’s performance in the first half
Celtic have been in great scoring form of late, and last weekend’s 4-0 win over the Rangers took their tally to 25 goals in their first 6 league games of the season. Unfortunately, they could not find the back of the net against Real Madrid, which was pretty much against the pattern. Maybe it was the occasion or the opponents, which got to some players.
After the weekend’s match against Livingston was cancelled, the focus now shifts towards the second Champions League group match of the campaign, against Shakhtar Donetsk, which seems likely to go ahead as planned.
After losing the first game against Real Madrid, Celtic will know that they will have to make the most of their opportunity against Shakhtar Donetsk in Warsaw, if they are to have a chance of getting out of the group.
A draw would be a decent result while a win would be fantastic. Another loss could be devastating to Celtic’s qualification hopes though.