MATT O’Riley has vowed to stake a claim for inclusion in Denmark’s squad for the Qatar 2022 finals - by helping Celtic to pull off an upset against Champions League holders Real Madrid in the Bernabeu tonight.
O’Riley was delighted for his Parkhead team mate Daizen Maeda yesterday when the Japanese forward was including in his country’s pool of players for the World Cup in the Middle East – and disappointed that Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi were omitted.
The playmaker, who has dropped back into the central defensive midfielder role in the absence of his injured captain Callum McGregor in recent weeks, feels he has done well enough both at home and abroad this season to get the nod from his national coach Kasper Hjulmand next week.
However, the London-born Dane, who qualifies to play for the Scandinavian side through his mother, thinks that a stand-out performance against Carlo Ancelotti’s superstars in Spain in a match that will be shown live around the globe will do his cause no harm at all.
“We find out who is in the Denmark squad on the 7th,” said the uncapped 21-year-old at Celtic’s pre-match press conference last night. “There’s a chance that I will go and there’s a chance that I won’t. I’m not exactly sure what will happen.
“I’m in a good position to show what I can do. But I am not trying to put too much pressure on myself. I think I have performed pretty well throughout this season in general consistency-wise, so this is another chance to kind of add to the foundations I have built and, if all goes well, I go.
“I suppose I can plant a seed in the coach’s mind at the 11th hour, but I hope I have planted enough seeds to show what I am about at this stage. I’ll try and do the same. I always do. We’ll see what happens.”
O’Riley was stunned when Hatate and Furuhashi were omitted from Japan’s squad for Qatar 2022, but he is confident that both men will perform to their usual high level in the final Group F match against Real tonight.
“Kyogo was still in really good spirits in training and Reo was himself as well, so that’s a good thing,” he said. “Of course we are all happy for Daizen as well.
“Naturally, I was a bit surprised it was only Daizen because I feel all three have performed at a really high level. I’m sure they will naturally be disappointed, but, again, football is a crazy game and these things happen.”
Celtic’s chances of recording a victory over Real in the Bernabeu tonight were dealt a blow when their stand-in skipper was ruled out by the minor knee injury he picked up in the cinch Premiership win against Livingston on the artificial pitch at Almondvale on Sunday.
However, O’Riley is confident they can cope without the centre half and finish what has been a frustrating Champions League campaign on a high with a victory if they perform to the same level as they have in their previous group games and convert the scoring opportunities they create in the final third.
“That has been the theme of most of our games,” he said. “Real Madrid are probably the highest level opposition overall in terms of our group and what they have achieved. So we know if we want to win we are going to have to be at our very best.
“We know when we have a chance it is about taking it now and being ruthless. The message in Scotland just now is about being as ruthless as we can be so that when we play Champions League it transfers as well.
“I think throughout the group, individually and collectively we have improved. People have imposed themselves on games naturally with experience.
“It is obviously the biggest stage so sometimes it can take a game to settle in. Although I do think in that first game we definitely imposed our football on the game. It is just a matter of maintaining it for 90 minutes. If we can do that tomorrow I think we have got a good chance of winning the game.”
O’Riley added: “I think you learn things as you go. In the first game I thought they were very good at managing the game, especially in the second-half when they had their lead. They just controlled possession. We could have been a bit more aggressive. So you learn things like that.
“Obviously coming from the Scottish league to here you learn the game can be very different. It is probably slightly more open in a sense. In Scotland we are used to having teams in a low block just waiting for us to attack them.
“Whereas here they are probably a bit more expansive with how they play, which I personally enjoy more because I feel like the game is a bit more flowing. So, yeah, you definitely learn a lot more.”
