Absence doesn’t just make the heart grow fonder. It makes the roar seem louder. Celtic Park shook on Tuesday night as the Champions League returned and the shuddering wall of noise was heard across the continent.
Matt O’Riley reckons Hoops fans showed they belong on the biggest stage – but he’s convinced the team did as well. Sure, it turned out rather predictable, with European royalty eventually slapping down the upstarts. But the kings certainly had a wobble on their thrones for a while, with Real Madrid's wily old gaffer Carlo Ancelotti confessing he was worried as his team was made to suffer in spells.
The sheer class came through in the end and it left Celts feeling deflated at what might have been. But O’Riley insisted Ange Postecoglou's quad proved they can cut it among the biggest of big boys. The playmaker will extract every ounce of belief from the performance and he said: “I think we will. We’ve proven we can compete at this level. There are fine margins, obviously. But the result doesn’t show that.
“I feel as though we were very in the game, we’ve just got to be a bit more ruthless. That’s what we’ve got to learn.”
Celtic fans are on board too. It said it all they stayed to the very end to salute their side on Tuesday and chant their manager’s name. Everyone is on board with Angeball.
O’Riley was blown away by the incredible passion from the stands that was noticed right across the continent. He’s determined to repay that support by learning the lessons from Madrid and putting them to practise against Shakhtar Donetsk next week and then in the double header with RB Leipzig.
The huge backing at the final whistle was evidence the supporters belief they can too. O’Riley said: “Of course it is. We don’t know how big a club we are.
“Our supporters, it’s like one of the biggest clubs in the world – so we want to repay them by competing against these teams and actually winning games like this. I think we’ve proven we can if we’re just a little bit more ruthless, have that bit more cutting edge in the final third.
“That’s just the difference. The reception we got from the fans was unbelievable, even after the game.
“We lost 3-0 but it almost felt like we’d won the game, that was the kind of support we got. That was cool from them.
“In my opinion the game could’ve been very different. We know how good a side they are, they control the game really well.
“But I think they only controlled it once they took the lead. If we took the first goal, and I think the first goal was massive, then it could’ve been a different matter.
“The first 55 minutes or so, I’d say we were the better team in terms of the better chances. But, it was a lesson for us.
“There’s loads to learn for us, including for me personally. It just shows the difference at the very top level, they’re just so ruthless.
“We obviously can compete with these teams, we’ve proven that. But the result didn’t show that and it was disappointing.”
The 3-0 scoreline was a sore one, but there are ways to get beat. Ange Postecoglou stuck to his word and sent out a side to go after Real and the first half the other night turned in to memorable thrill ride.
It didn’t last – it maybe couldn’t last – but Celtic certainly went down swinging against a ridiculously slick Real. No one should have been surprised.
O’Riley said: “I said before the game that we were going to approach it the same way we do every game. First five, 10 minutes we were flying. The crowd was behind us, we were playing our usual football.
“For the most part we did, although at times we were a little too much eager to play forward in the final third. That’s where they better than us at times, just managing the game a little bit more.
“But, again, it’s a lot to learn. We can watch bits from them that we can add to our game as well. There are positives.”
O’Riley will pore over the footage while he sits with his notepad, but one name will be circled. At 37 today, Luca Modric is old enough to be wearing slippers not playing in them.
The Croatian produced one of the great Parkhead displays and while he might be barely 5ft 6ins in his bare feet, O’Riley admitted he’s the kind of superstar every player can look up to. He said: “When I came off I reflected on some of their players.
“I thought Modric was very good. For a guy at 37 to still be that good is impressive. It’s obviously nice to share a pitch with someone like that.
“And to be honest just to test yourself against that kind of opposition is what it’s all about. I felt we did for a large part of the game, that’s I feel so frustrated with the outcome.”
It seems almost cruel to ask Celtic to go back to domestic duty when they’ve got the Champions League drug withdrawal symptoms already.Shakhtar away in Poland next week but O’Riley insisted it will be back on the wagon this weekend against Livingston and then back to the altar of Zadok the Priest.
He said: “There’s definitely a lot of things we could’ve done better.
“But I also feel there were a lot of things we did well. And on Saturday we’ll just be our usual selves.
“We were not down in the changing room. We’re just frustrated because it just felt we could’ve got a lot more from it.
“And our process will still be the same. We’ll reflect on, it we’ll watch the clips back and see what we could’ve done better.”
