Celtic earned a 2-2 draw against La Liga giants Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday (25 October) and the Spanish media feel that the home side were the better team.
Spanish newspaper AS (26 October, page 9) particularly was impressed with the atmosphere inside Celtic Park. They suggest that the raucous noise created by the fans, and the You’ll Never Walk Alone anthem at the beginning had set the tone for a feisty competition.
Celtic took an early lead through Japanese international Kyogo Furuhashi inside five minutes. AS notes that before Atletico could even organize themselves, it came as a blow for them. They have especially praised Kyogo, hailing him as “superb”.
AS wrote: “The Atleti, with temptation and long balls to skip that first line of pressure of a Celtic that only needed a quick wall between O’Riley and Furuhashi: on the back of Galan they found the gap. The Japanese defined superb. Rodgers had found the key to storming the match. That back on which all the seams were concentrated.”
The Spanish newspaper was also pleased with the performance of another Japanese player, Daizen Maeda. They wrote the manner in which they scored the second goal was all too easy for Maeda.
Celtic needed a positive result to stay in this competition and while a victory would have been ideal, Brendan Rodgers will be pleased with the result.
The Bhoys were undoubtedly the better team in the first half, but they ran out of steam in the second. Rodgers will hope that his side can take immense confidence from this game, and use it for the upcoming matches.
The likes of Callum McGregor and Liam Scales were equally brilliant during the game.
