Despite having an unbelievable season in the Hoops, Matt O’Riley has been left out of the 26-man Denmark squad that will play at Euro 2024…
O’Riley has been capped twice for his nation previously but has been overlooked by manager Kasper Hjulmand. The head coach also took a dig at Scottish football in a recent interview, so it may not come as a surprise to the Celtic star that he has been left out.
It doesn’t mean Matt won’t be hugely disappointed about it though. With 19 goals and 18 assists in 50 appearances this campaign, he’ll undoubtedly feel hard done by. Let’s not forget that O’Riley also took home Celtic’s Player of the Year award, as well as lifting the Scottish Premiership title and the Scottish Cup mere weeks ago.
And crucially O’Riley was outstanding in the UEFA Champions League against the likes of Atletico Madrid, who proved the point themselves by launching an £18m bid to sign the Celtic man in the January transfer window.
Names like Christian Eriksen and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg have been named in the Denmark squad despite not featuring much for their respective teams this season. Dane supporters are not happy with the revelation either, with many calling for Hjulmand to be sacked on social media and there’s lot of swearing with the insults going on from the Danish supporters.
“Matt’s been a really good player, he’s had a great season. I’ve picked six players that we can move around a bit. It’s been at the expense of Matt, but it was a tough choice.
“I know he’s going to play a lot of international games. He couldn’t do anything differently,” Hjulmand said today as he responded to the questions about Matt O’Riley’s omission from his squad.
“I don’t want to say the most difficult choices, because I think there have been some difficult choices. I can’t just say three, because there are more than three who deserve to play. Matt O’Riley is one,” the Denmark manager said, as reported by Bold.
Jessica Elliott
Anyone fancy making a t-shirt with the slogan No Irish ? No Blacks ? No Trophies !!