Celtic came face to face with some of the world’s finest footballers on Tuesday night’s opening Champions League Group stage match against Real Madrid. With the likes of Luca Modric (a Real Madrid legend who has won five Champions League trophies with the club) playing against the Hoops, some said Celtic would be easily swept aside.
However, after being absent for the past five years, Celtic played very well and showed the world that Ange Postecoglou’s Bhoys can compete at Champions League level.
One of the Celtic players who was particularly impressive in the Celtic line-up was Reo Hatate who went up against Modric and didn’t look out of place at all. Hatate played brilliantly against the European Champions, and even slotted a cross-field pass to the feet of Jota on the volley from a throw-in, leaving even Modric gobsmacked.
This pass from Reo Hatate is outrageous!
He belongs at this level of football!
— The Celtic Exchange 🎙 (@CeltExchange) September 7, 2022
Pulling out tricks like that, against an opposition like Real Madrid really shows the world what Hatate is made of, and what he brings to this Celtic side.
Celtic may have lost the match in the end, mostly as a result of not taking the chances created, but they proved that they belong in the Champions League, and are capable of playing against the best sides in the world.
The Herald reported Hatate’s own thoughts on the game.
“I cannot express with my words what that experience was like. I tried a lot of things, and showed a little of what I can do, and I learned a lot of things from playing against players like that. I have to take as much out of this experience as I can and use that to improve as a player.
THAT pass is absolutely ridiculous, but whole sequence is perfect testament to Hatate’s completeness
The vision to see pass and the brilliant execution
Then already running forward at top speed as ball reaches Jota and 4 (!) seconds later he’s attacking pen box
He’s so special pic.twitter.com/g2ddCKIohm
— Lost in the Half-space (@WuAnalysis) September 7, 2022
“I enjoyed it a lot. I felt excitement of course and I felt nervous, there were a lot of feelings at the start of the game. But I enjoyed the match a lot, and I feel like I am improving as a player,” Reo said.
Hatate followed by saying how pleased he was that Celtic were able to play Ange’s way for most of the match against Real Madrid, and cause the Spanish team problems.
“We did manage to play our football, we wanted to play our own style, but in the end we couldn’t do that for the whole 90 minutes. This is what we now need to work on. We have to accept the result and analyse what we can do to improve. But we have a lot of games still to play in this group, and now we have to recover, refresh and prepare for the game on Saturday,” the midfielder added.
Celtic face Livingston on Saturday afternoon at Celtic Park, then will head to Warsaw to play Shakhtar Donetsk in their second game of the group stage. Hatate believes that Celtic’s performance against Real Madrid was a big boost to the squad, as it proved how well they can play against the best teams in Europe.
“Well, it all depends on us. We just have to prove to everyone and show that we are a good team, and that we can do it.
“I really appreciate all of the supporters, because they received us very well on Tuesday night, and even after the game too. We didn’t manage to get the result we wanted to give them, but we will work harder than ever to give something back to our supporters.”
Hatate remains optimistic regarding this season’s Champions League campaign, where Celtic will come up against quality opponents. On Tuesday, against the very best, Celtic competed for large parts of the game. Hopefully, Celtic will learn from Tuesday’s defeat, and when we face Shakhtar next Wednesday, our quality will allow us to take the three points back to Paradise.
When that music plays & the sound is so loud the weans cover their ears… pic.twitter.com/EO9swAbhSw
— Lisbon Lion (@tirnaog_09) September 8, 2022
