Liam Scales spoke very well when reviewing the events at the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium on Tuesday evening, where Celtic went down to ten men and they went onto lose 6-0 against Atletico Madrid.
“We are a young team and maybe a bit naïve at times,” Liam Scales told BBC Sport in Madrid. “You come and play in Europe and the referees, you get nothing out of them. They are a lot stricter and tackles that you might get away with domestically, they give.
“With VAR, you are going to pick up red cards in the way we’ve been doing. It’s frustrating, because I think with 11 players on the pitch we had started the game quite well.
“I know we had conceded earlier before the red card, but I thought we had quite a bit of the ball, and it definitely would have been a more even game with 11 men. To be honest, you see the way they react and all of their staff are up off the bench. It definitely doesn’t help.
“The VAR screen is right beside their bench as well, and (the referee) was probably feeling the pressure. They are definitely more street-smart than us, that’s for sure, the way they influence the referee.
“It’s not the nicest part of the game, but it helps them win games and we could definitely learn from it.”
“Well, we got a result at home against them,” Scales noted. “I think we’re at the level, it’s just naivety and poor decisions at times have let us down.
“Some of the goals, we could have defended better, we need to look back on that and see what we could have done better defensively. But it’s still difficult with 10 men away from home to get results at any level, and especially there.
“It was extremely difficult. They are a quality, quality side. It’s tough enough to go there with 11 men, but 10, and having our backs against the wall for that long…with the quality of players they have and the amount of attacking they were doing, they are going to score goals.
“Some of the goals they scored were outstanding, so we’ve just got to take it on the chin and move on, there’s nothing we can do about it now.
“We’re just looking forward to the next one because we know we can still pick up points in this group and do well.”
“We’re a young team, maybe a bit naive”.
Liam Scales admits Celtic need to get more streetwise in the Champions League after a first-half red card was followed by a 6-0 loss to Atletico Madrid. pic.twitter.com/JJJuLIw8GL
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) November 8, 2023
Remarkably Celtic remain in contention to qualify for the knock-out rounds, although favours are needed from Atletico Madrid, with the Hoops hoping that the group leaders can win their two remaining games against Feyenoord in Rotterdam – which would see Diego Simeone’s side qualify then in matchday six at home to Lazio. If Celtic can win 2-0 in Rome that would make this a crucial match for the Italian side and clearly their most difficult of the six fixtures.
Celtic would, assuming Atletico Madrid win their games, need just to beat Feyenoord in Glasgow to go through to the knock-out rounds.
“There’s a few games left in the group and now it’s just about bouncing back and doing as well as we can, because the Lazio game was so tight and it could have gone either way, and we feel that we can go there and get a result,” the Ireland international defender said.
“It’s the same with Feyenoord at home. We were doing well in Feyenoord up until the couple of red cards, and the same happened here. I think we just have to bounce back, that’s it.
“You need to learn from these things at this level, because teams are so ruthless and if you don’t learn then the same things are going to keep happening in these games.
“You might feel like you maybe could have gotten a result. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but in a couple of the games in this campaign I feel like we could have got something out of them.
“Ok, not on Tuesday night, but we just have to learn from this, take it in to the next two games and really have a go at it.”
Celtic’s chances might be slim but stranger things have happened, although Scales is spot in about VAR, getting nothing from referees and the need to be more streetwise in games, indeed that latter point is probably something that Celtic should be looking at domestically too.
