Carl Starfelt dropped out of the Celtic starting XI yesterday with Cameron Carter-Vickers returning to the centre of the Celtic defence playing alongside Moritz Jenz as Celtic eventually got the better of Dundee United, despite the best efforts of that cunning, dastardly VAR official Nick Walsh (what’s he like, eh?)
The Sweden international defender stepped in for the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in midweek as Celtic’s Champions League campaign came to an end with a 5-1 defeat (again VAR assisted) to the Champions of Europe, Real Madrid.
Other than his ‘needs-must’ appearance at the Bernabeu, Starfelt ended up watching the rest of Celtic’s campaign, in disbelief that so many chances were being missed and so few points gathered despite the quality of Celtic’s football in the campaign.
Starfelt had just returned from his summer hamstring injury picked up playing for Sweden in June, he was slowly working his way back to full fitness, even scoring his first goals for the club, then just as thoughts were turning to the visit of Real Madrid in the opening match of the Champions League, with the game already won against theRangers with Celtic well ahead (4-0) Starfelt’s bad luck with injuries continued, this time with his knee.
“That was my first Champions League game. The timing of my injury was awful because I basically missed a full Champions League campaign,” he said after the match in Madrid during the week, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“I got injured three days before the first Champions League game against Real Madrid, in the game against (the)Rangers. That was a really hard moment for me personally. I had just come back from an injury and then came back and played three games. I scored two goals and got injured again. It was not a good time for me but these are the things you have to accept in football,” the Celtic defender said.
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“There is nothing we can do about it. I have been working really hard in the gym to get back as soon as possible and I am happy that I at least got to play one game. Even if it didn’t end so good.”
Starfelt certainly performed well in the Bernabeu, he wasn’t at fault in ay way in the play leading any of three Real Madrid goals, all scored after two ridiculous penalty decisions that are perfect examples of why the hand ball rule needs to be re-thought, and very quickly. Any contact at all with the arm and it’s a penalty seems to be the way it’s going (‘unless we are playing hearts away’ Ange Postecoglou said yesterday after yet another example of this went against Celtic).
In the transfer window Postecoglou will have to look out for defenders with eyes in the back of their heads and preferably with no arms and if this rule is being applied across football it is going to waste the game.
On his own fitness battles, Starfelt opened up on his difficult season so far struggling to get back to 100% fully fit, which he reckons will be the case when play resumes after the World Cup break.
“I’ve been working so hard for this moment against Real. We are really disappointed with the result. I think we could at least have made it a little bit closer. It is what it is. But I feel pretty good now. Physically I’m not 100 per cent fit. I felt that when I played and I have some way to go until I am 100 per cent fit.
“After the World Cup break you will see me playing my best football and feeling 100 per cent. It was a tough game to come back from injury. They were a really good team. But I am really happy to be back. I’ve been working hard to get back to playing games for two months and I am happy to be back on the field. My body felt better than I thought, so that is a positive.”
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Watching Real Madrid at Celtic Park and then playing against them in the Bernabeu, has given Starfelt a real appreciation of just how good a side the European Champions are. “They are such a good team. They start the game with quality players — and then they bring on Karim Benzema. It’s not what you want to see. But you have to give credit to them, especially when you see the quality of the goals,” the Celtic star stated.
Yet the failings of his own teammates in front of goal couldn’t be ignored and Starfelt revealed a frank assessment from within the dressing room that the players reckoned that they had messed up and should have been good enough to qualify for the knockout rounds, never mind going out of Europe altogether as the bottom side in Group F. Starfelt identified the key match where the tide turned against Celtic.
“We didn’t really take our chances, either, which has been a little bit characteristic for our Champions League games this year. We have learned a lot from it and it’s important to get experience of the Champions League,” he admitted. “We need to play in these games because we don’t get that exposure so often when we face Scottish teams. It’s very good for us to get these games and hopefully we will win the league now and play again next season.
“We should be really disappointed with the results in this campaign. After the first game we felt we could have gone through. We played Shakhtar and we should have won that game. If we had done that then everything looks different. But you can see that what we are doing works in some areas of the game.
“We went there and tried to play our football and we have to learn something from this.
“Now all my focus is on domestic football. There is a lot of football to be played after the World Cup. I am looking forward to being part of it.”
READ THIS FROM DAVID POTTER…VAR referee Nick Walsh’s ludicrous penalty a sad moment for Scottish football
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