Goal joy then despair for Celtic’s World Cup hopeful
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Heart of Midlothian - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 7, 2022 Celtic's Matt O'Riley celebrates scoring their third goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
There were very mixed emotions for Matt O’Riley today as Denmark lost out on a place at the u-21 European Championships to Croatia in a penalty shoot-out.
Trailing 2-1 from the first leg on Friday it was the Celtic midfielder that levelled the aggregate scores with a 10th minute header.
Morten Frendup put the Danes in front in the 19th minute but in the 65th minute O’Riley was substituted.
?? We’re going to extra time.
– I have no idea why Jesper Sørensen took off Matt O’Riley so early. Lost a lot of momentum after that substitution.#ForDanmark #U21EURO #DENCRO pic.twitter.com/eFT0MS6Npb
— Danish Football (@DanishFooty365) September 27, 2022
With six minutes left to play Croatia levelled the tie through Igor Matanovic with O’Riley powerless as the match went through extra-time with no further scoring.
Croatia took full advantage of their late reprieve to book a place in the 16 team finals event thanks to a 5-4 penalty shoot out victory. The finals will be staged in May by Romania and Georgia.
The bigger picture for O’Riley is whether he can force a place into the World Cup squad, with four Champions League matches coming up for Celtic he has a platform for a late push to impress coach Kasper Hjulmand.
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