After the pain of another Champions League near miss Matt O’Riley had another difficult assignment last night- explaining Celtic’s European exit to BT Sport viewers.
The midfielder was analysing matches against Real Madrid, RB Leipzig and Shakhtar Donetsk, a year ago he was inbetween fixtures against Rotherham and Aston Villa’s u-21 side.
Celtic’s ‘fine margin’ European exit is difficult to assess for seasoned viewers but put to a 21-year-old Londoner in his 10th month at the club is a whole new concept.
O’Riley is however a smart operator and managed to touch on the factors that seem to make the ball run against Ange Postecoglou’s side when they step up to face the best teams in Europe.
Anxiety isn’t a word often heard in football interviews but it was one of the reasons put forward by the midfielder as he instantly reflected on the draw with Shakhtar.
We’ll try to be back next year with a bit more ruthless in front of goal. I had a chance towards the end that I put past the post. To be honest if that was in the Scottish league I reckon we’d score them. Maybe there’s a bit more anxiety.
There’s a lot to learn but we’ll go back to the training ground to make sure we are more ruthless because our finishing, our passing, everything has to be sharper when you transition to this level. You saw it in the Real Madrid game, they get one chance and they punish you. We had more chances than Shakhtar again. They obviously had one massive one they missed, but we had plenty to punish them.
It was a disappointing Champions League campaign, especially given some of the football we’ve played. I’m gutted for our fans, they turn up every single time and make crazy amounts of noise. Next year we will have learned a lot from this and be in a better place for sure.
Tiredness could also be a factor with last night O’Riley’s eight match of the month with the former MK Dons man in the Starting XI for every match.
