Tough, unforgiving, naivety- Chris Sutton nails it over Celtic’s Champions League farewell

Chris Sutton took in every kick of Celtic’s Champions League roller-coaster and emerged with his glass half full.

With no European football in the new year the task for Ange Postecoglou is to retain the SPFL title and be back again for next season’s competition.

In most circumstances a 5-1 defeat is not one to dwell on but playing the current champions of Europe on their home patch isn’t most circumstances.

Celtic and Real traded chances, the difference in finishing was obvious with the home side 5-0 up before Jota drilled home a brilliant consolation free-kick.

After his stint on BT Sport Sutton tweeted:

Tough night. Unforgiving but got to stick with it. You could say there is a naivety about this Celtic team when still throwing men forward at 3 and 4 nil down but that’s the Ange process and Celtic miss some huge chances… I think Celtic will be better for this experience

Ange Postecoglou will have plenty to reflect on as he looks back on the campaign.

There have been clear successes in Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley, Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers- whether the other can reach those levels remains to be seen.

With the experience of this season’s group the hope is that everyone comes back stronger but it is likely that there will be some departures next summer with no-one better placed than Postecoglou to judge the calibre of replacements.