IT told you everything you needed to know about the imperious performance of midfield maestro Luka Modric in Real Madrid’s win over Celtic last week that when he was substituted off late on, Celtic Park rose as one to acclaim the Croatian master.
It’s not that the Celtic midfield played badly either, far from it, with Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley all impressive. But as the match wore on, Modric – who turned 37 on Friday - began to stamp his class on proceedings, hitting Madrid’s second goal on the night with a calm, outside of the boot finish, and effortlessly dictating the tempo of the game.
In fact, when compatriot Josip Juranovic caught up with him after the game, it was the first time anyone in green and white had managed to get close to him since the half-time whistle.
For his part, Modric was impressed by Celtic, particularly during that first half when they more than held their own against the European champions, and he had some words of wisdom to leave for Juranovic and his teammates as well as the lessons he dished out to them on the field of play.
“I spoke with him after the game,” Juranovic said. “He was telling me that the crowd was amazing and that we played good, first half especially, and that we need to continue like that.
“What can I say? He's captain of my national team, a really good person and you saw [on Tuesday night] that he's a really good player, too.
"[It was a game of] two halves. The first half we take it very serious, we have our chances, Callum (McGregor) hit the post unfortunately and then second half with Daizen (Maeda) we didn't score and of course, it's Real Madrid. If we have our chances and don't score they will have one and score from it immediately. "If we take the first half into our next games, there's much positive to take from that. We need to delete this second half [from our minds] because they didn't have full chances, it was like half-chances but they took them and we didn't - that's all.” Juranovic wasn’t sure just why Celtic had failed to make the most of those opportunities on Tuesday night, particularly as they have been so clinical this season so far, hitting 29 goals in just seven domestic matches so far this season.
The vast step up in level from those encounters is obvious, but doesn’t explain why Maeda, for instance, fluffed his lines when presented with a glorious opportunity from Juranovic’s cross just six yards from goal with time to pick his spot.
"It's not usual,” he said. “We gave everything to this match but we didn't take our chances.
“We need to look at the video and then we will talk with our manager and see what we need to do. “Our confidence is still really high.”
The same can be said for Celtic’s next opponents in the Champions League in the form of Shakhtar Donetsk, with the Ukrainians shocking RB Leipzig and most of Europe on matchday one of Group F by winning 4-1 in Germany.
"That's the Champions League,” Juranovic said. “Everybody is a good team and because of that we are there.”
It was a game that saw former Celtic fringe man Marian Shved hit a double, and a result that ultimately cost Domenico Tedesco his job, with RB Leipzig appointing former Borussia Dortmund manager Marco Rose in his stead later in the week.
Might that upset temper Celtic’s expectations rather when they travel to Warsaw to take on Shakhtar on neutral territory then, and make securing at least a draw the priority? Juranovic, who will be returning to his old stomping ground of the Stadion Wojska Polskiego, unsurprisingly disagrees. "Why a point?” he said. “We need to get three. That's for me the highest [priority].
"It’s back again to Warsaw for me. We need to prepare ourselves for it. Poland is now my third country, I am looking forward to going back and we need to take three points.”
Juranovic is hoping that the sell-out Celtic section will be boosted too by some of his old fans from his Legia Warsaw days coming out to back his new team.
"I think they will come because of me and maybe we will get three points!” he said. "Again we will have our fans with us, if not in the stadium then in our minds because of [the loss to Real Madrid] we need to give them something.
"We have had a really good start to the season and because of that our confidence is high, and especially after the first half [against Madrid]. If we continue like that then we can take some points. "We will fight for second place but if we perform like we did in the first half, then we don't need to be scared.” Meanwhile, Shakhtar Donetsk captain Taras Stepenenko has tipped former Celtic winger Shved to shine once more against his old side this week after his starring role in the win over Leipzig.
"Marian Shved showed everyone just what he is capable of,” Stepenenko said.
“Even before he won his transfer to Celtic, I knew how good he was because I played against him when he was with Karpaty Lviv.
"He has settled in brilliantly and who knows, maybe if he keeps playing like that he can get another big move to a club in Europe."
