Shakhtar Donetsk boss Igor Jovicevic has labelled his team's trip to Celtic Park as the joint-greatest atmosphere he has ever experienced - ranking alongside a crowd which saw double the amount of fans that were at Parkhead on Tuesday.
Jovicevic grew up in the Real Madrid Castilla ranks, and played in a friendly match for Los Blancos at Benfica - where a crowd of 120,000 packed into the Estadio Da Luz to see their side take on the Spanish giants. For many, nothing would ever come close to replicating the sheer amount of noise that would form in a cauldron such as Benfica's old ground.
But Jovicevic, who became Shakhtar manager in July, has showered praise on the Parkhead faithful for building such an "incredible" atmosphere which he told reporters was "the most intense" he has ever experienced in his life - alongside claiming that the current Celtic side was the best it had ever been since the Martin O'Neill era.
"Our young team did not give up in the incredible atmosphere at Celtic which was the most intense I have ever felt as a manager. It was the same noise as when I made my debut for Real Madrid, I played a friendly match against Benfica in front of 120,000 people," he said.
"There really was an unprecedented atmosphere in Glasgow, we couldn't hear each other on the bench because of the noise. You rarely see such fanaticism of fans these days. We are really a very young team, we have no experience when it comes to playing in such circumstances - and we reduced Celtic to two chances. They score five or six goals every week in the Scottish championship. And they have their best team in the last twenty years.
"We could have won, but the point is phenomenal because it secured the Europa League in the spring. I have to say how good it was when we managed to calm down the Celtic fans with our game in Glasgow. It was a great feeling when we were keeping possession of the ball. And when we scored a goal, everything turned into silence, which gave us additional motivation - we all felt 'that's it.'
"At the end of the game, the Celtic fans applauded us off the pitch. You know what the Scots are like - good, honest fans. It was a really great gesture."
