‘Really?!’ – Thierry Henry criticises Celtic player for reaction during 5-1 loss at Real Madrid

Jason Soutar
Celtic winger Jota celebrates his goal

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was surprised to see Celtic winger Jota celebrate scoring a consolation goal against Real Madrid on Wednesday.

The Hoops were comprehensively beaten 5-1 by the European champions at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid converted two penalties on the night as Celtic right-back Josip Juranovic had his spot-kick saved by Thibaut Courtois.

Federico Valverde shone once again, scoring and assisting as the victory saw Los Blancos top their group ahead of RB Leipzig in second.

Jota came on in the 63rd minute with the score at 4-0.

19 minutes later with his side 5-0 down, the Portuguese winger scored a beautiful free-kick past the helpless Courtois.

Clearly overwhelmed with emotion, the 23-year-old celebrated his goal despite the scoreline.

You could see how much it meant to him.

Jota may not get the chance to play in such a famous arena again, so it was a huge moment in his career.

Enter, Thierry Henry…

The former Arsenal striker was pretty surprised to see Jota celebrate his goal, but did recognise that it was at the Bernabeu against the mighty Madrid.

“It was a magnificent free-kick from Jota,” Henry’s CBS Sports colleague Micah Richards said. “The way he takes it. Then he goes off and celebrates after, even though they are 5-0 down.

“But let’s have a look at the wall. It’s absolutely disastrous. What are they doing?!”

Henry added: “But Jota celebrated that goal. Really?! Oooh, I mean. That’s true (scoring at the Bernabeu). But it’s 5-0.”

Despite the poor result, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou was able to take plenty of positives.

“Firstly, credit to Real Madrid, they are a fantastic football team,” he said.

“They have got quality all through their side and when they get the ball moving they are difficult to stop.

“We got two penalties against us early, although we created chances ourselves – the way the campaign has gone.

“To be fair the boys still dug in and at 2-0 we get our penalty. Instead of 2-1, not that it will change potentially the outcome of the game, but it will just give us a bit of belief.

“Unfortunately we didn’t take our chances and you always felt when they go forward they have the quality to hurt you and that happened.

“Conversely at the other end we created some good opportunities and haven’t managed to take them.

“I’m disappointed for our players and supporters that they didn’t get more joy out of the game but I can’t fault our players’ efforts and their endeavour, they gave everything.”

Postecoglou agreed that the game summed up a campaign which saw them take two points and finish bottom, after they were again punished for failing to capitalise on chances at crucial moments.

“Obviously you can’t take away from the fact they are a fantastic football team but we still came here and created a lot of opportunities, that I think other clubs would struggle to do,” he added.

“So there is still something in that for us but ultimately we have fallen short.

“We will need to make sure we understand the areas – and we do – that we have fallen short in and some of it is just experience. For our guys, all this is new.

“Our goal and ambition should be to be at Champions League level every year. I think you will find, if we do that, and show the same sort of intent and endeavour, we will start to make more of an impact.”

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