Real Madrid 5-1 Celtic: 'Hungry European champions teach Scots savage lesson'
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Celtic's resistance lasted until the sixth minute when Luka Modric converted from the spot
No wonder Real Madrid fans expressed an excitement bordering on ecstasy when the news came through this week that Vinicius Junior had signed a new deal that will keep him at the Bernabeu for another five years at a cool £8.6m a year.
The outpouring of joy was untrammelled - and no wonder. He might hail from Rio de Janeiro state, on Guanabara Bay, but he's a Madrid boy now.
Age 22, he's left his impoverished upbringing behind. He plays with a relentless joy that disguises some of the racism that is directed at him in Spain. He rises above it and lights up most grounds he plays in. This one most of all.
Having missed a sitter in the first half against Celtic, Vinicius Junior eventually scored later on, planting Federico Valverde's cross past Joe Hart. It was Real's fourth, a just reward for all the work he'd put in. Not a lot went his way for much of the night, but he was an unending menace all the same, a player who must be a living nightmare to defend against.
He has company in that, of course. Luka Modric was effortlessly excellent. Toni Kroos was a rock. Valverde, the 24-year-old Uruguayan, gave further ballast to the recent claim by Modric that the he is "top three in the world".
One of the great wonders of this Champions League is that the bookmakers made Real fifth in the betting to retain their title. Or did. It's a lunacy.
True, they built their lead with two penalties in the first 21 minutes, both of them correct decisions but also unfortunate. No Real player was scythed down in their creation. One was a handball by Moritz Jenz, the other an elbow-ball by Matt O'Riley.
Whatever physical and psychological work Ange Postecoglou would have done in the build-up was immediately compromised, all the more so when Josip Juranovic missed from the spot himself when it was still 2-0.
Looking down from the Gods at the Bernabeu, Thibaut Courtois suddenly looked like the size of a house, a towering presence in goal. He's 6ft 7in. He looked eight foot. Juranovic's main hope was to send him the wrong way. He didn't. Once Courtois read his intentions, the Croat was in all sorts of trouble.
Add that one to the pile of missed opportunities in this campaign. The final score was emphatic but, once again, Celtic contributed something to the contest.
Wastefulness didn't cost them a result - Real could and probably should have scored a few more - but it certainly added to their frustration. Jota's superb late free-kick gave them a crumb. The Portuguese should really have played from the start, not that it would have much difference to the bottom line.
'Same sport but alien territory for Celtic'
In a stadium that's a construction site, on a pitch still showing the scorch marks of the extreme heat of August, Celtic's Champions League story ended as it started. There was no plot-twist at the finish, no dramatic flourish to round it all off.
It was another tale of decent chances missed and severe punishment exacted. In a footballing paradise, they lost again.
When they conclude the revamp work at the Bernabeu, it's going to be so space-age they might think about launching rockets from the halfway line. There's going to a retractable roof and a mechanism that allows the pitch to be stored underground.
The ground will literally be able to open up and swallow the opposition. How many visiting teams in the past wished that option was available to them. There will be many more in the future. In the here and now, it was Celtic's turn to suffer.
Postecoglou 'disappointed players didn't get rewards'
In one sense, this is the same sport they play in Scotland, but in many other ways it's alien territory. They're rarely punished for any profligacy in the Premiership. But in the Champions League? In Madrid? Against the champions angered by a loss last week to RB Leipzig and a draw on Sunday against Girona? Forget it.
This Real team looks hungry. An audit of the winners medals of their starting XI shows more silverware than any club on earth. One World Cup, two English Premier Leagues, 13 Bundesligas, 20 World Club Cups, 24 La Ligas and 26 Champions Leagues - and that's not counting domestic cups, Europa Leagues and other baubles. They are a winning machine.
Valverde doesn't necessarily spring to mind when talking about the finest footballers in Europe, but he unquestionably is. His shot brought about the first penalty, he was involved in the build-up to the third goal, scored the fourth and assisted on the fifth.
Since swinging in the cross that Vinicius tucked away to win the Champions League last season, Valverde has been a sensation. This was a player who failed to score in La Liga last season and who had only found the net six times in 148 games before the start of this season.
In the summer, Carlo Ancelotti made a fair old statement when he said that if he couldn't get a player of Valverde's excellence to score at least 10 goals a season then he was giving up management. Valverde is now on eight. The Real coach can rest easy. He'll still be in work for a while yet.
Trying to live with this was too much for Celtic. Even if they suddenly morphed into a ruthless goalscoring machine, the chances are that Real would still have found extra gears to motor away from them. That's what this team, in their stadium that will cost close to a billion euros when completed, are capable of.
Celtic did okay on the night and still conceded five. That's how savagely tough the Champions League is.
They'll retreat to Scotland where they will be kings again, lording it over most - if not all - sides they face. The big task for them now is to get back on this stage next time.
Postecoglou said Celtic have to be in this competition in order to progress. That's a tough school, but they'll be desperate to get back in the classroom. There's much to learn at the feet of the masters.
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