Callum McGregor marvels at Atalanta display as Celtic skipper insists they didn't just earn a point on Bergamo

Celtic picked up a priceless point in Italy on Wednesday night but Callum McGregor knew it was just as important to make one as well.

The Hoops were badly wounded by that infamous evening on the Rhine a few weeks ago. They headed to Dortmund bursting with hope and enthusiasm – convinced they were about to finally give one of the big boys a bloody nose. Instead they ended up flat on their faces. Borussia were ruthless and the seven-goal savaging left Celts severely embarrassed.

McGregor knew it was a bad night. But he always felt it wasn’t a true reflection of this Celtic side. He was also well aware they had to prove it against Atalanta and the battered pride needed to be restored. The Hoops rebuilt their reputations with a superb defensive display in Bergamo and the skipper admitted it was exactly what they needed. McGregor said: “When you represent such a big club like this and you have a result like that, it hurts and it stays with you and all these things where you feel pride to try to put it right for yourself and your teammates and then the supporters as well.

“We came out the back of that game and we never showed ourselves in a good light but it was important against Atalanta that we showed we don’t want to talk, we want to be a team that does the talking on the pitch. It was hugely important, I think. Probably more for ourselves, to be honest. People say what they want to write and we don’t really have a lot of control over that other than the performances that we put in.

“If you don’t perform well, people are going to criticise you, that’s just the nature of the business. But for us we came off the game against Dortmund and we just never did ourselves justice. The boys were low and they were low because they