Matt O'Riley insists Celtic 'almost felt like we won' after mind blowing full time fan reaction

Absence doesn’t just make the heart grow fonder. It makes the roar seem louder. Celtic Park shook on Tuesday night as the Champions League returned and the shuddering wall of noise was heard across the continent.

Matt O’Riley reckons Hoops fans showed they belong on the biggest stage – but he’s convinced the team did as well. Sure, it turned out rather predictable, with European royalty eventually slapping down the upstarts. But the kings certainly had a wobble on their thrones for a while, with Real Madrid's wily old gaffer Carlo Ancelotti confessing he was worried as his team was made to suffer in spells.

The sheer class came through in the end and it left Celts feeling deflated at what might have been. But O’Riley insisted Ange Postecoglou's quad proved they can cut it among the biggest of big boys. The playmaker will extract every ounce of belief from the performance and he said: “I think we will. We’ve proven we can compete at this level. There are fine margins, obviously. But the result doesn’t show that.

“I feel as though we were very in the game, we’ve just got to be a bit more ruthless. That’s what we’ve got to learn.”

Celtic fans are on board too. It said it all they stayed to the very end to salute their side on Tuesday and chant their manager’s name. Everyone is on board with Angeball.

O’Riley was blown away by the incredible passion from the stands that was noticed right across the continent. He’s determined to repay that support by learning the lessons from Madrid and putting them to practise against Shakhtar Donetsk next week and then in the double header with RB Leipzig.

The huge backing at the final whistle was evidence the supporters belief they can too. O’Riley said: “Of course it is. We don’t