Well, after months of waiting it finally happened for Celtic midfielder, Matt O’Riley. He was eventually handed his debut for Denmark against Northern Ireland last night.
The Hoops midfielder has been on the cusp of winning his first cap for a while now and, for a time, it was thought that Norway could nick in and steal him.
But last night, he pulled on the red and white jersey of the Danes and despite going down to a 2-0 loss, O’Riley enjoyed a pretty solid debut.
O’Riley played 61 minutes at Windsor Park against a side ranked 75 in the world and performed very well. Getting 41 touches and completing 24 out of 29 passes, O’Riley enjoyed a passing accuracy of 83% as he played the number ten role for the Danes.
Fotmob gave the Celtic midfielder an overall rating of 6.6 despite O’Riley winning all of his ground and aerial duels, making one interception, completing three defensive actions and making two ball recoveries.
O’Riley tried to make himself a danger in the Northern Ireland final third but could only manage one pass into the danger area and four touches in the Irish penalty box.
Overall it was a pretty solid debut and he will have done his chances no harm of being selected for the Denmark squad for next summer’s Euros in Germany.
O’Riley is now starting to show his quality internationally and it is no surprise to me or to the Celtic fans that he looked so comfortable last night.
With another international break due early next year, O’Riley will undoubtedly get another chance to impress Denmark boss, Kasper Hjulmand.
And who knows, he could end up facing Callum McGregor after the Danes were put into pot two and Scotland into pot three for the big summer tournament.
In other news, ‘Best midfielder in Scotland’… Peter Martin says Celtic have a player who’s better than Matt O’Riley