There’s not that many positives Celtic fans can take from last night’s 6-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
The loss effectively ended any hopes that Brendan Rodgers had of making the last 16 of the tournament but nonetheless, it was still an embarrassing result all the same.
You would be hard-pressed to pick out a player who did shine last night as the whole team just didn’t get going.
However, former England international, Stuart Pearce, picked out one player he said played well just as Atletico knocked in their fifth goal last night.
Pearce said [Talksport], “Yeah, this result will be very hurtful to them. There’s no doubt about that.
“They’ve had a real chasing today, five goals have hit the back of the net and on top of that, a couple of woodworks have been rattled.
“And Joe Hart, you wouldn’t say that he’s had a bad game would you really? You know on top of that he’s made a couple of saves that have kept his team sort of, well, semi-afloat.”
Celtic had no standout players vs Atletico last night
I’ve got to say, I’m not buying that. I thought Hart was seriously suspect at the build-up to Atletico’s first goal.
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The 36-year-old was in a great position to catch a cross but instead, he fluffed his punch which then led to the ball being spread out wide only for Callum McGregor who then miscued his header trying to clear it straight to Antoine Griezmann.
I thought he was caught out of position for Atletico’s fourth and for their sixth goal he was halfway inside the net.
Now before anyone thinks that I am blaming Hart for the loss I absolutely am not. But his performance, like many in the team, needs to be looked at before any plaudits are dished out.
In other news, Diego Simeone shares what he ‘saw’ about Daizen Maeda’s red card for Celtic