How Celtic hero Matt O’Riley fared for Marseille against Real Madrid, as Jamie Carragher fumes

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At least someone with a Celtic connection is playing Champions League football this term.

Celtic hero Matt O’Riley returned to Europe’s greatest stage when he featured for Marseille during their 2-1 defeat against Real Madrid on the opening night of the Champions League on Tuesday.

This is where it’s probably a kick in the teeth for Celtic, because reality will start to hit as to how much of a wreckage job they did of that Kairat Almaty performance, and everything that surrounded it.

But whilst Brendan Rodgers’ side won’t be featuring in this season’s edition of the Champions League, one of their former players, O’Riley, was dancing with the ball at the Santiago Bernabeu against Madrid, and it all ended in controversy.

• READ MORE: Matt O’Riley shares the one big difference between Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou at Celtic

How Celtic hero Matt O’Riley fared against Real Madrid

Celtic supporters saw, week in and week out, O’Riley carry the ball with ease and prove to be one of the club’s best players during the last 25 years.

It would be no surprise to hear that O’Riley, despite Marseille losing the game in questionable circumstances, looked comfortable on the ball in Madrid, and earned himself a rating of just below seven by WhoScored during his hour on the pitch.

• Minutes played: 66
• Shots: 1
• Passes: 30
• Passing accuracy: 83.3%
• Key Passes: 3
• Accurate Long Balls: 4
• Dribbles: 1
• Touches: 40
• Interceptions: 1
• Clearances: 1
• Total tackles: 2
• WhoScored rating: 6.85

What was the controversy?

Both of Madrid’s goals came via penalties. Scored by Kylian Mbappe. Nobody is going to dispute the first one in the first half. Geoffrey Kondogbia clearly cleaned out Rodrygo.

But Jamie Carragher, speaking on CBS Sports, was left pretty impressed at ten-man Madrid, who just had Dani Carvajal sent off, being awarded a penalty with less than ten minutes on the clock for handball.

Kilmarnock were fuming at Celtic’s penalty award at the weekend, so it has been a bit of a theme recently.

But Marseille defender Facundo Medina was the man punished, with Carragher calling it ‘one of the worst calls I have seen.’

“You’re trying to hang on,” said Carragher. ‘You (Medina) produce a brilliant tackle against one of the best players in the world (Vinicius Junior), and the ball bounces up and it’s your hand.

“I actually think that might be one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen. I’m not trying to be dramatic. It’s an amazing piece of defending. His arm is by his body. There’s nothing he can do. What is he supposed to do?