Celtic reaction: Champions League grim realities as fans suffer draconian treatment in Bernabeu building site amid security crackdown

There was more than the 5-1 thumping by Real Madrid that Celtic supporters in attendance at the Bernabeu had to be rueful over.

Grim realities amid Champions League hope

Ange Postecoglou could well be right that Celtic will eventually make an impact in the Champions League domain playing his expansive, enterprising football. Their performance levels throughout the campaign have ensured they have generally not looked out of place…though they were patently outplayed in their Bernabeu bashing last night. Overall, though, it wasn’t an entirely fair reflection of their efforts to have claimed only two points and scored only four goals. Yet the bottom line is that Postecoglou will have to tip all manner of numbers in a different direction to make good on his convictions.

He has presided over Celtic’s lowest points total across the club’s 11 Champions League campaigns. Only pointless Rangers and Viktoria Plzen were worse off than them for result returns among the 32 group participants - and that pair were involved in a death match to avoid being the poorest performers in the history of the competition. Celtic have now won only six of 20 European encounters under Postecoglou. And for all that the match-ups with Real Madrid, Leipzig and Shakhtar Dontesk were thrill rides, three goals from 76 goal attempts is awful. Moreover, Celtic were the only team in Group F not to take anything from Madrid. Indeed, Carlo Ancelotti’s men scored more than half of their entire group goal haul - eight - against the Scottish champions. The positive take on Celtic’s excursions in the competition aren’t spin, but they can’t spin out of it next year in the same fashion for all they entertained.

Ange Postecoglou doesn't need to change his team's flair but the figures they have been producing at the highest level to make a Champions League impact.(Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Yelping sniffer dogs in incredible security crackdown

The security measures in place for Celtic supporters entering the stadium were more draconian than any I have witnessed in 50 years attending football matches. Full body searches, sniffer dogs, the full works. Security staff even removed shoes and checked between sole and insole. I saw one supporter have his shorts pulled open, before they then looked inside his pants because a sniffer dog was going berzerk and motioning in the direction of his genitalia. He was then thrown out of the search area into the street - and I mean literally, thrown.

It can only be presumed they discovered something illicit. Supporters who made it inside the Bernabeu, though, told tales of being stared down menacingly throughout the game by police and security…as if being willed to act out so that they could be pounced on. Fans were checked four times going to their seats. They were checked going into, and coming out of, the toilets. They had their tickets checked even on leaving. Many found the treatment so oppressive they left shortly after half-time. The scoreline might have played a part, too, mind you…The one plus in it all is that there is no chance of Celtic earning a UEFA fine this time around for any pyrotechnics. Lucky if one of their punters was able to even light a match, or secrete it through a genuine ‘ring of steel’.

Building site Bernabeu

It must be said that the souvenir from one of the most storied football cauldron’s in world football wasn’t welcome. The on-going one billion redevelopment of the Bernabeu remains a year off completion and there was a constant reminder of that in the media areas: dust. It seemed to get everywhere as Celtic hopes of a sparkling finale to their group campaign turned into it.