Celtic vexed by Real Madrid penalties: 'What's he to do? Chop his arms off?'

Joe Hart has questioned the handball decisions that saw Celtic concede two early penalties in their 5-1 defeat to Real Madrid.

Both Moritz Jenz and Matt O'Riley were penalised in the fifth and 19th minutes after Madrid efforts on goal were inadvertently blocked by their arms with Luka Modric and Rodrygo converting the resultant spot-kicks to leave the Hoops with a mountain to climb.

Celtic were also awarded a penalty at 2-0 down, which Josip Juranovic failed to convert, before the roof caved in after the break with Marco Asensio, Vinicius Junior and Frederico Valverde firing the hosts five goals up.

Jota netted a late consolation with a free-kick but it was the loss of the early penalties awarded by referee Stephanie Frappart with the help of VAR which frustrated Celtic goalkeeper Hart.

Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart is beaten as Marco Asensio puts Real Madrid three goals ahead at the Bernabeu. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

"It's never good to concede two such soft penalties early on," the former England stopper told BT Sport.

"I don't know about the penalties. I don't think either of the lads intentionally used their hand.

"It happened so quickly. Matt says his hand was inside his body and it hit him.

"What's he to do? Chop his arms off?

"I won't moan about penalties because it was 5-1 against a very good team - but the two penalties set the tone. And we missed our penalty.

"I thought the first half was fairly even. We had some chances and big Thibaut Courtois had a good game.

"It's an uphill struggle playing against the champions of Europe but we came to represent the club, put the best foot forward and tried to attack.

"If you leave holes, they are ruthless. I haven't had to do much apart from fish the ball out of the net five times, which is never nice.

"We try to put ourselves at the highest level, we put ourselves on the front foot and we don't make any secrets of that.

"We want to be back in this competition and turn the maybes into things that go our way.

"If we can get back in again, we will try to show that.

"Trust me, we will spend every single day working hard on all three domestic fronts."