Paulo Bernardo spent much of the summer waiting for his transfer to Celtic to be finalised. He spent last season on loan with the Scottish Premiership club, and the contract included an option to buy him permanently from Benfica.
However, Celtic wanted to pay quite a bit less than the option they’d previously agreed, so weeks of talks followed. For Benfica, it was important to secure a good percentage on a future sale, and negotiations regarding that dragged on somewhat.
The 22-year-old has already made four appearances for Brendan Rodgers’ side so far this season, and he’s currently away with the Portugal U21 squad.
On Tuesday they face Croatia away in Euro U21 qualifying, having beaten them 5-1 in the home game earlier this year. Portugal top their group, but if Croatia win then they’ll snap that position away.
The Celtic player is therefore expecting a much more difficult experience than the last match.
Portuguese newspaper Record quote Bernardo as saying: “It will be a good football match, in which both teams will want to win. We know that, because we are playing away, the Croatian team has made a lot of changes and has a new coach, it will be a different game and probably much more difficult. I think they will be a little more aggressive than they were in Faro, but we have to win the game and we will do our best to achieve that.
“We have been improving. The team has changed since the last European Championship and the first games are always more difficult because the players don’t have a routine. We can only improve and we will already give a positive response in this next game.”
Celtic fans will hope the Croatian youngsters aren’t too aggressive, they’d like Paulo Bernardo back in one piece.
