As Tuesday went on, and Madrid’s Plaza Mayor filled with Celtic fans ahead of the match against Atletico Madrid, the coverage of the supporters grew.
At the first it was about the big security operation being launched to prevent any trouble, and then it was about Celtic fans being friendly. Near enough every time a curious Spaniard wanted to take a picture of the Celtic masses, so they wanted to do the reverse also, and that was quite endearing.
Of course, from an Atletico Madrid perspective, Celtic presenting Los Rojiblancos with the opportunity of a 6-0 victory was also welcomed.
One would expect the reaction of the Spanish newspapers, when it comes to Brendan Rodgers’ men, to be largely about them not really being very good on Tuesday evening, but a journalist for AS newspaper has it differently.
He’s compared Celtic’s players to the fighting spirit of William Wallace. Sure, there may be criticism elsewhere in Spain – and we can come to that later, but this AS column by P. Fuentenebro, says Celtic players never gave up, they never lowered their arms and they kept on fighting.
William Wallace is explained for a Spanish audience, with the assistance of Mel Gibson and Braveheart, and the column ends by saying ‘Celtic said goodbye to Europe like a warrior’.
