Michail Antonio admits he was told about the famous Celtic atmosphere but he was blown away by the noise of a reduced capacity.
18,500 supporters flocked to Parkhead as West Ham ran out 6-2 winners in a pre-season friendly against Ange Postecoglou's side yesterday afternoon.
It was the biggest attendance in Scottish football since before the pandemic and Antonio couldn't hear teammate Mark Noble due to the noise created by the returning Celtic support.
Former teammates had told the 31-year-old that Celtic Park was the best atmosphere in the world and Antonio was grateful to experience the noise in the stadium - even if it wasn't full.
Antonio said: “Especially at the start of the game, they were making a lot of noise.
“I was standing a yard away from Nobes and Nobes was trying to speak to me and I couldn’t hear him, and that’s only with 18,000, so imagine if this place was full!
“I’ve talked to a few people who played here and they said the atmosphere was the best they’ve ever played in so, although I’ve not experienced that, it was great to experience it anyway.”
Antonio bagged a brace during an impressive individual performance as the Premier League Hammers ran out comfortable winners against an inexperienced Celtic side.
Despite West Ham's emphatic victory, Antonio praised Celtic for their style of football, adding: "Celtic are a quality team and they’ve shown today they play good football, but we’ve come out and played well and scored goals.
“The goals were decent and hopefully I can carry it on into the season. Obviously scoring goals in pre-season is good to help you bring it into the season, but the most important thing is doing it in the Premier League, doing it in the Europa League and doing it when it actually matters.
“Pre-season is warm-up for the season so if you can do it in pre-season then you can do it in the season.
"So it’s always better to go out there and give it your all, get your fitness and make sure you perform, because obviously sometimes managers take performances in pre-season to decide if you’re going to start the first game of the season.”
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