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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark Donlon

WATCH: Jota stunner provides light for Celtic at end of Champions League campaign

Celtic striker Jota showed once again why he is wanted all across Europe as his stunning free-kick registered a consolation goal for the Bhoys in their 5-1 defeat against Real Madrid.

Ange Postecoglou's side have endured a wretched campaign in Europe's premier competition this year, and tonight was no different as it got off to the worst possible start.

After just six minutes, Moritz Jenz was whistled in the box for handball.

READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus insists he hasn't picked Jason Jenkins for the Boks for his Ireland insights

Luka Modric stepped up and tucked away the resulting spot kick, and Real were 1-0 up at home with relative ease despite Celtic's positive start.

It got worse just minutes later as the VAR asked the referee to review a potential handball offence by Matt O'Riley in the box.

After the award of another penalty, it was then Rodrygo's turn to dispatch of the dead ball into the corner to double the home side's lead.

Celtic's Joe Hart had the job of trying to save both of those efforts, and after seeing the spot-kicks controversially awarded and then scored, the Celtic stopper was not overly impressed.

He said: ""I don't think either them intentionally used their hands, I think that goes without saying.

"Matt said his hands were inside his body and it hit him, what do they want to do, chop his arms off?

"Obviously Mo slightly misjudges one and it hits his hand.

"I am not going to sit here and moan about penalties, we have been beat 5-1 by a very good team, but that does set the tone. But we got a penalty and missed it, so there you go."

And the horror show continued for Celtic as they then conspired to win a penalty thesmelves - only to see Josip Juranovic miss it.

Second half strikes from Marco Asensio, Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde further asserted Real's dominance and the game looked to be fizzling out altogether but Jota had other ideas as he lined up a free-kick six minutes from time.

With the game over as a contest, it appeared to be an inconsequential moment in the game before the Portuguese star slowly ambled up to the ball and curled a beautiful effort over the wall and to the right of scrambling Real 'keeper Thibaut Courtois.

It was a wonderful effort which will have impressed not just the travelling support from Glasgow but also the home faithful who were stunned as the ball sailed into the back of the net.

Jota wheeled away in celebration despite the overbearing deficit remaining on the scoreboard - but some fans on Twitter believed he was pleased to have scored in such an iconic arena.

One fan said: "Not many folk score a free kick against the best club and probably one of the best keepers in [the] world in such an iconic stadium!

"That has probably bagged him a WC [World Cup] place."

While another said: "Portuguese scoring in Madrid must be a magical feeling."

There were other observers who believed the young star's goal would put him in the shop window for a move away from the Bhoys.

One user wrote: "Just bagged himself a big move."

While another was along the same lines, saying: "Looked to me that he was trying to put himself on show, but he did more in the time he was on than any of the others did."

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