Liam Scales has revealed how his 'nightmare' encounter with Cristiano Ronaldo has prepared him for Celtic's return to the Champions League.
HE may be the grand old age of 39 now and approaching the end of what has been an utterly remarkable career.
Scales now realises that the difference between success and failure can be just millimetres when he is competing with the best players on the planet - and understands that he still has improvements to make in his game if he is to excel against world-class rivals after going toe-to-toe with “CR7” for 90 minutes.
“It was their farewell match before the Euros and it was our last game before going on a break. You are already expecting that they will be right at it and they were. Ronaldo was quality. It was just his game intelligence that stood out, along with the goals he scored. “I have played against good players and teams in the Champions League, but you just felt they were in sync. I was surprised they didn’t blow teams away at the Euros.”He continued: “That experience has definitely made me hungrier and it’s shown I need to work harder. I went into that game thinking it would be a good challenge, but it was a level above what I have played against before. So it showed me that there are levels to go up.
“For his second goal against us, the ball came in from our right and he has sprinted towards goal, so I have dropped into the six-yard box. He has then stopped dead and that has created space for the player to find him with cutback.
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