Man of the Match Liam Scales delighted with Champions League victory

On a night when every player in green and white Hoops produced a superb performance, it was Liam Scales who picked up the Man of the Match award for his contribution to Celtic’s 5-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava.

The emphatic win on matchday one of the UEFA Champions League was started by Scales’ first-half goal – a header from an Arne Engels corner – and the Irishman was delighted to play his part in a special night at Paradise.

Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, Scales said: “It was a brilliant three points. That’s what we really wanted and we wanted to start off the campaign like that.

“For my goal, the ball was perfect from Arne. He’s put it right in the area that we were told to attack, so all I had to do was stick my big head on it and hopefully it would go in and it did!

“It was a perfect ball, I’ve met it well and I’m happy it went in.

“And the atmosphere was amazing. I experienced it last year but it keeps getting better.

"It gave us the motivation to do what we did, and I think that once we played ourselves into the game, the fans got behind us every second and I thought it was brilliant.”

And on his Man of the Match award, Scales added: “Obviously the team comes first and overall it was a brilliant team performance, but on a personal level it’s lovely to win that and I just want to keep going the way I’m going really.

“We have to recover now and get ready for the game against Falkirk.

"We know it’s a different challenge and we’ll have played three competitions in a week, so hopefully we can get the three wins. That’s the plan.”