Due to Kyogo Furuhashi picking up a shoulder injury during the derby match at the weekend it meant that Giorgos Giakoumakis was given a chance to start against Real Madrid.
The Greek striker was subbed on early against Rangers and gave Connor Goldson a torrid time of it as he used his physical presence to pressure the defender.
Giakoumakis did himself no harm in the derby game and was given the nod to start against Real Madrid with it possibly being too much of a risk to start Kyogo.
The 27-year old put in some shift on Tuesday evening and continually kept putting pressure on the Madrid defence with both centre backs not looking too comfortable.
He was also dropping deep to win the ball which was very effective in the first-half.
It was always going to be difficult going toe-to-toe with the current European champions but Giakoumakis like his other teammates did themselves proud.
John Hartson knows all about leading the line in Europe for Celtic and heaped praise on the big Greek forward after his performance.
“Sometimes when you don’t get big chances in a game, you’ve got to close people down, make sure you win fouls up the pitch, take the team up the pitch, all these other things,” said John Hartson speaking to The Go Radio Football show.
“When you’re not getting chances you won’t be happy. Not a real chance came his way but he did all the other dirty stuff that centre forwards have to do. Especially when he’s up there on his own. You know, he’s up there against two quality centre-halves. I thought he did very well as well, Giakoumakis.”
It says a lot about Celtic’s current squad depth that a player of Kyogo’s quality can drop out but yet Giakoumakis comes in and doesn’t look out of place.
