Travelling to Spain to face the group leaders, who had yet to lose in the competition was expected to be a difficult task. However, the Celtic coaching staff were pleased with the team’s performance and the experience of playing in the UEFA Youth League, highlighting the value it will bring to the players' future development.

“We are really proud of every one of the boys," said O'Dea. "The feelings they had, even the feelings we had on the bench, it can take your breath away at times and it’s about hanging in there against top opposition.

'They hung in there and the goal we scored was fantastic. It was just disappointing we conceded again before half-time, otherwise we could have tried to adjust things.'

“The fact of the matter is, these boys are use to having 70-80% of possession most of the time and today it was the opposite.

“We’ve started some games really poorly but one thing they’ll never do is give up and stop trying to do the things we want them to do."

He added: “When you try to play in the style we’re trying to play in against a team of Real Madrid’s calibre, you’re essentially exposing yourself.

“Most teams will come here, sit behind the ball and hope that they get a set-play. We’ve tried to attack it in a different way and to ask the players to do that takes a lot of courage and bravery, and they did it for every minute of every game.

“The biggest thing for these boys is realism and I think they’ve seen that and felt it. The main takeaway from this is they go back and realise how hard it is to make it as a Celtic footballer.

“Now that I’ve experienced it as a coach, I realise how important this level of football is for our players.

Darren O’Dea: This level of football is vital for our players