Although Bayer Leverkusen won 4-0 against Celtic Glasgow, the matchwinner was the keeper. Lukas Hradecky kept his eleven in the game with great saves and blamed it on a special experience.
After such a long time without a full house at football stadiums, it can be daunting to enter the packed Celtic Park. It starts with the pre-match sounds of “You’ll never walk alone” and continues with whipping cheers from the Scottish fans as the game gets underway. Bayer Leverkusen, however, were not impressed by this on Thursday evening – one in particular: Lukas Hradecky.
The Werkself goalkeeper was a guarantor for the 4-0 away win at Celtic Glasgow with his saves. “What gave me the most pleasure was playing in front of a full crowd,” Hradecky told the RTL microphone after the game. “Maybe that brought out the best in me,” speculated the Bayer captain, grinning broadly. In any case, Hradecky was not to be defeated by the opponent.
Hradecky’s saves at the right time
Aparticularly in the decisive phases, Hradecky also showed his most important and strongest saves. A few minutes before the opening goal, the keeper stopped with his foot (19th) and hand (20th) and was also Bayers rock in Celtic’s attacking waves after the restart. Twice, Hradecky was in the air and scraped good attempts from the home side off his goal line. “Those were important moments that we didn’t feel that energy of the whole stadium,” Hradecky underlined the importance of his saves.
These were namely again immediately before a Bayer goal, this time the 3:0 by Lucas Alario via foul penalty. “After the third goal, everything was then under control,” recognised not only Hradecky, but also the Celtic players, who did not seriously challenge the goalkeeper after that. So the Finn could continue to enjoy the game and especially the atmosphere: “It was one of my top 3 experiences in European football.” So for the keeper, the football temple also known as “Paradise” was literally paradise that evening.
For a beer with Wirtz?
The keeper did not reveal which two experiences rank first and second in Hradecky’s internal ranking, but he did reveal something else: After Hradecky offered his team-mate Florian Wirtz a beer after Wirtz’s record-breaking goal against Mainz, Wirtz “went home pretty quickly the last time”. But Hradecky has not yet given up hope of sharing a victory drink and added: “Maybe today in the hotel.