Jota plans to enjoy Real Madrid challenge after starring for Celtic against Rangers

Celtic attacker Jota intends to enjoy sharing the stage with Real Madrid when the sides meet in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The Portuguese winger starred and scored a memorable goal as Celtic thumped rivals Rangers 4-0 on Saturday, but the team now has to prepare to face the champions of Europe.

Carlo Ancelotti will bring his star-studded squad to Glasgow for the first match of the group stage, and present Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou and his players with their toughest test to date. Jota thinks it’s an occasion to be relished, though the team will take their duties seriously

He said: “I think once you start to play football, these are the moments you want to play, right?

“So these are the moments you record and one day, like in 15 years tell your kids that you played these games, that you enjoyed these moments. So this is all about enjoyment.

“People often say that ‘Oh,no, you have to be ready for this’ and it’s just they are so into the moment that they cannot enjoy.

“And I think we will enjoy, stay responsible and know what we have to do, but at the same time enjoy because it’s it’s very good to play these games.”

Celtic go into their European adventure having enjoyed an impressive start to domestic competition, progressing in the Premier Sports Cup and winning all six of their Premiership games to date, scoring 25 league goals and conceding just one.

Despite that, Jota says that the important thing is not to get carried away and continue to work to get better as a team.

He said: “People often think that confidence brings more confidence and more confidence.

“I think these are the times you just need to remain humble and stick to our principles because we know how hard it was to come to this place and to play this kind of football.

“So now we just need to understand, okay, just feet on the ground and we still have a lot of room to improve and we need to be better game after game.”