Dutch door open for Petta

Bobby Petta has been in sparkling form for Celtic

Dutch coach Louis van Gaal has opened the door for Celtic's rejuvenated winger Bobby Petta to make a stunning breakthrough into the national squad.

The former Barcelona boss watched Petta destroy Dutch full-back Fernando Ricksen in the 6-2 demolition of arch-rivals Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday.

Van Gaal was also there to see Rangers duo Bert Konterman and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, but it was Petta who stole the show and left the national boss clearly impressed.

"The reason I came here was to watch the Dutch players and I liked the way Bobby Petta performed very much," admitted Van Gaal.

"He was a little bit forgotten in the Netherlands because, after always playing in the national under-16 and under-18 teams, he has never played for the senior side.

Excellent

"However, it is very good to see him doing so well for a big club like Celtic and he played an excellent game today.

"Every player has a chance to play for the national team and if Bobby is playing at this high level then he has a much better chance of playing for us.

"It would be difficult for any winger to come into our team because we have quality players Overmars and Zenden in that position, but if Bobby plays like this over several games he will open the door for himself.

Bobby Petta in action at Parkhead

"The other three Rangers players are in my usual selection and they played a little unfortunately.

"Giovanni van Bronckhorst did well, but Petta played Fernando Ricksen out of the game and Konterman had a very difficult match with Larsson and Sutton.

Impressed

"All I would say is that Bobby impressed me very much and I or one of my assistants will come back and watch him play again in the future."

Van Gaal was amazed by the whole occasion at Parkhead on Sunday and even claimed that the Old Firm clash was unrivalled anywhere in the world.

He has experienced the fantastic Barcelona v Real Madrid games and Feyenoord v Ajax battles, but was clearly in awe of the Glasgow showdown.

This was my first Old Firm match and I enjoyed it very much, both for the football and for the fantastic atmosphere in the stadium

  Louis van Gaal

Van Gaal told the Celtic View: "This was my first Old Firm match and I enjoyed it very much, both for the football and for the fantastic atmosphere in the stadium.

"I think that the ambience here is a little better than other arenas because the Celtic crowd is more enthusiastic.

"When you have a two-goal lead so early, I suppose that it is easy to be this way, but I know from what I have heard of the Glasgow supporters and what I saw today that they support their team even when they are losing.

"But in my opinion this is the biggest derby in the world not only because of the ambience of the crowd, but also because of the passion of the players.

"There was a lot of heart out on the pitch and the players fought very hard right up until the end of the match."