The Celtic midfielder was in top form against the Estonian champions.
Pundit and former Celtic star Pat Bonner felt Ryan Christie was the team’s man of the match “by a mile”, doing commentary for BBC Scotland on Wednesday night (24/07 live match page, 70 mins).
Christie’s super free-kick allowed Kristoffer Ajer to head home before he netted a penalty and scored again in the second half as the Hoops romped to a 5-0 win against Nomme Kalju.
Bonner rightly had high praise for his performance.
As quoted by BBC Scotland’s live match page (24/07, 20:49), the former goalkeeper said: “Celtic are on a different level to this team.
“The movement, the passing, they got their first goal at a good time and they’ve built on it.
“Young Ryan Christie was the man who set the tempo – when he gets the ball, when he loses the ball, he’s at it. His free-kick for the first goal was brilliant and his penalty – bang!”
The Scotland international has now scored three times and assisted twice in his last two matches, starting the 2019/20 season in spectacular fashion.
Fans were also left impressed by his Wednesday night display, with some even declaring that he could win this season’s player of the year awards.
There’s a long way to go before he can be considered for that but given his form over the last nine months or so, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.
This time last year Christie was in the same bracket as forgotten fringe players such as Scott Allan, who has since moved to Hibs, with barely any hope of getting into Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Clearly confident after loan spells at Aberdeen though, Christie persevered and separated himself from the bunch in the wider Celtic squad to get an opportunity in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.
Since then he’s been a revelation and arguably one of the club’s most important players.
If he can keep producing performances like Wednesday night’s, that reputation will only grow.
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