Palma uses three words to describe Bernardo after his goal during Celtic’s win

It has taken Paulo Bernardo time to settle in at Celtic, but in recent weeks, he has started to step up and prove his worth.

Those back-to-back defeats hurt Celtic’s morale, but it brought Paulo Bernardo into the XI and he has now scored in back-to-back games, including the 2-1 win over Rangers.

The 21-year-old showcased top-quality technique with his pin-point finish following a corner, as that goal opened the door for Celtic to make use of their strong start yesterday.

Before the game, many were calling for Reo Hatate to start following his return from injury, but Brendan Rodgers rightfully stuck with the on-loan Benfica man.

It would have been easy to hand Reo Hatate the start because he had been back in training for a while, plus some thought the Japan star, at less than 100%, was better than Paulo Bernardo.

Well, he proved those doubters wrong and has earned himself yet another start ahead of the clash against St Mirren on Tuesday night.

After the win over Rangers, Paulo Bernardo took to Instagram to express his delight as he labelled the atmosphere as ‘amazing’.

In the comments section of his post, Luis Palma wrote ‘what a player’, whilst Celtic-linked Tiago Araujo added ‘You scored a goal’.

Paulo Bernardo growing at Celtic

With some of these players, patience is needed because the quality is there it’s just a case of going through this difficult first phase.

Bernardo falls right into that camp, especially for a player who is only 21 and playing under the intense pressure he finds himself in.

Plus, it also needs to be noted that he hasn’t exactly been starting regularly.

Instead, the starts have been stop-start, which haven’t allowed him to get his engine going and prove his worth to the Celtic crowd like he would want. But now that’s changing.