Arne Engels hopes fans from his own country will finally know who he is now after the Celtic star made his first ever start for Belgium.

The Hoops midfielder started as his country lost 1-0 to Italy in the Nations League and won plenty of praise for his performance before he was subbed off after 71 minutes.

Engels left his homeland to sign for Augsburg in Germany having only ever played for Club Brugge's second-string side Club NXT.

So he hopes the Belgian fans know all about him now.

He said: "I'm happy that I was able to show what I'm capable of.

"People may know me from my Champions League games with Celtic, but I've never played at the highest level in Belgium. So a lot of people here don't really know who I am.

"I hope that with this game I've shown what I can do.

"It was nice to be in the starting line-up for the first time. But of course, it's a shame we couldn't win.

"In the first half in particular, it was very difficult for us. It wasn't the performance we had hoped for. There was too little structure in our game, we lost the ball too easily, and Italy won most of the tackles. We played too anxiously.

"But the second half was better. We put more pressure on the Italian midfield and made it more difficult for them."
 

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"Everyone gave their best, but it wasn't enough. We have to learn lessons from this match for the future. The positive thing is that in the second half we were able to put pressure on a top team like Italy.

"There is still work to be done, but I believe that we can make progress as a team.

"For me personally, this was a learning experience, and I hope to be able to contribute even more to the team in the future."