Any Celtic fans who tuned in to Croatia’s match against Italy on Monday night to get a glimpse of a man touted to be their next goalkeeper may know all that they need to know about him already.

It looked for all the world that the Italians would be taking a first half lead when the ball was swung in towards the unmarked Alessandro Bastoni, but Croatian number one Dominik Livakovic produced a stunning reflex save from close range to somehow divert the ball up and over the bar to safety.

It was arguably the stop of the tournament so far, and as Croatian football expert Richard Wilson explains, a typical display of the Fenerbahce keeper’s most notable attributes.

“His main strength would be his reflex saves, and he has that knack of getting to shots that 90 percent of goalkeepers can’t get to,” Wilson said.

“It’s such a small difference between a good goalkeeper and a great goalkeeper at that level, and his reflexes have been shown to be among the true elite.”

READ MORE: The unseen Joe Hart influence that will live on at Celtic

With reports coming out of Turkey suggesting that Fenerbahce’s new manager, Jose Mourinho, has sanctioned the sale of Livakovic to Celtic for a fee of around £7.6m, that display in Leipzig has made such a figure seem like relative chump change.

It would of course be a significant outlay on a goalkeeper in Scottish terms, but Livakovic would be worth every penny, in Wilson’s book.

“For Celtic to land a goalkeeper of his stature would be a statement signing, absolutely,” he said.

“Fenerbahce paid the best part of 7m Euros for him last summer, and they will make a profit on that, but if you compare Livakovic’s stature to Joe Hart’s, well, Joe Hart hasn’t been in World Cup semi-finals for instance.

“He’s one of the few goalkeepers that Celtic could get with a trophy cabinet of that size. It makes sense to me though because Celtic have been in for him before, so it is a renewal of interest.

“In terms of being the sort of goalkeeper that Celtic could get once you factor in salary and everything else, Livakovic is at the upper end of that, absolutely.

“It would be a bargain. This isn’t someone who Celtic may be trying to eek another couple of years out of, like they did with Joe Hart. He’s 29, you are going to get five solid years out of him at his peak before you would even have to think about moving him on.

“Celtic have such a well-regarded goalkeeping coaching unit too, so I think they could get even further improvement out of him.

“The key thing for any goalkeeper is just consistency, and he is remarkably consistent.

“There were some suggestions that he was culpable for the first goal that Albania scored against Croatia last week, and that he didn’t get down quick enough, but that’s the first mistake that anyone can really remember him making.”

Livakovic is best known here for his performances as Croatian number one since Danijel Subasic retired from international duty back in 2018, but it is his grounding at Dinamo Zagreb that Wilson feels will have been the ideal preparation for the role he would be expected to fulfil at Celtic.

An ability to handle high expectations, pressure from a demanding fan base, and a knack for staying intensely focused during long periods of inactivity are all attributes that Livakovic has exhibited before.

“It is a unique skill to have to maintain that concentration,” he said.

“Some goalkeepers excel when they are constantly kept busy, but some who play for the more dominant sides are able to keep their concentration and then pull it out when it matters.

“He can certainly do that, and is used to it.

“He could handle that pressure too no problem. That is the pressure of Dinamo, where you expected to win everything year-in, year-out. That is the same expectation that he would face in Glasgow, so he is well used to it from Zagreb.

“It takes a certain type of mentality to handle that, and Livakovic has it, as he has also shown at the big tournaments.

“He is also capable of producing in the really big moments, with his penalty technique a good example. His penalty save record is very good. He’s one of these goalkeepers that for whatever reason, he is just able to unnerve the taker.

“You’re talking about a guy with European pedigree, and with the same stature of club that Celtic would be in terms of what Dinamo’s expectations would be compared to what Celtic’s expectations would be.

READ MORE: Rangers nearly men come up short again as Celtic find a way

“On the flip side, when they go into the big competitions, they are going to need a goalkeeper who can keep shots out, it is fair to say, so he has experience of that too.”

Wilson firmly believes that Celtic should do everything they can to get a deal over the line for Livakovic if at all possible, even though there is perhaps one weakness to his game that has prevented him from reaching the real top level of European football to date.

“It seems a bit odd that he’s never really been on the radar of a team in a top five league, but at the same time, the one weakness in his game perhaps – similarly to Joe Hart – is in his distribution,” he said.

“With so much focus on that in the bigger leagues, that has held him up a little bit, but the reality is as a shot-stopper, and as a goalkeeper as we all would have understood it 20 years ago, there are few better around than him.

“I’m a little bit surprised he hasn’t ended up with a club in the top five leagues. You would think at some point even a Burnley or someone like that would have taken a chance on him, like they have done from Croatia before.

“I think people are aware that he has not had the happiest time of it in Turkey, and I think that is a lot of the driver behind this.

“It just goes to show the little bit of a lack of respect clubs in those other top-five leagues have had for Livakovic’s pedigree, rather than it necessarily being a personal statement against him."