When you have beaten the European Cup holders, you should be celebrating, not pleading for mercy. That, however, was the bewildering status of the Celtic players after their remarkable Champions League success left them not in heaven, but limbo.

Massimo Donati, the man signed from AC Milan during the summer, appealed to Uefa yesterday not to punish the Scottish champions over the Dida affair. The Italian midfield player insisted that the incident involving the Milan goalkeeper and a Celtic fan after Scott McDonald’s dramatic winner in the group D encounter at Celtic Park on Wednesday night had no bearing on the outcome of the win over his former colleagues.

“I don’t think Uefa will take action against us,” Donati said. “We had 60,000 supporters who were fantastic all night and only one who was crazy for five seconds. We should not be penalised for that.”

Donati’s appeal for clemency as endorsed by Paul Hartley, whose fine work in nullifying Andrea Pirlo, Milan’s principal creative threat, could be ruined if Uefa sought to interpret the actions of Dida as the victim of an attack, rather than someone milking a situation to deflect from his own embarrassment at fumbling Gary Caldwell’s 90th-minute shot to present McDonald with the goal that gave Celtic their first win in seven attempts over the seven-times European Cup winners. “I don’t think there was too much in it, we can’t influence it,” Hartley said. “Hopefully, Uefa will have a good look at it and clear matters up, treat it in isolation.”

Rarely can a side who worked so hard on the pitch to be lauded, been denied fitting recognition of their achievement. Gordon Strachan and his players cannot get that back. They woke up yesterday morning with a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach, rather than the glow of satisfaction.

Instead of talking about the way Strachan took on Milan without his two main influences, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shunsuke Nakamura, or sacrificed width in his side to outnumber Milan in the middle of the pitch; or the way the Celtic manager gambled and threw on Chris Killen and Nakamura in the last six minutes in pursuit of a winner after Kaká’s controversial penalty cancelled out Stephen McManus’s 62nd-minute breakthrough for the hosts, the focus is on one hoodie idiot. The Bhoys deserve better than the hood.

Celtic maintained a remarkable Champions League home record that has seen only Barcelona win of the last 16 visitors, and Milan have occupied that role now on three occasions in four seasons. If the passion from the Celtic Park crowd was not new for Hartley – he was there as a supporter before his £1.5 million move from Heart of Midlothian in January – it was for Donati.

The Italian came to Celtic for occasions like this, the very thing he had been denied at Milan, and he was not disappointed. Donati flew dozens of friends and family over from Italy and they were left spellbound by the occasion. “This is what I had dreamt of. I have been thinking of this all the time ever since we were drawn against Milan,” Donati said. “It was a fantastic game and a fantastic win. We were the better team in the first half and they were better after the break. That’s football – sometimes you win and sometimes you lose – but this was perfect for us. I’m happy because I played well. Milan should not have been given a penalty – it was never a foul. The Celtic fans were incredible. They had an important part to play and the atmosphere was terrific.”

Hartley watched last season’s last16 Champions League encounter with Milan from the stand because he had been cup-tied with Hearts. On Wednesday night, he was a fully paid-up contributor to Celtic Park’s success story in Europe. Juventus perished there in Martin O’Neill’s first campaign in 2001-02 and reputations count for nothing in the east end of Glasgow.

“I can’t put my finger on why we have such a great record at home in the Champions League,” Hartley said. “The crowd always drive you on, the atmosphere is terrific. A lot of teams don’t like coming to play here because the atmosphere can get to them. We’ve built up that home record over the last few years and, hopefully, we can keep that going. I’ve been in the stand as a fan but to be on the pitch is fantastic, just the noise that the supporters make. It’s not like any other league game.”

Hartley, of course, is making a habit of tearing up reputations. He was part of the Scotland side that won in Paris last month in the Euro 2008 qualifying tie. “We are the up and coming nation,” he smiled. “Things have been going well for the last few years. Scotland have done well, Rangers got a good result on Tuesday in Lyons and then ourselves against Milan.

“The pressure was on us in this game. I think that Rangers win upped the ante, we saw what they did in Lyons and that was a terrific result but we were playing the holders and a lot of pressure was on us to get a good result for Scottish football. What got us through last season was our home form. It might take that again but, hopefully, we can pick something up on our travels. I don’t think we fear anybody.”

That belief is supplied by Strachan. The manager was never in awe of anyone during his own playing days and Celtic are a team created in his own reflection. “We came into this game without Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, without Nakamura and without Mark Wilson so it was a hard shift for us against a team this good.

“I also brought back Jiri Jarosik and I thought he did really well. Before half-time I looked at him and thought maybe he wouldn’t come back out, but he stuck in and did well for us as long as he could. But they all did well. They all stuck in and got the result and we couldn’t be happier.

“You could see that we didn’t want to lose this game in the first half. That happened against Shakhtar Donetsk but not here, not this time. Then, just when we had our noses in front, they got the penalty – and, for me, it wasn’t one. So when that went in, the players were aggrieved. They were in shock for a few minutes and then it turned to a sense of anger that drove them on and gave them new energy.

“We could have settled for 1-1 when it got to the final few minutes, but I wanted to go for the win, which is why we threw on both Nakamura and Chris Killen. We were chasing that goal. Scott McDonald deserved his goal. He’s got guts. He wants to win – guys like him, Scott Brown and Aiden McGeady too – because at times the football wasn’t top form, mainly because of the conditions and who we were up against, but we kept going. We were sticking in legs, making tackles and running, and all these things gave us the platform for the winning goal.”

Hopefully, Uefa will allow Strachan’s team to keep the spoils of this remarkable victory.