Ange has got some front but he needs to watch his back
IT took a bit of thinking outside the box for the Dutch to survive the Siege of Alkmaar back in the 1500s.
The town was being battered by an invading Spanish army and they breached their own dykes to flood the visitors’ camp and send them on the retreat.
Celtic faced a siege of their own last night and tried a similarly bold tactic.
The Parkhead men opened their own floodgates and somehow avoided sinking to the European Blue Square Premier.
A bit of self-sabotage surprised the Spanish and saved the Dutch to turn the Eighty Years’ War.
The tables were turned as the Hoops’ shocking self-inflicted issues miraculously didn’t end up drowning them.
It was a million miles from plain sailing, though.
Celtic’s attacking players got them into the Europa League groups. The backline almost left them sunk without a trace.
Ange Postecoglou has five days to dig out another couple of signings at the back if they are to remain afloat at that level.
They also need to cope with a full Ibrox on Sunday.
Josip Juranovic will help but there are still major problems in the centre of defence and no cover at left-back.
Postecoglou knows it and he can only hope chief executive Dominic McKay is planning on doing 24-hour shifts over the coming days.
The Aussie has won over the punters, now he needs more help. The big question before this skirmish was not how the manager would go about the game but whether or not boldly going again would pay off.
Scottish teams don’t go gung ho when they’ve got a 2-0 first-leg lead in their back pocket.
The common wisdom is to try to dig in but that game plan isn’t in the Postecoglou playbook.
He’s not some kind of Kevin Keegan, though, and he isn’t completely wet behind the ears.
There was pragmatism in the first leg and again last night.
In the last 20 minutes in
Glasgow he chucked on James McCarthy and Ismaila Soro, just about shutting the game down.
The last-gasp block from Anthony Ralston was as close as AZ came late on, so it proved it could be done.
It was the same here when the manager plugged the gaps after an hour. Maybe attack is the best for of defence when you’re as leaky as this side.
The problem is the fear of security breaches at the back. Celtic fans would have needed a wee lie down after five minutes as their team went from cruising to chaos in the blink of an eye.
Kyogo Furuhashi’s early goal should have been game over. A three-goal lead is more than enough to be sitting comfortably – or it should be.
Joe Hart picked a poor time to dither and was surprisingly the one to spring a leak. The goal invited wave after wave of attacks but even with pressure, there was no excuse for AZ’s second.
Carl Starfelt’s comical cock-up was no laughing matter, though.
Like Hart, he simply had to swing his boot and get the ball as far away from goal as possible.
Celtic looked certain to go under but they somehow steadied the ship to survive the siege of Alkmaar and escape with a dam good result.